Saskatchewan Party candidate who used racial slur on track to lose seat

  • Canadian Press

David Buckingham, a controversial Saskatchewan Party candidate who was on track to win his Saskatoon seat in Monday's election, now appears to have lost after mail-in ballots were counted. A sign is shown outside a polling station for the Saskatchewan general election in Regina, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu

REGINA -- A controversial Saskatchewan Party candidate who had been on track to win his seat in Monday's election now appears to have lost.

David Buckingham, the incumbent in Saskatoon Westview, was narrowly ahead of NDP challenger April ChiefCalf in voting on election night.

Elections Saskatchewan has now added mail-in ballots to the count, putting ChiefCalf at 3,501 votes, which is 37 ahead of Buckingham.

Buckingham publicly apologized during the campaign after it came to light that he uttered a racial slur referring to a Black person a year ago in the government caucus office.

With the riding changing hands, Premier Scott Moe and his Saskatchewan Party have 34 seats, still enough to form their fifth consecutive majority government.

The Opposition NDP almost doubled their seat count, sweeping Regina and taking all but one seat in Saskatoon, and now sit at 27.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2024.