SASK VOTES 2024: Meet the leader of the Buffalo Party

Buffalo Party leader Phillip Zajac said he has a deep-rooted love for his province and the Roughriders.

Zajac, who was born and raised in Saskatchewan, is a passionate supporter of the Riders, proudly wearing green and white at the games. He said sports – and football especially – have always been a big part of his life.

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“I was very fortunate,” Zajac said. “I was a good football player and athlete, and I went to university in the States and I played football and hockey there.”

Zajac, who grew up in Regina, now calls Estevan home. He’s dedicated years to coaching a variety of sports in the community.

“The year I moved to Estevan was the first year they had a football program, so I’ve coached high school football for 14 years,” he said. “I coached (my daughter) and kids in basically middle school to senior high-school softball.”

When it comes to his favourite pastimes, Zajac said loves being in the great outdoors, especially cruising up to the lake on his Harley Davidson.

“Being at the lake is peaceful, nice and quiet, and the water is relaxing,” he said.

Whenever he faces a rough day and needs to clear his mind, Zajac said he just hops on his motorcycle and hits the road.

“Riding my motorcycle just makes all the worries go away, and it’s relaxing,” he said.

Recently, Zajac said, he embarked on an adventurous road trip around Saskatchewan on his Harley.

“I put about just under 6,000 kilometres on it in eight days. I went all the way from Estevan to Regina through Craven, up to Watrous, then to Lloydminster, back into St. Walburg, North Battleford, Maple Creek, Kindersley, and home.”

He said his dog Jett is always eagerly awaiting his return.

“You pull into the driveway and he’s right there in the window just waiting for you to come in,” he said. “He’s a love bug.”

Zajac said the one person in his life who can always make him smile is his daughter.

“No matter how bad of a day you have or what’s going on, she’s just always happy to see me and has a big heart,” he said.

When it comes to his political career, Zajac said he’s always looked up to Ronald Regan, citing the former American president as a significant influence on his own political thinking.

“I think Ronald Reagan was one of the best presidents that ever served in politics. He was way ahead of his time when he talked about the future of politics. It resonates so well with what’s happening today,” said Zajac.

“He talked about trickle-down economics. If you give people their money back and lower taxes, it spurs the economy. When he took over as president, the U.S. was in the worst recession since the 1920s and he had them out of it in a year. Just a brilliant man.”

Zajac said he started his own political journey because he felt compelled to give back to his community.

“With a lot of the talk of the mine closing and coal being shut down, those are my friends who work in those jobs, and I’ve coached their kids. We’re friends,” said Zajac.

“Somebody has to stand up for them and help them get through this time, because if they lose those jobs they have to move. You’re not going to find these good-paying jobs in Estevan.”

The 2024 election is not his first rodeo. Zajac ran for the Buffalo Party in Estevan in the 2020 election, finishing second. By March of 2022, Zajac was elected as the party’s leader and acclaimed as the party’s Estevan-Big Muddy candidate earlier this year.

Zajac said the party’s board decided he should run in Estevan again this time around.

He said his greatest strength is his listening skills, which he hopes will serve him well if he’s elected this fall. He said he feels he can connect with people from all walks of life.

“If you’ve never been on a drilling rig, you don’t know how it feels or what it’s like. Or if you’ve never worked on a farm, you don’t know what it’s like. I’ve had a wide array of different careers in my life, and I think that makes me  a well-rounded person to empathetically lead,” Zajac said.

Zajac has worked in banking for the past six years, and has a total of 12 years’ experience in the field. He’s also managed a New Holland dealership and owned his own company.

If he wins a seat, Zajac promised to leverage his “strong personality” to hold the government accountable.

“I’ll make sure that the government, whoever it is, will be held accountable and transparent for everything that they do,” he said.

“So every dollar that they’re going to spend, I’m going to help the people of Saskatchewan make sure that it’s well spent. If it’s not and they still go forward with it anyway, I will walk right out of the legislature, go to the first interviewer that I can, and I’ll let them know exactly what they did.”

Zajac said he’s hoping his commitment to give back to his community will help him secure a seat in the legislature.

Saskatchewan’s provincial election is set for October 28.