By Canadian Press

Brad Wall says he’ll remain in Saskatchewan despite job with Alberta law firm

May 2, 2018 | 1:07 PM

REGINA — Former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall says he will be spending most of his time in his hometown despite taking a new job with a Calgary law firm.

On Tuesday, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt announced that Wall, who is not a lawyer, is being hired as a special adviser.

Wall, 52, said Wednesday he’ll travel to Calgary every two weeks for a few days and will spend the rest of his time based in Swift Current, Sask. 

“I’m going to be doing speaking engagements, some consulting work, so this is a major, major development,” Wall told The Canadian Press in a phone interview from Swift Current.

Wall, who retired earlier this year, took gibes on Twitter for taking a job in Alberta after a political career stumping for the return of people to Saskatchewan.

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In the early 2000s, Alberta’s hot economy lured many young people away from Saskatchewan as they sought jobs in the oilpatch.

When Wall became leader of the Saskatchewan Party, he promised to bring people back to the province. His 2007 election campaign focused on that and the party swept to power — the first of three straight majority governments.

One tweet from Annabel Townsend said: “So Brad has left Sask. to find work in Alberta? #irony.”

“I’ve been away from politics here for a few months and it’s nice to see the NDP keep getting things wrong,” Wall said. “Saskatchewan is a great place to start a business and I’ve started my business here.”

The firm said it sees Wall as someone who can identify business opportunities in areas such as energy, agri-food and trade.

One thing that Wall said he’s not interested in is lobbying governments. He also pointed out he couldn’t do that anyway because of a one-year cooling-off period for former cabinet members.

Nor is he interested in returning to politics, he said.

“I’ll be interested in political issues and commenting on political issues because, hey, I’m still the same political nerd that was in office for all those years.

“Keenly interested, but not going to be running for anything.”

— Follow @RyanBMcKenna on Twitter

Ryan McKenna, The Canadian Press