The is a right-of-centre
Political Party in the
Canadian province of
Saskatchewan . Prior to 1942, it was known as the '''Conservative Party of Saskatchewan'''. Members are commonly known as
Tories .
It nominated candidates for the first time in the
1912 Election , seven years after the province of Saskatchewan was formed. The party emerged from the
Provincial Rights Party after the retirement of that party's leader,
Frederick W. A. G. Haultain .
The Conservative Party's best performance in the first half of the twentieth century was in
1929 Election , when it won 36% of the popular vote and 24 out of 63 seats. Despite having fewer seats than the
Liberals , the Conservatives were able to form a
Coalition Government with
Progressive Party and independents. Conservative leader
James T.M. Anderson became
Premier .
The Tories were suspected of being in league with the
Ku Klux Klan , which was a strong force in the province at the time, and railed against
Catholics and
French-Canadians . The Anderson government introduced amendments to the ''Schools Act'' banning French as a language of instruction, as well as the display of religious symbols in Catholic schools.
The "Co-operative government", as it was called, was defeated in the
1934 Election , and the Conservative Party lost all of its seats in the
Legislative Assembly Of Saskatchewan . This loss can be attributed to several factors:
- the controversy over the government's ''School Act'';
- the government's inability to deal with the Great Depression Dust Bowl which wiped out the province's agrarian economy; and
- the unpopularity of the federal Conservative government of R.B. Bennett .
With the rise of the
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation , politics in the province became polarized between the
Liberals and the CCF. The CCF became the "New Democratic Party" in 1961. The Conservatives were frozen out of the provincial legislature for decades.
No Conservative was elected as a
Member Of The Legislative Assembly (MLA) until thirty years later when the party won a single seat in
1964 Election . It lost that foothold three years later in the
1967 Election .
The Tories returned to the legislature in the
1975 Election . The Progressive Conservatives won 7 seats to the Liberals' 15 and the NDP's 39.
In the
1978 Election , the Liberals were wiped out, and the Tories became the
Official Opposition with 17 seats to the governing NDP's 44.
In
1982 Election , the Progressive Conservatives under
Grant Devine formed a
Majority Government for the first time. They were re-elected in
1986 Election , but defeated in the
1991 Election , due to unsuccessful economic policies, large budgetary deficits, an unpopular imposition of harmonized sales taxes, and a very unpopular scheme entitled "Fair Share Saskatchewan" to decentralize civil service functions from Regina.
In the years following their defeat, 14 Conservative members of the legislature, one NDP member of the legislature, and two caucus workers were convicted of fraud and breach of trust for illegally diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars from government allowances in a phoney expense-claim scam. During inquiry into the scandal, many innocent party members were placed under heavy scrutiny. One such innocent,
Jack Wolfe committed suicide when faced with the agony of possibly being scrutinized for wrongdoing himself, or having the testify against his former colleagues. The party was destroyed by this scandal, winning only five seats in the
1995 Election , behind both the NDP and the Liberals.
Although most former members and supporters joined the
Saskatchewan Party in
1997 , the Tories are believed to retain a substantial amount of money, which the party would forfeit to the provincial government if it ever became de-registered. Because the party needed to run at least 10 candidates in each
General Election to keep its registration, a hand-picked group keep the party technically alive and have run
Paper Candidates in each of the last two provincial elections to ensure that the party remains registered. The party had not had a leader since 1997.
In the September 16,
1999 Election , the party nominated 14 candidates, who collected 1,609 votes, 0.4% of the provincial total. In the
November 5, 2003 Provincial Election , the party nominated 11 candidates, who received a total of 665 votes, which was 0.16% of the provincial total.
In June 2005, the party announced that it is now taking applications for new members, and that it would hold a meeting of members top decide the future of the party.
{Link without Title} Should the party remain dormant, changes to provincial electoral laws have been proposed in the Legislature that would decrease the number of candidates the party needs to run in general elections from ten to two.
On May 27
2006 , the party held a weekend convention. In total, 42 delegates attended the convention in Saskatoon and voted to resurrect the Progressive Conservative Party. Delegates elected
Lori Isinger as Party President, and picked Rick Swenson to serve as interim Leader.
- Wellington Bartley Willoughby (1912-1917)
- Donald McLean (1917-1921)
- James T. M. Anderson (1924- October 28 , 1936 )
- John Diefenbaker ( October 28 , 1936 - 1940 )
- H. E. Keown (1940- 1944 )
- Rupert Ramsay (1944- October 12 , 1949 )
- Alvin Hamilton ( October 12 , 1949 - 1957 )
- Martin Pederson ( October 28 , 1958 - 1968 )
- Ed Nasserden ( February 28 , 1970 - March 18 , 1973 )
- Dick Collver ( March 18 , 1973 - November 9 , 1979 )
- Grant Devine ( November 9 , 1979 - October 8 , 1992 )
- Richard Swenson ( October 8 , 1992 - November 21 , 1994 ) (interim)
- Bill Boyd ( November 21 , 1994 - August 8 , 1997 )
- Vacant (1997-2006)
- Richard Swenson ( May 31 , 2006 - Present ) (interim)
