Politics of Saskatchewan | |
---|---|
Polity type | Province within a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy |
Constitution | Constitution of Canada |
Legislative branch | |
Name | Legislature |
Type | Unicameral |
Meeting place | Saskatchewan Legislative Building, Regina |
Presiding officer | Speaker of the Legislative Assembly |
Executive branch | |
Head of state | |
Currently | King Charles III represented by Russell Mirasty, Lieutenant Governor |
Head of government | |
Currently | Premier Scott Moe |
Appointer | Lieutenant Governor |
Cabinet | |
Name | Executive Council |
Leader | Premier (as President of the Executive Council) |
Appointer | Lieutenant Governor |
Headquarters | Regina |
Judicial branch | |
Court of Appeal | |
Chief judge | Robert G. Richards |
Seat | Regina |
Court of King's Bench | |
Chief judge | Martel D. Popescul |
Provincial Court | |
Chief judge | James Plemel |
The Politics of Saskatchewan relate to the Canadian federal political system, along with the other Canadian provinces. Saskatchewan has a lieutenant-governor, who is the representative of the Crown in right of Saskatchewan; a premier—currently Scott Moe—leading the cabinet; and a legislative assembly. As of the most recent provincial election in 2024, the province is divided into 61 electoral districts, each of which elects a representative to the legislature, who becomes their member, or MLA. In 2024, Moe's Saskatchewan Party was elected to a majority government. Regina is the provincial capital.
As of the most recent federal election in 2021, Saskatchewan elects 14 members to Canada's 338-member Parliament.
Politics in Saskatchewan have historically been shaped by the province's heavily agricultural and mineral resource-based economy. Politics have also been influenced by an enduring sense of western alienation within Canadian politics, tying its political history in with its western Canadian counterparts in British Columbia, Manitoba, and especially neighbouring Alberta. The province still has a unique political history, and is notable for having elected the first social democratic government in Canada in 1944, when Tommy Douglas' Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) won its first of five consecutive majority governments.[1] Under the CCF, the province pioneered universal medicare within Canada and was known for government ownership of key economic sectors. In the twenty-first century, politics in the province have been dominated by the conservative Saskatchewan Party and the federal Conservative Party.[2][3]