Moe and Beck enter campaign mode

The Saskatchewan general election is more than five months away, but early signs of the upcoming campaign are popping up as the spring legislative sitting winds down.

Billboards of Moe with the 2024-25 budget tagline "Classrooms, Care and Communities" have sprung up, including one right beside Opposition Leader Carla Beck's constituency office on Broad St. in Regina.

Moe is also making the rounds doing government announcements. He's made a handful of appearances with ministers in recent days:

Beck also made an election-style announcement on Wednesday with her "Hire Saskatchewan Plan."

She said an NDP government would "hire Saskatchewan workers and build more made-in-Saskatchewan products."

Moe criticized the plan as lacking detail.

Inside the assembly, Saskatchewan Party government attacks on Beck in recent question periods have centred around her trip to Ottawa to attend a meeting of the Canadian Labour Congress. 

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also addressed the delegation. None of the three leaders were there together, but this has not stopped Moe or his caucus from referring to the event as "Trudeau campaign school."

Beck has countered by saying she will meet with parties and groups, and opposes both the federal consumer carbon tax and the Liberal-NDP confidence and supply agreement.

The two Saskatchewan leaders had the chance to go head-to-head on Wednesday afternoon during premier's estimates, which featured a three-hour question and answer session between Beck and Moe.

Moe mentioned Trudeau and accused the NDP of supporting the federal government on multiple occasions.

"I ask the leader of the Opposition, as we know she attended along with some caucus members that very Trudeau campaign school, how could you do that to Saskatchewan people?" Moe asked.

"I've no problem telling Justin Trudeau or Jagmeet Singh or any federal leader when they're offside like they are with the carbon tax," Beck responded. "And I also have not an ounce of problem telling Pierre Poilievre when he's dead wrong about scrapping child care or support for diabetes and contraception."

Beck accused the Saskatchewan Party of rolling over for Stephen Harper, "when it came to getting a fair deal on equalization."