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Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan
Active Provincial Party
Founded	1912
Leader	Richard Swenson (Interim)
President	Lori Isinger
Headquarters	#134, 2002 Quebec Avenue, Saskatoon, S7K 1W4
Political ideology	Conservatism
International alignment
Colours	Blue
Website	[1]

The Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan is a right-of-centre political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Prior to 1942, it was known as the Conservative Party of Saskatchewan. Members are commonly known as Tories.

It nominated candidates for the first time in the 1912 election, seven years after the province of Saskatchewan was formed. The party emerged from the Provincial Rights Party after the retirement of that party's leader, Frederick W. A. G. Haultain.

The Conservative Party's best performance in the first half of the twentieth century was in 1929 election, when it won 36% of the popular vote and 24 out of 63 seats. Despite having fewer seats than the Liberals, the Conservatives were able to form a coalition government with Progressive Party and independents. Conservative leader James T.M. Anderson became Premier.

The Tories were suspected of being in league with the Ku Klux Klan, which was a strong force in the province at the time, and railed against Catholics and French-Canadians. The Anderson government introduced amendments to the Schools Act banning French as a language of instruction, as well as the display of religious symbols in Catholic schools.

The "Co-operative government", as it was called, was defeated in the 1934 election, and the Conservative Party lost all of its seats in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. This loss can be attributed to several factors:

• the controversy over the government's School Act;
• the government's inability to deal with the Great Depression dust bowl which wiped out the province's agrarian economy; and
• the unpopularity of the federal Conservative government of R.B. Bennett.

With the rise of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, politics in the province became polarized between the Liberals and the CCF. The CCF became the "New Democratic Party" in 1961. The Conservatives were frozen out of the provincial legislature for decades.

No Conservative was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) until thirty years later when the party won a single seat in 1964 election. It lost that foothold three years later in the 1967 election.

The Tories returned to the legislature in the 1975 election. The Progressive Conservatives won 7 seats to the Liberals' 15 and the NDP's 39.

In the 1978 election, the Liberals were wiped out, and the Tories became the Official Opposition with 17 seats to the governing NDP's 44.

In 1982 election, the Progressive Conservatives under Grant Devine formed a majority government for the first time. They were re-elected in 1986 election, but defeated in the 1991 election, due to large budgetary deficits, an unpopular imposition of harmonized sales taxes, and a scheme entitled "Fair Share Saskatchewan" to decentralize civil service functions from Regina.

In the years following their defeat, 14 Conservative members of the legislature, one NDP member of the legislature, and two caucus workers were convicted of fraud and breach of trust for illegally diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars from government allowances in a phoney expense-claim scam. During inquiry into the scandal, many innocent party members were placed under heavy scrutiny. Jack Wolfe committed suicide when faced with the agony of possibly being scrutinized for wrongdoing himself, or having the testify against his former colleagues. The party was destroyed by this scandal, winning only five seats in the 1995 election, behind both the NDP and the Liberals.

Although most former members and supporters joined the Saskatchewan Party in 1997, the Tories are believed to retain a substantial amount of money, which the party would forfeit to the provincial government if it ever became de-registered. Because the party needed to run at least 10 candidates in each general election to keep its registration, a hand-picked group keep the party technically alive and have run paper candidates in each of the last two provincial elections to ensure that the party remains registered.

In the September 16, 1999 election, the party nominated 14 candidates, who collected 1,609 votes, 0.4% of the provincial total. In the November 5, 2003 provincial election, the party nominated 11 candidates, who received a total of 665 votes, which was 0.16% of the provincial total.

In June 2005, the party announced that it is now taking applications for new members, and that it would hold a meeting of members to decide the future of the party.[2] Should the party remain dormant, changes to provincial electoral laws have been proposed in the Legislature that would decrease the number of candidates the party needs to run in general elections from ten to two.

On May 27 2006, the party held a weekend convention. In total, 42 delegates attended the convention in Saskatoon and voted to resurrect the Progressive Conservative Party. Delegates elected Lori Isinger as Party President, and picked Rick Swenson to serve as interim Leader. The next order of business would have been to use the money that was put into a trust before their 2 election hiatus. The party has had trouble with that, and has accused the trustees of conspiring with the Saskatchewan Party so the PC party won't be able to run candidates, and thus not compete with the Saskatchewan party for votes in the next election. The party is suing the trustees and the Saskatchewan Party to get at their funds. ^[1]

Contents 1 Party leaders 2 Notes 3 See also 4 External links

• Wellington Bartley Willoughby (1912-1917)
• Donald McLean (1917-1921)
• James T. M. Anderson (1924-October 28, 1936)
• John Diefenbaker (October 28, 1936-1940)
• H. E. Keown (1940-1944)
• Rupert Ramsay (1944-October 12, 1949)
• Alvin Hamilton (October 12, 1949-1957)
• Martin Pederson (October 28, 1958-1968)
• Ed Nasserden (February 28, 1970-March 18, 1973)
• Dick Collver (March 18, 1973-November 9, 1979)
• Grant Devine (November 9, 1979-October 8, 1992)
• Rick Swenson (October 8, 1992-November 21, 1994) (interim)
• Bill Boyd (November 21, 1994-August 8, 1997)
• Iris Dennis (interim)
• Rick Swenson (May 31, 2006 - Present)

• Politics of Saskatchewan
• Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan leadership conventions.

• Party Website

v • d • e Provincial political parties in Saskatchewan
Represented in the Legislative Assembly:	Saskatchewan Party - New Democratic
Other parties recognized by Elections Saskatchewan	Green - Progressive Conservative - Liberal - Marijuana - Western Independence
Portal:Politics - List of political parties - Politics of Canada

v • d • e Conservative parties in Canada
Forming the government	Canada - Alberta - Newfoundland and Labrador - Nova Scotia - Saskatchewan (SaskParty)
Forming the official opposition	Manitoba - Prince Edward Island - New Brunswick - Ontario - Québec (ADQ)
Third Parties with representation	Alberta (Alliance)
No representation in the Commons	Christian Heritage - Progressive Canadian - Western Block - Libertarian
No representation in legislature	Alberta (Social Credit) - British Columbia - Family Coalition Party (Ontario) - Saskatchewan (PC Party)
Historical national parties	Canadian Alliance - Conservative - Progressive Conservative - Reform - Social Credit
Historical provincial and territorial parties	Conservative (Quebec) - Northwest Territories (Liberal-Conservative) - Union Nationale (Quebec)

v • d • e Politics of Saskatchewan
Lieutenant-Governor (List)	Gordon L. Barnhart
Premier (List)	Brad Wall
Opposition Leader (List)	Lorne Calvert
Speaker of the Assembly	Don Toth
Legislature	Current assembly • Former legislatures • Cabinet • electoral districts
Political parties	Greens • Progressive Conservatives • Liberals • New Democrats • Saskatchewan Party • Social Credit •
Elections	2007 general election • Past elections • Electoral districts
Other Canadian politics	Federal • BC • AB • SK • MB • ON • QC • NB • NS • PEI • NL • YU • NT • NU