Trent Wotherspoon is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician and former interim leader of the

Saskatchewan New Democratic Party The Saskatchewan New Democratic Party (NDP) is a social-democratic political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It currently forms the official opposition, but has been a dominant force in Saskatchewan politics since the 1940s. The p ...

(NDP). He was elected to represent the electoral district of

Regina Rosemont Regina Rosemont is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is represented by Trent Wotherspoon of the New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, ...

in the

Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan The Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan is the legislative chamber of the Saskatchewan Legislature in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. Bills passed by the assembly are given royal assent by the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, in the na ...

in the 2007 election, and was re-elected in the 2011 election, and 2016 election. Wotherspoon was a candidate for the party's leadership in 2013. In 2016, the NDP caucus elected Wotherspoon to serve as Leader of the Opposition following the defeat of

Cam Broten Cameron Paul Broten (born April 29, 1978) is a Canadian politician. He represented the constituency of Saskatoon Massey Place in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan from 2007 to 2016 and served as the leader of the Saskatchewan New Democrat ...

in the 2016 provincial election and the party's provincial council elected him interim leader.

Early life

Wotherspoon was born in Regina where he lives with his wife Stephanie, a school teacher. Wotherspoon went to university at the

University of Regina The University of Regina is a public university, public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the Unive ...

where he completed a Bachelor of Education degree. While at university, Wotherspoon also took classes in business administration. He also ran a painting company to help cover tuition. Wotherspoon worked with the

Regina Public Schools Regina School Division #4, also known as Regina Public Schools (RPS), is the Anglophone secular public school district of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Its headquarters, J.A. Burnett Education Centre, was named after teacher Jim Burnett. the scho ...

system where he helped to develop a new adult campus. He also helped implement a new holistic vocational adaptation program for students who displayed severe violent behaviours and lower cognitive abilities, and worked with th
Ranch Ehrlo Society
to provide addiction and behavioural treatment. Wotherspoon went on to create a youth justice program that helped high risk offenders. Also, he was a member of the Business Improvement District for the City of Regina's Warehouse District.

Political career

Wotherspoon was elected in November 2007 and over the term became the opposition critic for Finance,

SaskPower Saskatchewan Power Corporation, operating as SaskPower, is the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1929 by the provincial government, it serves more than 538,000 customers and manages over $11.8 billion in assets. Sa ...

and

SaskEnergy SaskEnergy Incorporated is a Crown corporation of the Saskatchewan government which delivers natural gas to 93% of the communities in the province. The company owns 70,000 kilometres of distribution pipelines, 15,000 kilometres of transmission pi ...

, as well as Chair of the Public Accounts committee, and committee member for Crown and Central Agencies and Saskatchewan's Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Following the 2011 election Wotherspoon continued on as the critic for Finance and SaskPower and became the new critic for Education.

2013 NDP leadership campaign

On September 14, 2012, Wotherspoon announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Saskatchewan NDP. He was one of three declared candidates including MLA

and doctor

Ryan Meili Ryan Meili (born April 11, 1975) is a Canadian physician and politician from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He previously served as the MLA for Saskatoon Meewasin from 2017 to 2022 and as leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party from 2018 to 2 ...

. A fourth candidate, economist

Erin Weir Erin M. K. Weir (born 1982) is a Canadian politician from Saskatchewan. From 2015 until 2019, he was Member of Parliament for the riding of Regina—Lewvan. Weir initially sat as a member of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) but was ex ...

, withdrew from the race before the leadership vote. At the leadership convention, Wotherspoon received the fewest votes on the first ballot and withdrew. Broten won on the second ballot by a narrow margin.

Interim leader

Wotherspoon was interim leader of the NDP, and leader of the opposition in the Saskatchewan legislature, from 2016 until June 2017 when he announced his resignation in order to consider seeking the permanent leadership of the party in the March 3, 2018 leadership election. MLA

was elected party leader with 55% of the vote in March 2018. Wotherspoon was re-elected in the 2020 general election.

Electoral record

Overview

Provincial constituency elections

References

External links

*
Leadership campaign website

Sask NDP page

Trent Wotherspoon
- Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan {{DEFAULTSORT:Wotherspoon, Trent Saskatchewan New Democratic Party MLAs Living people 1979 births Politicians from Regina, Saskatchewan University of Regina alumni Leaders of the Saskatchewan CCF/NDP 21st-century Canadian politicians