April 22, 1964 (1964-04-22) 1967 → 37 0 26 1 Start date April 22, 1964 | 17 37 32 26 15 11 | |
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Winner W Ross Thatcher | ||
The Saskatchewan general election of 1964 was the fifteenth provincial election held in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It was held on April 22, 1964, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.
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The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) government of Premier Woodrow Lloyd was defeated by the Liberal Party, led by Ross Thatcher. The CCF had governed Saskatchewan since the 1944 election under the leadership (until December 1961) of Tommy Douglas.
By 1964 the provincial Social Credit Party had collapsed, nominating only two candidates. In another morale hit, the federal Social Credit Party endorsed the Liberals during the election. While the CCF held on to nearly all of their vote from the previous election and only trailed the Liberals by 0.1%, most of the shift in Social Credit support went to the Liberals and proved decisive in helping to push Thatcher to a majority government.
The Progressive Conservative Party also picked up some support at the expense of Social Credit but won only one seat in the legislature, that of leader Martin Pederson.
Election campaign
Douglas's government was the first social democratic government in North America, and had introduced the medicare system in Canada. This led to a 23-day strike by the province's physicians. Universal public health care, however, was not an issue in the campaign. In fact, following its successful introduction, the opposition Liberals were for expanding Medicare even more. The only provincial party to advocate eliminating Medicare was the small Social Credit Party.
The Social Credit party nominated only two candidates in the election, and they were hurt by statements by the federal Social Credit party leader, Robert N. Thompson, supporting the Saskatchewan Liberals. The Socreds' leader, Martin Kelln, chose not to spend much time on the campaign, in part because of the recent death of his mother.
The Progressive Conservatives returned to the Legislative Assembly for the first time since 1934. They won only one seat despite winning almost 19% of the popular vote. The Tories promised to keep Medicare in place, but opposed the Liberals' plans to expand it. They argued that the Liberals were too radical, and that the CCF government was not doing enough to develop the province's natural resources.
The Liberals were able to capitalize on the collapse of Social Credit and were more effective than the Tories in drawing the "anti-socialist" (anti-CCF) vote. The campaign, however, was not marked by any major issues.
There was, however, considerable animosity between the Liberals and the CCF. The Liberals employed what were called "Madison Avenue campaign tactics" and spent a lot of money on campaign advertising, especially television advertising. They tried to characterize the election as being a choice between socialism and private enterprise-oriented reform. The Saskatchewan Liberals positioned themselves as more right-wing than the federal Liberal Party of Canada and claimed that the CCF government was stagnating.
The CCF, led by former teacher Woodrow Lloyd, campaigned on the CCF record. Lloyd attacked the Liberal campaign, stating that they had resorted to "hucksterism, the kind of sales attempts that one usually associates with useless pills, second hand cars and body deodorants."
Lloyd faced several challenges: taxes in Saskatchewan were among the highest in Canada; spending on health care, welfare and education were high; and he lacked the popular support that previous CCF leader and premier Tommy Douglas had enjoyed. However, Saskatchewan had the second highest per capita income in Canada and the lowest unemployment rate in Canada.
Results
Note: 1 One seat declared void.
Riding results
Names in bold represent cabinet ministers and the Speaker. Party leaders are italicized. The symbol " ** " indicates MLAs who are not running again.