Carla Beck named new leader of Saskatchewan NDP

It was a room full of waving signs and cheers on Sunday afternoon when the Sask. NDP’s convention announced Carla Beck as the party’s new leader.

“I am so excited about the future and the chance we have to deliver for Saskatchewan people again, and I also feel a great deal of responsibility to get this right,” said Beck in her victory speech to the room.

Beck said if the party tells its own story, shares its vision and then fights for it, then it can win.

“I want people everywhere in this province to see themselves in the solutions that we will build together. Friends, we truly are stronger together and together we can give people a reason to hope again,” said Beck to the room.

As she talked about in her campaign for the leadership, Beck believes that going out and having conversations with people, getting into rooms the NDP hasn’t been in, and talking about issues people really care about are things that are going to rebuild the party.

“A lot has shifted, first of all, people are willing to listen to us in a way that they weren’t listening in 2020,” said Beck after the convention.

Beck believes a lot of people are looking for change.

“There are many of those people looking at us and wondering if we’re ready to deliver that change. And that really is where our focus needs to be for the next while.”

Beck said she was excited about the win but also that it hadn’t quite sunk in yet.

“I’m not someone who takes anything for granted so I was doing the math pretty carefully when those results came up,” she said with a grin.

Mostly, Beck said she’s very eager to get down to work.

“Win or lose, with this leadership campaign the real focus was always going to be on the outreach and the work that we have to do next. I invite everyone in to do that work and I could not be more excited to do it,” said Beck.

Beck picked up 68 per cent of the vote – Kaitlyn Harvey about 32 per cent.

“We ran a hard campaign, we worked every day to put forward our message to Saskatchewan to say that we need to do better and we need to make sure that we are having these conversations,” said Harvey

“I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished in this short period of time. And I’m happy for Carla, she’s going to be great, happy to see where she takes the party.”

Harvey is still planning to seek the NDP nomination for the Saskatoon Meewasin seat in the upcoming byelection.

There were 7,294 eligible voters within the party, but only 4.741 cast ballots. Beck garnered 3,244 votes while Harvey got 1,492.

By contrast, in the last leadership campaign in 2017, there were nearly 11,000 votes cast, with Ryan Meili 5,973 and Trent Wotherspoon losing with 4,860.

Party unity

Sunday was also Ryan Meili’s last day as the leader of the NDP, a position he fought three times to win.

In his speech to the crowd, Meili thanked many people and took one last opportunity to publicly take some shots at Premier Scott Moe and the Sask. Party, but he also left some words of wisdom on the table, encouraging party unity.

Meili said infighting has been a problem for the NDP as it is with many political parties, but that it’s not something they can continue to deal with. He said the party has gone through several leadership races in a short period of time.

“We’ve had a hard time coming out of those leadership races and fully leaving the past conflicts of competitions behind,” said Meili.

The former NDP leader called for everyone to see themselves as part of one party and to bring in those who might feel disappointed with the leadership outcome and make sure they feel welcome.

Meili encouraged people to stick with Beck through the next election and, even if the NDP doesn’t form government, beyond that as well.

He praised Beck as a special person.

“She really has that emotional intelligence and what my hope is for the party is that we’re able to get as many people to have exposure to an experience with Carla Beck because when you have a conversation with her you always go away feeling heard, understood. And she has that integrity where that’s not just a way she makes you feel, it’s what she’s really done,” said Meili.

We’re just getting started here at the Sask. NDP’s leadership convention. Today they’ll choose their new leader to replace Ryan Meili from Carla Beck or Kaitlyn Harvey. Expecting to have the results before 4 pm.

— Lisa Schick (@LMSchickler) June 26, 2022