Buckdog

Yens Pedersen was elected President of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party in 2008. Currently practicing law in Regina, Yens was raised on a small family farm near Cut Knife, Saskatchewan. His involvement in the community is a shining example of putting your beliefs into practice. Yens sits on the Salvation Army Advisory Board for Regina, the council for St. Mark's Lutheran Church, and the playground committee at his daughter's school. He is a member of the Canadian Bar Association, presently serving as the chair of the Taxation section in Regina and previously served as co-chair of the Young Lawyers section. Yens is the president of the Regina Business Association, and is also an active member of the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors and the Regina Estate Planning Council. He has coached his daughter's soccer team and has served on the board of directors for Saskatchewan Express, a provincial musical theatre group, and for The Royal Lifesaving Society (Saskatchewan Branch). Yens has been a fundraiser for the Hospitals of Regina Foundation, the MS Society, the Canadian Cancer Society, and the Canadian Diabetes Association.

On government policy, Pedersen is articulate on a number of issues:
"I think our goal for the future should be making Saskatchewan a sustainable energy leader in the world - both in terms of production, consumption and research. This would include research and regulation to make fossil fuel production and consumption more sustainable, research and investment into renewables, research and investment into conservation and efficiency. It would also require investment into training in these fields.

We need an energy policy and plan for two big and relatively urgent reasons: supply and GHG emissions. We're going to continue to have wild price swings on fossil fuels, and we only have another 8 years globally to start to make some serious headway on GHF if we want to avoid the worst of the predictions. This will affect (or should affect) every level of government decision making.

Cheap and reliable energy is fundamental to economic success, so we'd better get a strategy in place."
Yens Pedersen

Pedersen's campaign slogan is 'New Voice. New Vision.' He certainly brings both to the leadership campaign.

During the 2007 Provincial Election, he ran in Regina South constituency. Pedersen was nominated a mere 2 weeks before election day and lost by only about 200 votes - an amazing performance so late in the campaign .

-Yens Pedersen - 'New Voice. New Vision. New Democrat.'
-Yen's Facebook Page
Yen's Response To John Conway

Buckdog is doing a series of 4 New Democratic leadership candidate profiles over the next week. New Democrats will be electing a new leader to replace Lorne Calvert in June. Profiles will be done in the order that the candidates entered the race.

And while you're at it ... vist the Saskatchewan New Democrat Leadership Campaign Blog!

... twitter? ...