Saskatchewan has not always been a conservative stronghold

Saskatchewan has been solidly conservative for decades, at least at the federal level, but historian Bill Waiser says the province wasn't always Tory blue.

The Liberals held sway from the inception of Saskatchewan in 1905 right up until 1949, Waiser said.

"Our first two premiers, Walter Scott and William Martin, they were actually Liberal backbenchers in Ottawa and they became premiers of Saskatchewan," Waiser said

"And then in 1926, we had [Liberal William Lyon] Mackenzie King, our longest-serving prime minister — he won a seat in Prince Albert, and so you have a prime minister representing the province until 1945."

In fact there was only one conservative premier (James Anderson from 1929-34) until Grant Devine came to power in 1982. Devine was sandwiched between years of provincial rule by the NDP.

But since 2007, the conservative Saskatchewan Party has run the province. 

Conservative roots

Federally, Waiser said conservative fortunes changed when John Diefenbaker became leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and Canada's prime minister in 1957.

Diefenbaker was the member of Parliament for Prince Albert from 1953-79.

Waiser said Diefenbaker's populist message resonated with Saskatchewan voters.

"He's got a program focused on rural Canada," Waiser said.

"One of his favourite lines was, 'Everybody's against me except for the people.'"

Western alienation

When Pierre Trudeau became prime minister, federal Liberal support in the west collapsed.

Waiser said the complaint was that Trudeau was too focused on Quebec and the Constitution.

"You've got rail line abandonment under Trudeau, and then in … Chretien in 1995, you've got the killing of the Crow rate. So there were a number of things that the Liberals did that alienated Western Canada."

The Crow rate was a rail transportation subsidy for Prairie farmers. When the Liberals won the 1993 election, prime minister Jean Chretien's government eliminated the subsidies.

So while there has been plenty of animosity toward the Liberals coming from Saskatchewan, it's not really a new phenomenon.

But Daniel Westlake, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Saskatchewan, said even if the Liberals were to win the April 28 federal election, he doubts it would fuel the idea of western separatism.

"Part of this is because the animosity toward the Liberals is not new, and in the past, it has never led to a serious threat of separatism," Westlake said.

"I just don't think there is the sense of distinct identity as divorced from Canada that is necessary to fuel a serious separatist movement," he said, noting that even rural western Canadians express themselves in protest by using the Canadian flag.

Waiser said the Reform Party, which came to the forefront in the 1990s, championed western Canadian issues like resource development and resource taxation.

"They're not separatists like the people in the 1980s who were upset with the balance of power in this country. [Reform leader] Preston Manning's motto was, 'the West wants in,'" Waiser said.

"And he used that message to become a force in western Canadian politics and say that western … Canadians want to be at the table, we want to be part of this great nation, but they're ignoring our interests."

And Waiser says for now, conservatives remain entrenched in this province.