Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili announced that he is resigning from his seat.
“It is time for me to move on and do other things,” he stated. “I am so grateful for the opportunity to have been the leader of the NDP, to be the leader of the opposition, to be a doctor leading in the middle of a pandemic. It has been the challenge, opportunity, and honour of a lifetime.”
Meili made the announcement on the floor of the Legislative Assembly with family and friends watching on from the gallery earlier today.
“I had been thinking about it for a couple of months, and the Athabasca byelection was the chance to make the change.”
The Courval native has represented the Saskatoon-Meewasin riding since 2017 and has been the leader of the Sask. NDP since 2018.
As for what’s next, Meili said that’s yet to be decided.
“I’m going to take a little time off and step back. Take a couple of trips and think through the next steps,” he said. “It’ll be medicine to some degree and advocacy for health because I don’t really know how to do anything else.”
When looking back on some highlights from his tenure, Meili said it’s hard to reflect right now.
“I think that is something that will take time to really be sure. Those things are easier to understand with a little more distance and perspective.”
He did note that advocating during the pandemic was something he is proud of.
“We really needed a voice that had health as its primary focus; we needed someone to be speaking up at a time when the Government really didn’t want to talk about it, and they wanted to constantly downplay and spin that everything was going wonderfully. As much as that was tough to do, I’m really glad I was here and able to be that voice.”
Meili did have some advice for the next NDP leader, which will either be Carla Beck or Kaitlyn Harvey.
“There were really hard messages that I had to bring, and some of those messages had to be criticisms. It’s not ideal for your leader to be the one who’s always on the attack, and what I would suggest and encourage for the new leader is to really make sure that an important part of her job is always presenting that positive vision of what we will be able to achieve.”
Premier Scott Moe wished Meili the best.
“This is a man that has shown perseverance to get here and showed a great deal of perseverance to come here and bring the beliefs that he has and to represent his constituents,” Moe said. “The fact that he did live true to his beliefs, whether we agreed on those beliefs are not, he lived to them and stood by them. Those two traits, perseverance and being true to the beliefs that you have, I think are admirable in any individual. I think you can respect the fact that someone is doing that.”
is resignation will now trigger a byelection for the constituency of Saskatoon-Meewasin, which Meili won by 367 votes back in the 2020 election.
Meili will officially be stepping down on July 1.
