The Saskatchewan Party's Everett Hindley took home 73.4 per cent of the votes in the Swift Current provincial byelection, and he attributes a lot of that to the team that helped him in his campaign.

Hindley, who was a long-time assistant to Brad Wall (who retired in late January as premier and Swift Current MLA), said it could take a bit for it to sink in that he is once again employed.

"I don't know if it's completely sunk in yet, it might take a little while for that. But, you know, I'm just so happy for our team of volunteers. We had a great team here. We talked about having 70-plus people helping out in this campaign, and that means a lot."

In his victory speech, Hindley thanked the NDP's Stefan Rumpel, who came second (with 24.2 per cent of the votes), the Green Party's Maria Lewans, who came third (1.3 per cent), and the Liberal's Aidan Roy, who came fourth (1 per cent), for the competition.

"In addition to the volunteers, I want to thank the other candidates," said Hindley in front of a packed crowd in his office, which he'll start to tear down tomorrow. "We had a race here in Swift Current. We had four candidates; four good candidates running here, and there were a lot of different colours of signs up around town this time, and I know that motivated our team and got them all out on the doors. So thank you to the other candidates. It's something else to put your name and your face out there on the ballot and to run for politics, whether it's federally, provincially, municipally, the school board, it takes a lot to step out there."

 

At the campaign office, a number of other notable Saskatchewan Party figures were in attendance, including Wall, cabinet ministers Gord Wyant, Jeremy Harrison, and David Marit, as well as Doug Steele.

Legislature goes back to session on March 12, so Hindley figures what's coming up in the next little while won't be much of a breather compared to when he started his campaign to represent the Saskatchewan Party in the byelection on October 2.

Hindley said once a new speaker is named come the next session, they'll probably pass three bills on the first day announcing the three new MLAs determined in the byelections (he is joined by two other Saskatchewan Party members: Ken Francis in Kindersley and Todd Goudy in Melfort).