Now, it is up to the voters to decide.
The fates of candidates across all 58 of the province's ridings will be up for grabs Monday as Saskatchewan voters go to the polls in the provincial election.
While Premier Brad Wall and NDP leader Dwain Lingenfelter brought to the election the usual energy one would expect with vigorous policy-oriented campaigns, the actual campaign itself has been greeted with yawns by many voters.
It seemed as if voters were still more concerned about the losing Saskatchewan Roughriders than about the election campaign. Instead of debating the merits of Wall and Lingenfelter, voters seemed more interested in debating the merits of backup quarterbacks Ryan Dinwiddie and Cole Bergquist.
There is in fact a Roughriders storyline in this election, as the Riders' Gene Makowsky tries to topple the NDP's Kevin Yates in Regina Dewdney.
A much bigger storyline concerns the final outcome, with many predicting a big win for the Saskatchewan Party, quite possibly by a massive margin.
Some recent public opinion surveys have put the Saskatchewan Party past the 60 per cent mark, numbers that prompted a concerned Premier Wall to warn his supporters not to get complacent in the days leading up to the vote.
Given that backdrop, it seems as if the race in many Northwest ridings is a foregone conclusion. Despite organized campaign efforts from the NDP in the Northwest's rural ridings, it seems the question for Saskatchewan Party candidates Larry Doke in Cut Knife-Turtleford, Scott Moe in Rosthern-Shellbrook and incumbents Randy Weekes in Biggar and Bill Boyd in Kindersley is not whether they will be elected, but by how much in those usually safe constituencies.
Similarly, cabinet minister Tim McMillan in Lloydminster looks poised to win his re-election bid over Wayne Byers of the NDP, although Lloydminster has seen its fair share of razor-thin results over the years.
The race remains competitive in Meadow Lake, where cabinet minister Jeremy Harrison is seeking re-election against a prominent First Nations leader, Helen Ben of the NDP. Dwain Lingenfelter was in the riding again last weekend, a sure sign the NDP has not given up hopes of taking the seat away from the Saskatchewan Party on election day.
Also still in play leading up to Nov. 7 is the Battlefords, where three parties believe they have a shot of winning.
Veteran NDP incumbent Len Taylor has been touting his experience as an "effective representative" in his campaign to hold onto the Battlefords seat he won by a close margin in 2007. He's relied on the help of Lingenfelter, who made two appearances in the riding early in the campaign.
Challenger Herb Cox hopes to ride a wave of Saskatchewan Party momentum to victory in the seat, making the case that more can be done for the Battlefords with a representative on the government side of the legislature. He is particularly counting on the popularity of Premier Brad Wall, who was scheduled to make an appearance in the Battlefords Thursday at the Tropical Inn.
Meanwhile, Liberal leader Ryan Bater has been going all-out in this election in what has been called by political observers the "last stand of the Liberal Party."
Arguably, the stakes are highest of all for Bater and the Liberals as they have essentially rolled the dice on the Battlefords in an attempt to revive the fortunes of the struggling party, running a record-low nine candidates in the province. Bater has enlisted the help of federal MP Ralph Goodale during the final two weeks.
An upset win by Bater would immediately revive the Liberals as a force in the legislature and allow the Liberal leader the opportunity to start rebuilding the party organization in ridings where they failed to run candidates this time. A loss, though, would be a major setback to the party's flickering hopes for a comeback in Saskatchewan.
The News-Optimist will be on hand with full results next week, and will be going live with results on our website at www.newsoptimist.ca once polls close at 8 p.m. Monday.
