Five Saskatchewan Party leadership candidates were in Swift Current Thursday night to take over the job of the city's own, Premier Brad Wall.

Scott Moe, Alanna Koch, Gord Wyant, Ken Cheveldayoff, and Tina Beaudry-Mellor are in the running to replace Wall - who is Swift Current's MLA - as premier in January.

Wall said it was a little different being at an event with five people competing for his job. And the room the debate was held in at the Days Inn - formerly the Horseshoe Lodge - was where Wall had his nomination contest in 1998 for the chance to run for the Saskatchewan Party candidacy in the 1999 provincial election.

"A lot of history in the room, and it was a bit surreal to be there, bringing greetings to a meeting where five people were going to be presenting who all wanted the job that I have," said Wall.

The outgoing premier isn't naming a favourite of the candidates.

"All of them would make excellent leaders and premiers," he said. "Obviously as outgoing premier I'm going to be very neutral and try to hand things off to them - to the person who wins - better than I found them. That's always been the goal, and that's the golden goal. I'm watching it very carefully. I won't be going to all the forums, but I wanted to go last night because it's in this constituency and I'm the MLA and I wanted to bring greetings to that particular meeting."

Wall won the Swift Current riding in 1999, became leader of the opposition in 2004, and has been premier since 2017.