Wall: Sunshine Premier Makes History
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- Published on Wednesday, 22 June 2016 22:00
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1274 .... June 23, 2016
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Wall: Sunshine Premier Makes History
J. F. Conway
Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall has earned a major place in Saskatchewan's political history. On April 4 he broke the back of the NDP, the province's "natural governing party" since 1944. Until Wall's first victory in 2007 the CCF/NDP ruled the province, suffering only two interruptions. Liberal Ross Thatcher defeated Woodrow Lloyd's CCF in 1964 and 1967, only to be crushed by Allan Blakeney's NDP in 1971. Tory Grant Devine defeated Blakeney in 1982 and 1986, only to be wiped out by Roy Romanow's NDP in 1991. Until Wall's victory over Lorne Calvert's NDP in 2007 the CCF/NDP ruled the province for 46 years from 1944 to 2007. Both Thatcher and Devine became minor footnotes in Saskatchewan's... history. Wall will not suffer this humiliation. He made history by winning a third term.
Wall did not just win an election in April. He accomplished what political scientists call a "structural realignment" in the electoral coalitions of the province. The last time this happened was in 1944 when, from 1932 to 1944, the Farmer Labour Party and then the CCF carefully fashioned an unprecedented coalition around a socialist program uniting the province's middle class farmers with the urban working class. T.C. Douglas’ majority was won in rural Saskatchewan, where elections were won or lost in 1944, as a majority of farmers voted socialist. The CCF's support among the urban working class turned that majority into a sweep of the province. This farmer/labour electoral coalition, due to its inherent fragility, was carefully tended by the CCF/NDP and lasted well into the 1970s, becoming the foundation of the party's long success.
