Saskatchewan

Three's company: How will Wall, Goodale, Trudeau impact Saskatchewan?

Following the red wave, an historic win, people in Saskatchewan are wondering what it all means for this province.

MP Ralph Goodale was the only Liberal elected in Saskatchewan on Monday

From left to right: Premier Brad Wall (Trent Peppler/CBC), Regina-Wascana Liberal MP Ralph Goodale (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press), Prime Minister designate Justin Trudeau (Christinne Muschi/Reuters).

Following the red wave, an historic win, people in Saskatchewan are wondering what it all means for this province, with only one Liberal MP.

Premier Brad Wall has never spent a day as premier without a Conservative government. The premier has already spoken with Prime Minister designate Justin Trudeau. 

Pipelines, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and more money for infrastructure are all things the provincial government's wish list. But Premier Wall said such business can wait for another day. On Monday, Wall and Trudeau talked about family.

"I've noted that there seems to be a great priority that he places on family, so I just wanted to encourage that because that is the most important thing," Wall said. "If you get that right ,there is greater clarity for other priorities that are important for the jobs that we have."

An inquiry into missing and murder aboriginal women would be informative and helpful we think.- Premier Brad Wall

Wall said there is one clear similarity between him and Trudeau.

"He is about the same age now that I was when I had the chance to start this job and his family is young and our family was young," Wall said.

The premier also weighed in on a topic Trudeau has discussed frequently: an inquiry on missing and murdered indigenous women.

"An inquiry into missing and murder aboriginal women would be informative and helpful we think," Wall said. "As long as we were taking our cue from that inquiry in terms of action and also not sort of ignoring all the review that's gone on."

Saskatchewan remains mostly blue. The Conservatives went from 13 members of Parliament to 10. The NDP grabbed three seats in the province.

Only one Liberal MP — Ralph Goodale — was elected in Saskatchewan on Monday. Wall said he plans to build on his relationship with Goodale, the longest-serving Saskatchewan MP.

As for Goodale, he is the only Liberal to have served with both Justin Trudeau and his father Pierre. While this province has mostly opposition MPs, Goodale said he's accepting the challenge to represent everyone.

"We thoroughly and effectively represent the whole country," Goodale said. "We have to work very hard to accomplish that as much on behalf of Saskatchewan as on behalf of any other parts of Canada."