REGINA – Former Saskatchewan Party MLA and Speaker Randy Weekes has made it official — he’s supporting the NDP.
“Yes I have Endorsed Carla Beck and the NDP. It’s time for a change,” posted Weekes on the X platform.
The endorsement comes soon after Weekes has said Tuesday that a caucus staff member had overheard David Buckingham, running for re-election in Saskatoon Westview, using a racial slur during a caucus meeting.
In response, the Sask Party issued a statement to media stating they do not tolerate any form of racism.
“The Saskatchewan Party does not tolerate any form of racism within the party, government or caucus.
“There was a situation in the caucus office where MLA David Buckingham was talking about another individual using a racially inappropriate term and in doing so, he repeated that term. Mr. Buckingham realized he should not have done that, apologized and took sensitivity training.
“We are not aware of any of the other incidents that the Speaker described in his media availability today.”
Included in that Sask Party statement was this from Buckingham: “There was one occasion where I repeated a racially inappropriate word as I was recounting a story of another individual using that word. That was wrong and I should not have used that word, regardless of the context. I immediately apologized to caucus staff, realizing it was a wrong thing to say, and then apologized to my caucus colleagues at the first opportunity.”
Weekes’ endorsement follows on the heels of his major falling out with the Sask Party, going back to last fall when Weekes, who had been the Sask Party MLA for Biggar-Saskatchewan Valley in the legislature, lost the Sask Party nomination in Kindersley-Biggar to Kim Gartner.
At the end of the session this past spring, Weekes hurled accusations at the Sask Party house leadership over harassing text messages, including accusing Jeremy Harrison of bringing a gun to the Legislative Assembly. Harrison later admitted to the incident having happened several years earlier and resigned as Government House Leader.
Weekes also posted on the X platform a photo of his caucus card cut in half, accompanied by the words “enough is enough.”
Scott Moe’s reaction at the time was to characterize Weekes as a “sore loser” and of “sour grapes.”
Weekes officially announced his resignation from the government caucus on June 24.
More recently, Weekes has appeared at a town hall meeting on accountability along with Aleana Young and Meara Conway, and on Sunday he appeared at the campaign office opening for Carla Beck in southwest Regina. Lately he also has posted a number of X posts that have generally been favourable to the NDP, including one last week that stated: “Enough is enough!! Good luck Carla.”
Finally, on Tuesday, Weekes confirmed he was indeed endorsing the NDP.