Ross Thatcher

Wilbert Ross Thatcher , PC (born May 24, 1917 in Neville , Saskatchewan , † July 23, 1971 in Regina ) was a Canadian politician and businessman . He was Prime Minister of Saskatchewan Province from May 2, 1964 to June 30, 1971. From 1959 until his death he was chairman of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party .

Profession and Politics

Father Wilbert Thatcher built up a chain of hardware stores in the 1920s, which also expanded during the Great Depression. His son Ross studied economics at Queen's University in Kingston and then worked in Toronto for the meat processing company Canada Packers . At the end of the 1930s, he took over his father's hardware chain. Thatcher became interested in politics and joined the socialist Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). He believed that private industry could not stimulate Saskatchewan's economy on its own. In 1942 he was elected to Moose Jaw's councilor. He successfully ran for a seat in the federal parliament in the general election in July 1945 .

Due to his origins as a medium-sized entrepreneur, Thatcher increasingly felt himself to be an outsider in the CCF and positioned himself on the right wing of the lower house fraction. Because of disputes over the question of corporate taxation , he resigned from the party in 1955 and ended the legislative period as an independent MP. In the general election in June 1957 , he ran for the Liberal Party of Canada , but was not re-elected. During the election campaign, Thatcher repeatedly criticized the CCF provincial government in Saskatchewan, describing the high number of state-owned companies as a "bleak failure". Prime Minister Tommy Douglas then asked him to give a speech duel on the radio.

As a result, Thatcher established himself as the leader of the government opponents. He was courted by the Saskatchewan Liberal Party and eventually elected chairman in 1959. The provincial election in June 1960 brought an increase in the share of the vote, but not yet an election victory. The doctors' strike of 1962 made the CCF government unpopular and the Liberals won several by-elections . In the April 1964 election, the Liberals won an absolute majority of the seats and re-elected government for the first time in 20 years.

prime minister

On May 2, 1964, Thatcher took office as Prime Minister. The government sold several state-owned companies and promoted the private sector, in particular in the mining of potash deposits . Despite its name, the Saskatchewan Liberal Party was rather conservative, which is why there were frequent clashes with the liberal federal government of Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau in the areas of agriculture, welfare and constitutional reform .

After the 1967 election victory, Thatcher's government ran an austerity program . It cut government services, increased taxes, and introduced highly controversial fees for certain medical treatments. The potash industry and agriculture fell into an economic crisis and the government became increasingly unpopular. In the June 1971 election, the Liberals lost 20 seats, a majority. On June 30, 1971, Thatcher resigned. A little over three weeks later, he died of complications from diabetes and heart problems.

His son Colin Thatcher was also a member of the provincial parliament for nine years. He was charged in 1984 with murdering his divorced wife and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

literature

• Gordon Barnhart : Saskatchewan Premiers of the Twentieth Century. Canadian Plains Research Center, Regina 2004. ISBN 0889771642 .

Web links

• Ross Thatcher ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Article by Ross Thatcher in the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
• Ross Thatcher - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)