What an NCAA rule change might mean for junior hockey in Sask.
Nov 18, 2024
Previously, WHL players were declared ineligible to play NCAA hockey in the U.S.
An old political party might be getting a new name.
A motion has been filed for a vote on a potential name change and rebrand for the Saskatchewan Liberal Party.
“This is something that’s obviously been discussed quite a bit,” said Jeff Walters, the party’s leader, “not even just in the past couple of years, but for over a decade now.”
Walters said this presents an opportunity for the party to seriously evaluate its goals and strategies.
“It’s been something that’s been simmering for a bit and it’s coming to a head,” Walters said.
“It’s time for our members to just think about what they want the future of the party to look like, and just have a good honest debate in how this is going to look.”
Walters said the motion was filed Feb. 21.
Motion drafts are sent to the party’s executive for review. If approved, all party members are notified that the motion will be brought up for a vote at the next annual general meeting and convention.
The party’s next AGM is scheduled to take place March 25. Only party members can vote.
“If membership does approve it, then the actual motion itself — which will be unveiled in its totality at the AGM — has a certain timeline,” Walters said.
A successful name change vote would also spark a new leadership race.
Walters noted a lot of factors went into the decision, including the party’s underwhelming performance in the last provincial election.
“(The Saskatchewan Liberal Party) has been in dire straits, to put it nicely, for the last little while — certainly past 2007,” Walters said. “2007 was our last respectable showing in a general election and it’s been a slow deterioration since then.”
The provincial Liberals were only able to run three candidates in 2020, one of whom was Walters. It only received 355 votes in that election, good for 0.08 per cent of the popular vote.
“(We’re examining) how do we get to where we wish to go? And so all things are on the table,” Walters said.
“To reimagine something is nothing new. You know, the NDP used to be the CCF (Co-operative Commonwealth Federation). (Some founding members of) the Sask. Party used to be the PCs (Progressive Conservative Party).”
Walters said the motion was also partly motivated by an attempt to dissociate the Saskatchewan Liberal Party from the federal Liberal Party of Canada, for which it acted as a provincial affiliate until 2009.
“That’s the irony of it all. We’ve detached from them,” Walters said. “But because the party has been dormant for I guess we could say a good 10 years, we haven’t been controlling our narrative. And (the association with the federal Liberals) is the narrative that comes up and it’s difficult to combat that when you’ve had a decade of that being solidified in the public’s eye.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an amended version of this story, correcting the roots of the Saskatchewan Party.