By Karen Brownlee

Conservatives win most Saskatchewan seats while claiming majority government

May 3, 2011 | 7:31 AM

In an historic Canadian election that saw many changes, Saskatchewan saw little to none with the Conservatives keeping their 13 seats and the Liberals their one and only in this province.

Conservative majority; NDP opposition.

The Conservatives have their majority with the NDP serving as our new opposition. The NDP ended the night with 102 seats to the Conservatives' 167.

“I'm obviously ecstatic, obviously. To have a majority government is something I've only dreamed of,” said Tom Lukiwski, who kept his Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre riding.

But as happy as Lukiwski was to see his party win a majority, he was equally baffled at the results achieved by the NDP.

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“I don't think I'd ever have seen or believed that there would be an NDP official opposition, an NDP party with over 100 seats in the federal government. It's incredible,” said Lukiwski.

Highs and lows of being a leader

In B.C., Elizabeth May won the Green Party's first seat. Meanwhile, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc Quebecois, lost their seats. Duceppe has resigned while Ignatieff awaits his party's decision.

Saskatchewan's closest race

In Saskatchewan, although there were some races to watch, no incumbent lost their seat. The closest race in Saskatchewan seemed to be in the Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar riding where the Conservatives' Kelly Block battled with the NDP's Nettie Wiebe. Block pulled it away from Wiebe in the end though.

Saskatchewan's only Liberal

In Wascana, Saskatchewan's lone Liberal Ralph Goodale kept the Conservatives' Ian Shields at bay. He spoke to News Talk Radio about the lessons voters taught his party, a message Canadians heard earlier in the night from Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.

“I think we’re going to have to take the time to reflect on this in detail and I think it’s far too early to come to any of those conclusions this evening,” said Goodale.

With that said, Goodale did offer some suggestion as to why his party did so poorly.

“With the Conservatives quite honestly carpet bombing with negative advertising, that inflicted a significant amount of damage and the party was not in a position to respond vigorously enough,” said Goodale.

Conservatives colour Saskatchewan blue

The Conservatives took the rest of the seats in Saskatchewan. Some, such as Ed Komarnicki and Garry Breitkreuz, kept their seats with a significant percentage of the votes cast in their ridings of Souris-Moose Mountain and Yorkton-Melville respectively. Komarnicki walked away with 74 per cent while Breitkreuz had 68.9 per cent.

The Conservatives' Gerry Ritz had 66.7 per cent of the vote in his riding of Battlefords–Lloydminster.

David Anderson kept his Cypress-Grasslands riding and Ray Boughen is stil the Palliser MP.

Andrew Scheer is still the Regina-Qu'Appelle MP.

“It is just incredible. It's very rewarding,” said Scheer.

Scheer was very surprised at how the Liberals imploded in Canada.

“You get down to the point where they (the Liberals) have a third of the seats of the NDP. I don't think too many people could see that coming 37 days ago.”

Rob Clarke had a fight with the NDP's Lawrence Joseph, but retained his Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River seat.

“Overall, when you look at the totals, it's a very, very close election and I think it serves as a major warning to the incumbent that he better do some work or else we're coming along to get him,” said Joseph.

But Clarke was focussed on how well his party did in this election and how that would affect how they operate in Ottawa.

“I've never experienced this before. This is my third election in three years and it's been so busy and so hectic,” Clarke said.

“And seeing how committees are run in a minority, it's going to be different seeing how things are going to be working as a majority government.”

Randy Hoback is still Prince Albert's MP. He believes he knows the issue that caught the attention of voters in his riding.

“The crime agenda is something the constituents have always been very concerned about,” said Hoback.

“We've had pieces of crime legislation sitting there that the opposition just wouldn't let us get through so I believe that's part of our first order of business.”

Maurice Vellacott stayed in at Saskatoon-Wanuskewin.

Blackstrap kept on Lynne Yelich as their MP.