This is the latest installment of a short series to 'prime the pump' or prepare you for our election coverage for the November 7 provincial vote. We expect the campaign to begin in earnest after Labour Day. Today's installment looks at the Saskatchewan Liberal Party.
If you knew nothing about Saskatchewan's political history, you would never believe that the Saskatchewan Liberal Party of today once dominated this province's politics. The party today is but a mere shadow of its former self. It is now hard to believe, but the Saskatchewan Liberal Party was once a dynamic force that created this province. The Liberals established a dynasty that carried the party to victory in the first 9 provincial elections in Saskatchewan - 1905, 1908, 1912, 1917, 1921, 1925, 1929, 1934 and 1938. If you are doubtful, do your own investigating.
So what happened to the Saskatchewan Liberal Party, and why is it relevant to the 2011 provincial election? In order to accurately predict what will happen on November 7, it is necessary to unlock the history of this enigmatic former political powerhouse.
The Saskatchewan Liberal Party was launched on August 16, 1905 as a classical liberal party. From its very inception the party advocated a strong climate for launching and sustaining businesses, personal initiative and personal freedom, all core classical liberal values. These values were very appealing to the waves of immigrants who made their way to this province from across Eastern, Central and Northern Europe. In most instances, these individuals came to Saskatchewan to either escape the chronic poverty and lack of economic opportunity in their homeland, or to escape local tyranny and oppression, or both. Those who fled Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 came to especially find the Saskatchewan Liberal Party to their liking.
Five Liberal Premiers took office during this dynasty - Walter Scott, William Martin, Charles Dunning, Jimmy Gardiner,and Bill Patterson. Without going into a lot of detail, it can be said that the economic foundation for the province was laid during this dynasty.
The Liberal grip on power in Saskatchewan ended with the rise of the Great Depression. The double blows of global economic collapse and environmental catastrophe (drought) during the 1930s not only ruined the province's economy, but it broke the spirit of Saskatchewan citizens and robbed them of their dignity. It was a time when farming families came to abandon their farms in the middle of the night rather than face foreclosure. Since money was scarce, a family would make new clothes quite often by cutting holes in jute flour sacks, and then dying them different colours (when possible). It was not uncommon to encounter folks with no shoes, and no food. This trauma left deep scars on the province, and many became convinced that more government involvement in the economy was needed to prevent a similar catastrophe from occurring again. Thus the Saskatchewan CCF came to power in 1944, ending the Saskatchewan Liberal dynasty.
The Liberals would then spend the next 20 years in opposition. It was not until the coming of Ross Thatcher to the leadership of the Liberals on September 20, 1959 at a packed convention in the Trianon Ballroom in downtown Regina, that the party truly began to move forward again. Thatcher had been the CCF MP for Moose Jaw, but left the party on April 22, 1955. Thatcher cited the growing influence of trade unions in the party as his main reason for departure. Thatcher was the owner of a successful hardware store in Moose Jaw, and he used his same personal initiative and entrepreneurial drive to propel the Saskatchewan Liberals back to power on April 22, 1964. The Thatcher years in Saskatchewan were highlighted by a new phase of economic development that saw the rise of the potash industry and a private pulp and paper mill for Prince Albert. However the Thatcher Government made one fatal error in its second term, when it introduced user fees for medical visits. That single issue doomed the Liberal Government in the 1971 election, and the party has not been in power since.
Thatcher died one month after the election, of a massive heart attack at age 53. There have been rumours about the nature of Thatcher's death, but photos of Ross in Dale Eisler's Rumours of Glory biography of Thatcher clearly show his health was failing in the final months of his life. Thatcher's strong commitment to a free enterprise economy as the force that sustained the Saskatchewan Liberal Party went to the grave with him. Thatcher's successors were not interested in classical Liberalism. Thatcher's successors in the 1970s were more interested in following the lead of Pierre Trudeau in Ottawa by aligning liberalism with big and invasive government. This shift did not go unnoticed by provincial Liberal voters, and by 1978 the party was wiped off the province's political map.
The 1980s were lean years for the party, electing just one MLA during the heyday of the Devine Government. That MLA was Ralph Goodale, who quit in 1988 to pursue a career in federal politics. But Goodale failed in his bid to get elected to Ottawa. It was at this time, on April 2, 1989, that a Saskatoon doctor named Lynda Haverstock won the party's leadership at a convention at the Hotel Saskatchewan. Haverstock spent the next 6 years crossing the province and almost single-handedly rebuilt the Liberal Party during this time. By 1995 Haverstock's work had paid off - the party had won 11 seats that year, and she became Leader of the Official Opposition. The PCs had dropped to third place. But on the heels of Haverstock's great achievement, she was overthrown later that year at a convention at the same hotel where she was first elected Leader. Haverstock was given an ultimatum to quit by the caucus, after federal Liberals instigated a failed review of her leadership. From the moment that Haverstock was forced to resign as Leader, the party has been in decline ever since to the present day.
The public beheading of Haverstock as Leader is one of the most disturbing events in Saskatchewan history. Instead of being rewarded for her efforts, Haverstock was punished, and the party has never come to grips with this disaster. Another Saskatoon doctor, Jim Melenchuk was elected party leader in 1996. Less than a year later half of his caucus quit to join the fledgling Saskatchewan Party. Another MLA would defect to the NDP in 1998. In the 1999 election the Liberals dropped to 4 seats. 4 seats turned into 3 when Wood River MLA Glen McPherson quit rather than face a court challenge to the election results in his seat. McPherson won re-election in 1999 by just a single vote. Even if McPherson had survived the court challenge, he was not eager to became part of the disastrous Coalition Government that came 2 weeks after the 1999 election.
3 Liberal MLAs, including Melenchuk, joined the minority NDP in government for the next 4 years. The move completely alienated the classical liberal core of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party. This was a major contributing factor to the party being wiped off political map in 2003. The other majority contributing factor was the further blurring of the party's identity by new leader David Karwacki. One of the key ingredients of past success of the Saskatchewan Liberal party had been its being distanced as much as possible from the federal Liberals. But instead Karwacki chose to align the provincial party's policies with those of the federal party, and he even went so far as to endorse the very left-wing Stephane Dion in the 2006 federal leadership race. Thus the party sank even lower in the 2007 election - no seats and just 9.4 percent of the vote provincewide. For the first time in the party's history, not a single Liberal candidate even finished second in a constituency, Karwacki included. On December 19, 2007, Karwacki resigned as Leader.
A new leader would not be elected until February 2009 in the person of Ryan Bater. This young fellow was the CEO of the Battlefords Regional Economic Development Authority, and had been the party's Battlefords candidate in 2007. However, Ryan is a neophyte to politics, and he inherited a destroyed party. By the time he was acclaimed leader about 18 months after the provincial election, most of the party's remaining organization had long since evaporated. Faced with a situation not of his making, Bater is using whatever resources he has at his disposal to contest the Battlefords constituency this November 7.
In a recent interview with the Leader Post, Bater made it clear that the party will not be able to run a provincewide campaign this time, or even be able to run candidates in every seat. Most public opinion polling done since 2007 suggests the Liberals are running anywhere from 2 to 4 percent across the province. All of the lost support has gone to the Saskatchewan Party, as evidenced by that party's lofty polling numbers, which in recent tracking comes in at 58 percent. While there may be the odd provincial Liberal who decides this time to vote NDP or Green, most Liberals who are not going to vote for the party this time will gravitate to the party that comes closest to representing their views, that being the Saskatchewan Party. Without taking local personalities and efforts into consideration, this single dynamic should provide the Saskatchewan Party with a minimum gain of 6 seats this November from the NDP.
If the Liberals are unable to rebuild after 2011, it could signal the rise of a new political order in this province, one dominated by the Saskatchewan Party. But if the Liberals do manage to start rebuilding after this year, then we may still be in the Great Depression cycle of politics that was outlined in previous installments in this series. Only time will tell what the future holds for the Saskatchewan Liberals.
While the current situation is rather bleak for the Liberals, some factors do weigh in their favour that could pave the way for the revival of the party at some point in the future. Under Bater's leadership, the party has adopted a Declaration of Principles of Prairie Liberalism that restores the party's traditional classical liberal core of values that was a key ingredient in the party's past success. That Declaration was approved at the 2009 convention. Also Saskatchewan Liberal delegates voted in 2009 to make a complete break with the Liberal Party of Canada. While the Saskatchewan Liberal Party needs to go much further to distance its identity from that of the federal Liberals, these are steps that could provide a basis for rebuilding the party some day. But in the meantime, the Saskatchewan Liberals are struggling, and their dismal current fortunes are a boon the Wall Government and disaster for the Saskatchewan NDP.
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