Today is Part 6 of the short 'Priming the Pump' series in lead up to the November 7 provincial election in Saskatchewan. In the second last of the series we look today at the PC Party of Saskatchewan.
The Progressive Conservatives are Saskatchewan's second oldest political party. It first appeared on ballots in the 1912 election, having emerged from the Provincial Rights party. Today the PCs are a mere shadow of their former selves in recent times. 25 years ago the Tories were in government; today they are a fringe party.
The Tories struggled for most of Saskatchewan's early history, continually placing a distant second to the Liberals. In 1929 the Liberals were forced into a minority result and the Conservatives under James Anderson formed a coalition government with 6 Progressive MLAs and 5 Independents. But a dark cloud hung over this government, as it was alleged the Ku Klux Klan was behind the rise of the Tories. By 1934 every member of the Anderson government was defeated. 1934 marked the start of a long dry spell for the party in Saskatchewan, and not elect a single MLA for the next 5 provincial elections.
In 1964 a single Progressive Conservative was elected to the Legislature, and the party managed to secure 18 percent of the provincial vote. The MLA was party leader Martin Pederson of Hawarden, the member for Arm River. Herman Danielson had been the Liberal MLA for Arm River since 1934, but Pederson defeated him. It was the same election that saw the Liberals return to power in Saskatchewan under the leadership of Ross Thatcher.
However Pederson was defeated in 1967, and the PCs also returned to the margins. By 1971 the party fielded only 16 candidates and garnered just 2 percent of votes provincewide. But in 1973 the PCs merged with the Social Credit party, and Dick Collver beat Lloyd Avram in a leadership race. In hindsight 1973 proved to be a pivotal year for the PCs. Collver had been a fundraiser for the Saskatchewan Liberals, but became alienated after the Thatcher Government adopted user fees for visits to doctors. Collver spent the next 2 years traveling the province to build the PC party from scratch. By 1975 Collver's hard work had paid off with the election of 7 MLAs and the capturing of 28 percent of the vote. By 1978 the PCs were tied with the Liberals in the Legislature at 11 MLAs each and in the provincial election that year the Tories finally replaced the Liberals as the main opposition to the NDP by winning 17 seats - the Liberals were left seatless. Collver stepped down as leader in 1979 to lead the Unionest party, and was replaced by Grant Devine, a U of S professor in Agricultural Economics.
The Tories under Devine went on to win a historic landslide win in 1982 now called the 'Monday Night Massacre'. It was an event that changed Saskatchewan political history. The first term of the Devine Government provided relatively 'good' government to the province. But the second term that began after 1986 resulted in near disaster. Today it is widely agreed upon that the second term of the Devine Government was one of the worst governments in Canadian history. The Tories massively overspent while in power, to the point where the annual budget deficit was on average about $1-billion per year. The result was that by the time the PCs were defeated in 1991, the province ended up with a $16-billion debt and the public treasury was teetering on the brink of default.
The PC party went into sharp decline after 1991 election due to some unforeseen events. Revelations of scandal and malfeasance overwhelmed any hope the party had of rebuilding, with several former MLA and paid staff being sent to prison for fraud. By 1995 the party was in a struggle for survival. A young farmer from Eston named Bill Boyd had been elected MLA in 1991 in the Kindersley constituency. Boyd became leader of the party in 1994, and embarked on a historic mission to save the party's remaining MLAs. Boyd's strategy paid off - while the PCs were reduced to third place in the 1995 election, the party salvaged 5 of its 10 seats. Two years later 4 of those MLAs including Boyd joined with 4 Liberals MLAs to form the Saskatchewan Party in a news conference in the Blue Lounge at the Hotel Saskatchewan on August 8, 1997.
In October 1997, party members made a sombre gathering at the Regina Inn and made the heartwrenching decision to put the party into suspended animation. It was agreed that the party would sit out the next 2 provincial elections and that a special board of trustees would administer the Regina PC Metro Trust Fund. After the 2003 provincial election the PC party came out of hibernation and former MLA and cabinet minister Rick Swenson became the new party leader. Since that time the PCs have run a handful of candidates in the 2007 provincial election and contested the Saskatoon Northwest by-election last fall, but the party's results were unimpressive in both contests. So far the party has nominated candidates in the 2 Moose Jaw constituencies, including Swenson in Moose Jaw North. The party's efforts at rebuilding are hamstrung by an ongoing court case with the Saskatchewan Party over control of the PC Trust Fund. The outcome of that court case may determine the future fortunes of the Tory party. At the same time, it is not clear if the legacy of the Devine Government will hobble a potential rebuilding of the PC Party in the future; in time memory of that government's infamy may fade. But for the time being the Tories are small fry in the grand pond of Saskatchewan politics.
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