A look at the twists and turns of the Saskatchewan election campaign

REGINA – Saskatchewan voters head to the polls on Monday. Here is a look at the twists and turns of the month-long election campaign:

March 8: The election campaign kicks off and Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall immediately launches into an attack on the NDP and its time in government from 1991 to 2007. “You will have on your side the proven track record of the Saskatchewan Party after eight years in leadership and you’re going to the track record of the other guys when they were in government to help make the case,” Wall tells candidates at a rally. NDP Leader Cam Broten brushed aside Wall’s criticism as “coming from a guy that’s running nearly a half-a-billion-dollar deficit, coming from a guy who won’t bring forward a budget and be honest and straight with Saskatchewan people about what his plans are for cuts and increased privatization.”

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March 10: Broten removes Clayton Wilson, a NDP candidate in Saskatoon, because of questionable posts on Facebook. One post circulated by the Saskatchewan Party from 2013 shows a photo with the words: “A true gentleman holds the door for his woman then smacks her ass.” Above the image is written: “True, ladies?” Broten says he has “a zero-tolerance policy on the issue of making light of domestic violence.”

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March 11: Social media brings down a second NDP candidate. A screen grab circulated by the governing Saskatchewan Party shows a Facebook post that says “Brad Wall’s mother should have taken the abortion pill.” Mark Jeworski, who is running in Weyburn-Big Muddy against Health Minister Dustin Duncan, resigns.

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March 12: Broten tells his campaign team to take a closer look at the online accounts of NDP candidates and two more bite the dust. Cameron Robock, who is running in Estevan, and Terry Bell, who is the candidate in Regina constituency of Walsh Acres, are told they can’t run for the party because of statements that went “beyond bad jokes and immaturity.” Broten replaces the party’s campaign manager for not properly vetting candidates.

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March 14: It’s Wall’s turn to feel the heat for his candidates’ pasts. Wall defends three candidates who have drunk-driving convictions. Advanced Education Minister Scott Moe’s offence occurred in 1992, when he was 18 years old, while Eric Olausson, a Saskatoon city councillor who is running in the constituency of Saskatoon University, was convicted in 1992 and 1993. Terry Dennis, who is vying for a seat in Canora-Pelly, has one conviction from 1979 and another from 2001. The NDP reveals that it has two candidates with drunk-driving convictions, Dwayne Lasas and Lyle Whitefish.

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March 16: Wall draws Ottawa into the campaign, demanding at least $570 million in new funding in the coming federal budget. That’s the amount the province will pay into equalization this year, Wall argues. “We’re just saying recognition … that Saskatchewan taxpayers are putting this money in at a time of energy sector challenge — recognition being having some equivalent amount of money come back from the federal government in the budget — I think that’s fair.”

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March 17: The NDP reveals its full campaign platform, projecting a deficit of $189.4 million in the 2016-2017 year, followed by a small, but growing surplus over the next three years. The single biggest cost in the platform is $106 million over four years for health-care workers, including 400 workers for care homes. Another promise includes a cap on class sizes from kindergarten to Grade 2 of about 20 students. Broten says 300 more teachers and 300 more educational assistants would also be hired.

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March 19: The Saskatchewan Party releases its full platform with just six new spending promises, totalling $105.4 million. Wall says the platform is based on seeing the province return to balanced budgets by 2017-18. One of the six new commitments is to allow seniors with household incomes under $70,000 to defer the education part of their property taxes. There’s also funding for pre-school children with autism, a plan to help graduates with a down payment on a home, extending leave to 26 weeks from eight for people caring for family members near the end of their lives, and a new tax credit for volunteer firefighters and first responders.

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March 23: Debate night. Wall and Broten trade verbal barbs in the hour-long exchange that often turns to shouting. Broten challenges Wall on finances saying the Saskatchewan Party inherited nearly $2 billion in the province’s rainy day savings account when it took power in 2007, but drained it dry. “You inherited a jackpot. You inherited a fortune … and now you’ve got nothing because you made bad choices.” Wall defends the government record. “Every time the leader of the NDP says there have been cuts in health care or education, know that he’s not telling the truth because there have not been cuts.”

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March 30: Elections Saskatchewan says more than 24,600 people cast their ballots in the first day of advance voting. Some polls report lineups, primarily in urban constituencies, and extra workers were called in to help with the rush. Just over 16,000 people cast their ballots on the first day of advance voting in the 2011 election.