Wilbert Ross Thatcher, (May 24, 1917 – July 22, 1971) was a Canadian politician who served as the ninth premier of Saskatchewan from 1964 to 1971. Thatcher began his career as a member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in 1942, elected first to Moose Jaw City Council and then in 1945 as a Member of Parliament representing Moose Jaw. In 1959, Thatcher made the switch both to Saskatchewan provincial politics and to the provincial Liberal Party, which he led through four provincial elections, winning majority governments in 1964 and 1967. Following his defeat in the 1971 provincial election, Thatcher retired from politics and died shortly afterwards.

Early life and career

Born in Neville, Saskatchewan, Thatcher was a Moose Jaw-based businessman, who developed an interest in politics shortly after the birth of his son, Colin Thatcher. Thatcher's father had built a chain of hardware stores across the province, which Thatcher helped to manage.

Thatcher graduated from high school at age fifteen, and attended Queen's University, in Kingston, Ontario, where he earned a commerce degree at age eighteen.

In the late 1950s, Thatcher transitioned away from hardware and into farming and cattle ranching in the Moose Jaw area. He employed his son Colin as a full-time manager of his agricultural businesses, starting in 1962. In 1955, Thatcher finally left the CCF over the issue of corporate taxation. In response, Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas challenged Thatcher to a debate, which ultimately took place in the town of Mossbank and was broadcast by television and radio across the province. The debate was widely regarded as a draw. However, the Liberals were buoyed by Thatcher holding his own against Douglas, who was renowned for his oratory. The debate established Thatcher as the province's principal CCF antagonist and free enterprise standard-bearer, and gave Liberals hope that they might challenge for government against the popular CCF.

After his defeats at the federal level, Thatcher was courted by the Saskatchewan Liberal Party and became its leader in 1959, defeating three rivals—Wilf Gardiner, Frank Foley, and Alex Cameron—in a contested leadership election. Thatcher led the party into the 1960 provincial election, which was fought principally over the issue of Medicare, with the CCF planning to implement the first universal healthcare plan in Canada. The Liberals campaigned against Medicare, finding that they could not make a significant dent in the Saskatchewan CCF's large majority.

Premier of Saskatchewan (1964–71)

Ahead of the 1964 provincial election, the Liberals campaigned on growing economic development in the province; Thatcher also wooed Progressive Conservative voters and worked to limit competition between free-enterprise candidates. Thatcher's Liberals went on to win a narrow victory that ended 20 years of CCF-NDP government. The popular vote was a virtual tie between the Liberals and the CCF; however, the distribution of the Liberals' votes and a sharp decline in Social Credit support allowed the Liberals to win a six-seat majority, making Thatcher the province's sixth Liberal premier and ninth overall.

Thatcher's government sold several crown corporations and declared the province "open for business" by encouraging private investment in the potash and other industries. Thatcher was known to boast that potash would become for Saskatchewan what oil was for neighbouring Alberta. On economic issues, Thatcher's government was classically liberal, and was well to the right of the federal Liberals. Thatcher often clashed with the federal Liberal governments of Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau over agricultural policy, social welfare policies—which the federal party supported and Thatcher opposed—and constitutional reform, as well as the federal Liberals' attempts to form a federal political organization in the province separate from the provincial party. During Thatcher's tenure, veteran Saskatchewan civil servants were known to move to other provinces or to the federal civil service—which at the time was expanding the federal welfare state—and these migrants became known in government circles as the "Saskatchewan Mafia". Thatcher himself became renowned for being a "ruthless" leader that "ruled the Liberal caucus with an iron fist" and ran what came to be seen as a "one-man government".

Thatcher's Liberals were re-elected with a slightly-increased majority in a snap election called in 1967. Thatcher then surprised observers by introducing an austerity program, which cut government services, increased taxes, and introduced medicare user fees. The provincial economy, which was still heavily resource-based, experienced a downturn, and reduced government investment hurt both the potash and agriculture industries, while oil and uranium production dropped as well. For their part, the NDP campaigned on increasing public ownership of resources and state-led development. Although the Liberal vote share remained steady, they were defeated by Allan Blakeney's NDP, who were helped by an increased voter turnout and the collapse of the Progressive Conservative vote. David Steuart, Thatcher's top cabinet minister who would succeed him as Liberal leader later that year, quipped after the loss that, "If there was someone or some group that we hadn't alienated by the election of 1971, it was because we hadn't met them yet."

In the aftermath of the election, Thatcher announced to the party that he intended to resign as Liberal leader, placing a one-year limit on the search for a successor.

Death

In July 1971, only weeks after his election defeat, Thatcher died at his home in Regina, apparently as a result of complications from diabetes and a heart condition.

Colin Thatcher

In the 1975 provincial election, Colin Thatcher was elected in Thunder Creek, a new constituency that contained parts of the riding that his father had represented. Although he was first elected as a Liberal, he later crossed the floor to the Progressive Conservatives before joining government after the PCs won the 1982 provincial election. Thatcher resigned in January 1983 following a brief stint as a cabinet minister in the PC government; his ex-wife JoAnn Wilson was found murdered days later, and in 1984 Thatcher was charged with murder for her death. He was convicted of first degree murder by the jury in the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench and sentenced to life in prison for 25 years. His appeals to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada were dismissed.

Electoral history

Thatcher ranks eighth out of the fifteen Saskatchewan premiers for time in office at . He was the sixth and last Liberal premier of the province. Thatcher led the Liberal Party in four provincial elections, in 1960, 1964, 1967 and 1971; he was defeated in his first election in 1960—he was Leader of the Opposition from 1960 to 1964—but won the next two elections in 1964 and 1967 with majority governments. Following his defeat in the general election of 1971, he was succeeded as Premier by Allan Blakeney, leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP).

Provincial elections

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"

|+Electoral history of Liberal Party under Ross Thatcher

|-

! rowspan="2" style="background:#eaecf0;" | Year

! colspan="2" rowspan="2" style="background:#eaecf0;" | Party

! colspan="3" style="background:#eaecf0;" | Votes

! colspan="2" |Seats

! rowspan="2" |Position

|-

! style="background:#eaecf0;" | Total

! style="background:#eaecf0;" | %

! style="background:#eaecf0;" |

!Total

!±

|-

!1960

| rowspan="5" style="background-color:;"|

| rowspan="5" | Liberal

|221,932

|32.7%

| +21.4%

|

| +3

|

|-

!1964

|269,402

|40.4%

| +7.7%

|

| +15

|

|-

!1967

|193,871

|45.6%

| +5.2%

|

| +3

|

|-

!1971

|193,864

|42.8%

|−2.8%

|

|−20

|

|-

! colspan="10" style="background:#eaecf0;" |

|}

Constituency elections<br>

E Elected<br>

X Incumbent

{| class="wikitable"

|+ General Election, June 23, 1971: Morse

|-

!colspan="2"|Party !! Candidate !! Popular Vote!! %

|-

| E X Ross Thatcher || align=center|3,502 || align=center|55.72%

|-

| New Democratic Party || Paul Warren Beach ||align=center|2,783 || align=center|44.28%

|-

! colspan=3|Total !! 6,285 !! 100.00%

|-

| align="center" colspan=5|Source: Saskatchewan Archives — Election Results by Electoral Division — Morse

E Elected<br>

X Incumbent

{| class="wikitable"

|+ Federal Election, 1958: Assiniboia

|-

!colspan="2"|Party !! Candidate !! Popular Vote !! %

|-

| Co-operative Commonwealth Federation || E X Hazen Robert Argue ||align=center|9,104 ||align=center|42.08%

|-

| W.J. Ferguson ||align=center|6,360 ||align=center|29.39%

|-

| Ross Thatcher ||align=center|6,173 ||align=center|28.53%

|-

! colspan=3|Total !! 21,637 !! 100.00%

|-

| align="center" colspan=5|Source: Library of Parliament — Assiniboia