In a major upset, the Saskatchewan Party's Jim Lemaigre, defeated NDP candidate, and former federal MP for much of the district, Georgina Jolibois.

The NDP had held the predominantly-indigenous riding almost continuously since 1975,[3] and a conservative candidate had not come within ten percentage points of victory since 1964.

The result also came in spite of polling in the month before showing the NDP closer to the Saskatchewan Party in province-wide support than any point in the previous five years.

Meili said the result was not the reason for his decision, but said that it was "clarifying", and conceded that losing the seat was "really disappointing.

He argued that the results demonstrated "the really serious failure of the NDP to understand the province of Saskatchewan outside Regina and Saskatoon."