Going into the election, the popularity of the New Democratic Party of Saskatchewan (NDP) had declined because of controversy on a number of issues. Voters in this agrarian province were disgruntled because of a mediocre harvest, a disastrous summer for cattle producers – the American border had been closed to Canadian beef due to fears of mad cow disease, and the actions of a member of the NDP Cabinet who was found to have misled the people of the province on the nature of the Saskatchewan Potato Utility Development Company ("SPUDCO"), a publicly owned potato company that was inappropriately characterized as a public-private partnership.