By Andrew de Souza

Politics picks up as election approaches

Aug 12, 2011 | 6:41 AM

With a provincial election fast approaching, politicians are getting ready for campaigns, preparing party platforms and bracing for public opinion polls.

On Wednesday, provincial pollsters Insightrix released the results of an election poll that showed the Saskatchewan Party in the lead for the upcoming election with 58.2 per cent support with the NDP trailing at 30.8 per cent.

The results were almost identical from previous polls conducted last year, with the NDP showing a slight increase of a few points.

During a Saskatchewan Caucus meeting earlier this week, Brad Wall said he didn’t put too much stock into polls, but considered it good news that they were still in the lead.

“You can’t vest too much in polls, they’re snapshots in time and are very fleeting numbers,” Wall said.

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“We always want to expand and we always want to grow and we have a great group of women and men on our team now and we have a great group of candidates and … there are other seats around the province that we’d like to try to earn, but I guess time will tell.”

He said the caucus was planning on focusing on the economy and healthcare moving into the next election, but the party’s platform would be decided on the party level in the coming months.

Leader of the NDP and the official opposition Dwain Lingenfelter said he wasn’t surprised at the fact the NDP was in the same position it was almost a year ago.

He said the really momentum would begin once the party put together its platform. He said while it was up to the party to decide the platform. It would have some obvious themes.

“There’s an overriding issue that we’re hearing from many working families in Prince Albert who are saying they just aren’t sharing in the huge wealth that we have here in the province,” he said.

“The other thing is housing and the ongoing issue of rent going up by 10 per cent a year even though incomes are very, very restrictive.”

Lingenfelter said it was impossible to predict, but he felt the party’s platform would hit the nail on the head and garner additional support.

“My belief is that if we continue to work hard, if we have a good solid platform we’ll be very competitive on election day,” he said.

Election Day is on Nov. 7, 2011.

adesouza@panow.com