Saskatchewan NDP Nominations - Prince Albert Carlton & Prince Albert Northcote

UPDATE: See below.

The Saskatchewan NDP's convention is set to take place on March 26-28. And in addition to addressing what we presume will be far more than five measly resolutions, the weekend will also include a joint nomination meeting for Prince Albert Carlton and Prince Albert Northcote.

In the latter riding, there's no apparent reason to doubt that MLA Darcy Furber will once again carry the NDP's banner. But what about Prince Albert Carlton, where Chad Nilson lost a nail-biter in 2007 to the Sask Party's Darryl Hickie in a seat that had long been held by the NDP's Myron Kowalsky?

Well, after his extremely narrow loss, Nilson mentioned that he'd be "ready for Nov. 7, 2011". And given that Hickie has failed miserably in his main promise to the riding and then been booted from Brad Wall's cabinet for failing to meet even the Sask Party's barely-existent bar for competence, there's little reason to think anything in the meantime would have dissuaded Nilson from following through on that intention.

Meanwhile, a quick scan of the most likely sources of news about other candidates doesn't show anybody else publicly pursuing the nomination. And presumably the meeting wouldn't have been called if there was nobody expected to step forward as the candidate.

So the best guess for now looks to be that Nilson will get his expected second shot at the Prince Albert Carlton seat - though as with all NDP riding nominations, it'll be the riding's members who ultimately get to decide.

UPDATE: In comments, Guest rightly notes that Prince Albert City Councillor Ted Zurakowski is in fact the anticipated candidate for Prince Albert Carlton - which I missed as it appears at the end of an unrelated notes article. The paragraphs above are struck through to reflect the error - though lest there be any doubt, the "riding's members will ultimately get to decide" does still apply.