‘Democracy at work’: Good voter turnout in Saskatoon at advance polls

At the SaskAbilities headquarters on Louise Avenue in Saskatoon a steady stream of people were casting their ballots on Saturday — the second day of advance voting in Canada’s 44th federal election.

Central Poll Supervisor Ken Nordick said as of noon on Saturday over 1000 people had voted at the site.

“Yesterday we had just about 800 voters,” he said. “It’s steady (today) … so about 150 so far.”

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These numbers have slightly exceeded what Nordick was expecting to see.

“We thought it would be high but it was very high,” he said. “You have to be organized and I’m lucky to have really good workers here.”

Nordick said he was very happy to see voters out in full force on a long weekend.

“It’s great, it’s democracy at work,” he said. “I would say you can’t complain if you don’t vote, so it’s good to see people coming out.”

Preliminary estimates show that near 2M electors voted last Friday on the first day of advance polls. A record number! To all the electors who had to wait in line, thank you for your patience!

We’re going to continue to adjust over the next few days to handle the high traffic! pic.twitter.com/mqn9M0VfUA

— Elections Canada (@ElectionsCan_E) April 19, 2025

Nearly two million people showed up across the country to cast a ballot on Friday according to Elections Canada, which said in a social media post it will be making adjustments to handle the high traffic after many voters were met with long lineups at polling stations.

Almost 5.8 million voters turned out for advanced polls in the last federal election in 2021, which was up more than 18 per cent from figures in 2019.

With just over a week left before election day, Liberal Leader Mark Carney and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh published documents on Saturday outlining their full campaign commitments and what they say they’ll cost.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said his full platform will come soon, but said “95 per cent” of it has already been announced.

Read the Liberal’s costed campaign promises here and the NDP’s costed campaign promises here.

Saskatoon voter Ed Pidwerbesky said he was happy to see more people wanting to have a say in what happens next in Canada.

“We have to get more people involved to decide who’s going to be spending our tax dollars,” he said. “It’s just better for the country — if voting turnout is high, that’s good.”

Pidwerbesky said when he’s preparing to decide who will get his vote, there are a lot of topics he considers.

“The economy and about (U.S. President Donald) Trump,” he said. “It’s going to be hard, everything’s going to go up, inflation’s going to go up because of what’s going on in the States.”

Pidwerbesky said he hopes Canada can survive all that it is dealing with right now.

Johannes Lindenbaum said affordability is his biggest concern when he was casting his ballot.

“Cost of living on a general level, housing (and) groceries,” he said.

“I hope that most citizens are taking note of what’s going on, especially south of the border or even in Europe,” he said. “Coming out to cast your ballot and be engaged in the process I think is really important.”

Lindenbaum said he thought this election was one of the most important in Canadian history.

“It feels critical because it feels like we’re at this fork in the road,” he said.

“Do we follow our friends to the south or do we stay the path of a Liberal democracy and values that we care about or follow down on something a bit more authoritarian and simplistic.”

Advanced polling stations are open until April 21 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

— with files from CKOM News and Canadian Press

Read more:

• Tariffs & Saskatchewan: What do Trump’s tariffs mean for you?
• Canada Votes 2025: Your trusted source for election coverage
• Who’s running in my riding? Saskatchewan’s federal election candidates