The old and new boundaries of Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River. (Redistribution Federal Electoral Districts)

By Derek Cornet

snap election

Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River riding one to watch in upcoming election

Mar 24, 2025 | 4:16 PM

Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River will be a riding to watch in the upcoming general federal election.

The riding, which essentially covers the northern half of Saskatchewan, has been known to swing between parties such as the Conservative, New Democrats and the Liberals. In the last 25 years, 13 have been under a Conservative MP, seven have been under a Liberal and five have been under the NDP.

Those running as an MP in the upcoming election are Jim Lemaigre for the Conservatives, Buckey Belanger for the Liberals, Doug Racine for the NDP and Jackie Hanson for the Green Party of Canada. Incumbent Conservative MP Gary Vidal, who has been in office since 2019, is not running for re-election because of electoral boundary changes.

“It’s a riding with a large Indigenous population and it’s riding that over the last couple of decades has been won by the Liberals, the NDP and the Conservatives,” University of Saskatchewan political science professor Daniel Westlake said about Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River.

“It is also interesting because we’ve had a boundary redistribution between the last election and this election and that has moved the boundary of the riding north and there are more conservative voters in what used to be the southern portion of the riding. What that amounts to is that if the Liberals had, or if the last election had been run using these boundaries, the Liberals would have won that riding because a lot of the people that voted Conservative last election are now in different ridings.”

Leadership

Ronald Bear re-elected Chief at Muskoday First Nation

3h ago

Rise Air resuming Sunday flights from PA to northern communities

3h ago

Shooting

Window hit during drive by shooting in East Flat

23h ago

The new electoral boundary for Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River now cuts off Gary Vidal’s hometown of Meadow Lake, as well as other Conservative strongholds such as Goodsoil, Loon Lake and Pierceland. In addition, Belanger and Lemaigre are both former MLAs for Athabasca for the NDP and Saskatchewan Party, respectively.

Saskatoon West is another riding to watch in Saskatchewan, which is generally a safe province for Conservatives. The NDP won that seat in 2015.

A snap federal election was called by Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday. Voters will hit the polls on April 28.

–

derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com