Last night saw the government of Brad Wall returned to office in Saskatchewan, by a huge majority.

The Saskatchewan Party's good fortune's also good news for the Progressive Conservatives in Manitoba, heading toward the April 19th election. That's from Brandon University Political Science Associate Professor Kelly Saunders, who says it shows there's still support for the Conservative brand.

"Even though the federal Conservative took such a thumping in many ways in the last federal election. It shows that people are still willing to vote Conservative, and as we saw in Saskatchewan, certainly in big ways. So that's a good thing, certainly, for the Pallister Tories here in Manitoba."

Kelly Saunders

Saunders thinks it's something the Pallister-led Tories can use to their advantage, because of the close ties between the provinces.

"Saskatchewan is really a happening place, so to speak, in western Canada. And he wants to tell voters that they can take advantage of that here in Manitoba. They can develop a stronger trading relationship with them, and can strengthen those relationships in a way that other leaders can't, because they don't have the ties between the parties. And there's also a lot of interaction between the Saskatchewan Party and the Progressive Conservative party here in Manitoba."

She also thinks the NDP has limited options in dealing with the Saskatchewan results.

"First of all, they can say Brad Wall has been around for roughly ten years, so it's not that incumbent governments are not always that bad. I think what they should try to do is try to say Brian Pallister is not Brad Wall. He doesn't have that popular/populist touch, so Selinger's certainly going to want to cast Brian Pallister in a different light -- he's more the old style, Harper Conservative that can't be trusted, to cut and slash, and kind of elitist."

Saunders says the election result in Saskatchewan isn't good news for Greg Selinger and the NDP.