Quinn Hader running for Conservative nomination in Yorkton-Melville riding
May 11, 2026, 10:13 am
Nicole Taylor Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Yorkton school principal and city councillor Quinn Hader is running in the federal Conservative nomination race in the Yorkton-Melville riding as one of the candidates hoping to replace outgoing Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall after Wagantall announced she won’t be running as the Conservative candidate in the next election.
Hader says the time seemed right for him to enter politics.
“I am happily married. I’ve been married for 27 years. My wife, Lana, just beat cancer, and was declared cancer free a little while ago. This past year has been very interesting, but she came through, and we are so blessed,” he says. “We have two daughters. One of them is 23 and the other is 19. If this opportunity would have come around when they were younger, I would not have tried to become our next MP, because the kids would need their dad, but they are now in university. They don’t need me any longer, other than paying for university, so things have worked out well.
“In terms of my career, I have been a school teacher for 33 years. I’ve been a school administrator since 2002 and I’ve been a school principal for 16 years. During that time, I’ve learned how to communicate with people and also give them good news, but also I know how to deal with folks when there’s unfortunately bad news to be delivered. That’s one of the benefits of being an administrator that long is you get to deal with a lot of people.
“I’m also a social studies teacher. For a long time, I taught kids about politics, and the more I taught about it, the more interested in it I became.
“In 2016 I decided to run for the City Council in Yorkton, and I have successfully run in three elections. I have been on City Council since 2016, so this is my third term, and I’m in my 10th year, which also would be a benefit if I became MP because I understand budgeting, and also have had to learn how to develop a thick skin, because when you’re making decisions about people’s money and taxes and things like that, you’re not always the most popular person around.”
Hader has also been involved in the Yorkton-Melville riding association.
“I was on Cathay Wagantall’s board for quite a few years, as both the chair or the vice-chair, and got to know Cathay quite well. I attended the Conservative National Convention in Quebec a couple of years ago, and throughout all of that, I spoke to Cathay quite often about her role and the difference that she can make, and it really appealed to me.
“So when Cathay shared that she was not going to run again, that essentially she was retiring, all the stars seemed to align, meaning, I’ve had a very, very successful teaching career. I can retire from that and now move on to this, and the municipal experience I’ve gotten has been great as well. It has all lined up, so this is the perfect time for it to happen.
“I want to thank Cathay for all the work that she’s done, and I would consider it an honor to replace her, those mighty big shoes that she’s leaving behind for the constituents in the Yorkton-Melville riding.”
Hader says affordability and federal debt are two things that he sees as issues for the Conservative party to tackle.
“When my mom and dad put my sister and myself through university, they scrimped and saved and we had to take out some small student loans to get through but when we got finished university, it didn’t take very long for me to be able to afford a house and get a car. There was enough money to do it. Of course, I had to take out a mortgage and things like that, but I was able to kind of live and achieve the Canadian dream.”
“My wife and I—I think we’ve done everything right. We invested lots of money into our ESPs for our kids. We’re hopefully going to get them through university and have them convocate or graduate with a minimal amount of debt. But to be honest with you, I don’t think they’re going to be able to afford a house and car payments nearly as quickly as I did. And I think the main reason why I want to do this is to help lower the cost of living and provide more opportunities for the people who live here to give them an excellent shot at a wonderful future like I had, and hopefully even better than what I had.”
“Another thing, the amount of debt that our federal government has taken on since the Liberals gained the power is quite frankly, staggering. And I guess people just kind of take it for granted. But what a lot of us are either forgetting about or we don’t understand is eventually that debt is going to catch up with us, and my kids and their kids, and maybe even my great-grandkids are going to be on the hook to pay that debt off if we don’t start to take care of things in a much more fiscally responsible way.”
“So cost of living and the debt that our government has incurred would be two of the biggest things that I want to help change.”
Hader says he has always been heavily involved in his community and will continue to do that until nomination day as a way for people to get to know him. He has also been spending time in some of the rural communities in the riding.
“Within my city I’ve taken on a role of supporting groups that help the community, and volunteering my time to help out different groups. I am still trying to do those things. Today I’m going to help pick garbage in a park. That’s important that our leaders contribute to the communities that they live in. Tomorrow afternoon, as soon as school is done and I put those kids on the bus, I’m heading over to our local McDonald’s and participating in McHappy Day. It’s a great cause, and I want to help it out, and I wanted to help promote that. So those are the things that I always do, and I’m going to keep doing those things.
“But in addition to those things, there’s not enough hours in the day. I’m trying to meet with as many people as possible in as many different communities as I can. We’ve done a few tours to get out and meet people in some of the other communities. Our riding is massive, and I hope to get to as many communities as I possibly can before that vote takes place later this spring or early in the summer.
“I’ve had people reaching out to me and calling. It’s really about the human connection, and one of my strengths is I think that I appeal to a large demographic. I’m not a one- or two-cause candidate. I want to be somebody who empowers as many people in our constituency as possible. I believe we’ve got great people, we’ve got knowledgeable people, and we’ve got hard working people who live here, and we’ve got the resources that the rest of the world wants and needs. So it’s time to unleash those resources, empower our people, and I want to be one of the voices that helps them to do that.”
What has he heard from people in the riding?
“Crime rates—people are very frustrated with the multiple chances that some of the most serious criminals seem to be getting, so we need to tighten up our laws and empower our RCMP as well as the people who put the bad guys in jail. We need to make sure that it sticks so that people aren’t getting released,” he says.
“I’ve also had multiple people that say to me, ‘How do I know you’re not going to cross the floor to Ottawa?’ And the witty response that I came up with is, ‘I’m a good Catholic kid. The only crossing I do is before and after I pray.’ I believe that the Conservative Party has the right ideas, I would not cross the floor.
“And then, of course, there’s the less than glowing relationship that exists right now between our closest ally and our longtime friend, the United States and how divisive that relationship has become. Cutting people down has never been my style when I’ve been a leader, nor will it ever be. I’m much more about ‘Let’s sit down. Let’s figure this out. Let’s come up with a solution that benefits both of us,’ rather than insults and comments to discredit the other group. I think that’s what eventually needs to happen, as soon as possible, between Canada and the United States. We need to restore that relationship.”
Nominations for the candidacy race close on May 15, and those wanting to vote for a candidate must buy a Conservative Party membership by May 15.
The date for voting will be announced after nominations close.
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