Sask. NDP Leader Ryan Meili to step down, will remain as interim leader until party chooses a successor
CBC
Ryan Meili will announce he is resigning as Saskatchewan NDP leader on Friday morning, CBC News has learned.
Meili will remain as interim leader until the party chooses his replacement.
"I've been thinking about this for a while," Meili told CBC News in advance of his public announcement.
"I think it's time for a different voice."
Meili said he intends to remain in caucus as the MLA for Saskatoon Meewasin.
On Tuesday, the Saskatchewan Party's Jim Lemaigre won the Athabasca byelection, taking the seat the NDP had held since 1998.
NDP candidate Georgina Jolibiois was seen as the favourite, as a former MP and longtime mayor of La Loche.
Following a preliminary count of ballots, Lemaigre had 1,146 votes (51.4 per cent) of votes counted so far, while Jolibois had 900 votes (40.4 per cent).
Only 24 per cent of registered voters cast ballots in the byelection.
Meili said the result was not the reason for his decision but said it was "clarifying." He said losing the seat was "really disappointing."
He had been quiet on social media following the result, which fueled speculation about his future.
"I've been proud of the work I've been able to be a part of as leader and as part of this caucus the things that we've fought for access to health care, fixing problems in our classrooms, keeping jobs in Saskatchewan, investing in renewable power. These are things I really care about."
Meili said the pandemic played a role in the decision.
"It would be hard to describe this last period without discussing the pandemic and how central that has been to my role as leader of the opposition and the work we've had to do."
Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia can all expect between 20 and 40 millimetres of rainfall this weekend.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.