There were few surprises as Saskatchewan Party leadership candidate Ken Cheveldayoff arrived in Prince Albert for his third official trip of the campaign.

Cheveldayoff spoke to roughly 20 Rotary Club of Prince Albert members before taking questions during a stop in the city on Monday. The Saskatoon Willowgrove MLA used the time to defend the decision to cut the STC, express opposition to the federal carbon tax and continue to emphasize the importance of being politically competitive in Saskatchewan’s cities.

“When we talk about the three seats around Prince Albert, we have two out of the three in total, and we’ve got to win all three of them next time,” Cheveldayoff said. “We’ve got to have fantastic candidates and fantastic campaigns here.”

The former cabinet minister’s stop was more notable for what wasn’t discussed than what was. Cheveldayoff confirmed previous campaign proposals, like implementing a minimum age of 25 on the purchase of marijuana once the federal government legalizes it. However, he did not comment on access to abortion, an issue that gained traction in November after he told anti-abortion website RightNow that he was in favour of legislation that supports and protects the unborn.

Instead, Cheveldayoff chose to focus on his role as a fiscal conservative during his 20-minute speech, and urged his party to take another look at their most recent budget. Once again, the expanded PST application was his primary target.

“I think it’s important that we take a step back from the last budget and realize where we’ve made some mistakes and could have done a little better, and then fix those and prepare for another 10 years of growth in this province,” he said.

For the rest of this story, please see the Dec. 20 online or print edition of the Daily Herald.