Saskatoon-based Metis lawyer joins provincial NDP leadership race

A second person has thrown their hat into the Saskatchewan NDP leadership race.

Saskatoon-based Metis lawyer, climate activist and mother Kaitlyn Harvey announced her intention to lead the party on Tuesday.

Current leader Ryan Meili announced he would be stepping down from his role as leader a short time after his party lost the Athabasca byelection to the Saskatchewan Party in mid-February.

Since then, Regina Lakeview MLA Carla Beck also announced her intention to run for the NDP leadership.

Fighting back tears during her announcement Tuesday, Harvey said she was compelled to run after a relative died of a drug overdose.

“The day I found out that he died of a drug overdose in the P.A. (Prince Albert) Pen(itentiary) was the day I decided I could not be silent anymore …,” she said. “The guilt that I was here and Brendan wasn’t and the risk of losing another family member to a preventable death was more than I could bear.”

Harm prevention, climate change, reconciliation and sustainable energy use are among her top priorities.

“I’ve seen wilful ignorance, wasted potential and (the) inability of this government, the Sask. Party, to lead on the most pressing challenge of our time. They’ve wasted too much time (and) too much money and our children will suffer more every year as a result of their inaction,” she said.

Harvey ran in the 2020 provincial election in the Saskatoon Willowgrove riding against Sask. Party incumbent Ken Cheveldayoff, but lost.

“I ran basically for hope, to see if it was possible,” Harvey said. “Obviously Willowgrove is a strong Sask. Party riding. I didn’t run with the expectation of winning. I ran because I wanted to understand what people were thinking.

“People haven’t felt like that any party is really speaking to them. Some people just vote because (that’s) the way their parents have. They think that’s in their best interests, but when you talk to them, they actually don’t know.”

However, Harvey admitted that Beck — who has garnered the endorsement of at least seven NDP MLAs — is a more experienced politician.

“Don’t view it as putting MLAs against one another or putting us against one another,” Harvey said. “We are both working — we’re all working — to represent our communities and the people of this province.”

She also said she’s got plenty of time to secure a seat as an MLA should she win the leadership race.

“I’m excited for the fact that I don’t have a seat,” Harvey said. “We’ve got two years until the next provincial election and I can use that time to do the hard work that our party needs to do.”

She said she’s not tied to any one riding and she plans to do a lot of networking.