REGINA – A list of premiers since Saskatchewan became a province in 1905:
Thomas Walter Scott – Liberal (1905-16)
One-time owner and editor of the Moose Jaw Times and Regina Leader, the Ontario-born Scott was popular with the people of Saskatchewan. Elected as a member of the House of Commons in 1900, Scott was instrumental in securing the creation of Saskatchewan and was named its first premier. He was eventually forced to leave politics because of health concerns and battled depression in his later years.
William Melville Martin – Liberal (1916-22)
The Ontario-born Martin started out as a lawyer. He was elected to the House of Commons in 1908 as the representative from Regina and was named premier in 1916. He resigned his post six years later and became a judge in the Court of Appeal.
Charles Avery Dunning – Liberal (1922-26)
A British immigrant, Dunning got his start in Canada as a farm hand and eventually became the general manager of the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Co. Dunning served as minister of agriculture, minister of railways, minister of telephones and provincial treasurer before becoming premier. He left to pursue a career in federal politics.
James Garfield Gardiner – Liberal (1926-29, 1934-35)
A school principal and farmer, Gardiner was elected to the provincial legislature six times before leading the Liberals and becoming premier. Known more as a campaigner and organizer rather than a lawmaker, he fought hard against the Ku Klux Klan that was gaining a foothold in the province. The Liberals lost a non-confidence vote in 1929. Gardiner was re-elected four years later, but left to become federal agriculture minister under then-prime minister Mackenzie King.
James Thomas Milton Anderson – Conservative (1929-34)
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The Ontario-born teacher led Saskatchewan through some of the toughest times in the province’s history during the Great Depression. Drought plagued the region and Anderson’s government created the Saskatchewan Relief Commission to try to help those having trouble. He was forced out with the rest of the Conservatives in the 1934 election.
William John Patterson – Liberals (1935-44)
Patterson was the first premier actually born in Saskatchewan and served as both premier and lieutenant-governor. Despite leading the province through the end of the Great Depression and most of the Second World War, his government failed to leave a lasting legacy.
Thomas Clement Douglas – Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (1944-61)
The most famous of all Saskatchewan premiers, Douglas formed the first socialist government in North America. Under his leadership, the CCF was the first to bring in medicare, public automobile insurance and other social programs. He left to lead the newly formed New Democratic Party at the federal level in 1961.
Woodrow Stanley Lloyd – Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (1961-64)
A minister of education and provincial treasurer under Douglas, Lloyd was the one left to institute the health-care plan his former boss had come up with. It wasn’t easy. Doctors in the province went on a strike that lasted 23 days in 1962. Lloyd’s battered government lost to the Liberals in 1964, although he stayed on as Opposition leader for several more years.
Wilbert Ross Thatcher – Liberal (1964-71)
Perhaps Thatcher’s biggest political moment came before he was even premier. In 1957, in Mossbank, Sask., he and Douglas participated in a debate that is re-enacted to this day. Thatcher’s election as a free-enterprising advocate for fiscal responsibility ended 20 years of socialist rule, but widespread economic and social change failed to materialize. Thatcher’s son Colin went on to become a Conservative cabinet minister in the 1980s and was convicted of murdering his former wife.
Allan Emrys Blakeney – New Democratic Party (1971-82)
Blakeney was a cabinet minister in both the Douglas and Lloyd governments. He was a firm believer in publicly led economic development and created Crown corporations to manage oil and potash in the province. He stayed on as Opposition leader after being defeated in 1982 and was defeated again in the 1986 election.
Donald Grant Devine – Progressive Conservative (1982-91)
A two-term premier during the free-spending, deficit-plagued 1980s, Devine is perhaps best known for leading during the biggest political scandal in Saskatchewan history. Between 1987 and 1991, legislators and caucus workers were illegally diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars from government allowances. Fourteen members of the legislature and caucus workers were convicted. Devine was never connected to the scandal.
Roy John Romanow – New Democratic Party (1991-2001)
One of Saskatchewan’s more charismatic premiers, Romanow was a big player on the national stage where he was key in constitutional negotiations while serving as provincial justice minister in the 1980s.
With the province on the brink of bankruptcy when he took office, Romanow was responsible for the painful rebalancing of the books. He announced his retirement in 1999 after the NDP was elected to a minority government and went on to lead a national review of health care.
Lorne Albert Calvert – New Democratic Party (2001-2007)
Calvert was a United Church minister before getting into politics and brought a preacher’s cadence to the premier’s office. He shepherded the NDP back to a majority government in 2003. It was an election many expected the party to lose after more than a decade in power. A natural resource boom allowed his government to slash business taxes while freezing tuition for students and capping drug costs for seniors.
Bradley John Wall – Saskatchewan Party (2007 – )
A Saskatchewan-born politician whose background includes a stint as a ministerial assistant in Grant Devine’s government. Wall led the Saskatchewan Party, an amalgamation of former Tories and Liberals, to its first election victory in 2007. The fight over the future of the province’s potash industry in 2010 pushed the charismatic Wall and his brand of prairie diplomacy onto the national stage.
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