Parties & Leaders

Lorne Calvert

Saskatoon Riversdale [ New Democratic Party ]

Premier Lorne Albert Calvert has confounded expectations and engineered a few comebacks over his political career, and may yet do that again in the days ahead.

But on the face of things, it likely won't be easy for the Calvert New Democrats to win another mandate.

It's been 16 years since the NDP won in a landslide against Grant Devine's Progressive Conservatives, historically a long stretch for any party in Canada to hold power.

A spring public opinion poll of voting intentions by the CanWest newspaper chain indicated the New Democrats were more than 20 percentage points behind the Saskatchewan Party.

Under attack by Opposition

The Saskatchewan Party, meanwhile has blasted the NDP over money-losing government investments, health-care waiting lists, a police investigation into a 15-year-old loss of money from the NDP caucus, and the case of Murdoch Carriere, the fired government manager who sued and received a $275,000 settlement after being convicted of assaulting two of his own employees.

A number of well-known NDP MLAs in key ridings are not running again, including former finance minister Andrew Thomson, who left politics to look for work in the private sector and deputy premier Clay Serby, who is undergoing cancer treatment.

On the plus side, there has been a surge of job growth in the past few years. The provincial coffers are taking in record resource revenues. Statistics Canada recently reported that after years of people leaving Saskatchewan for Alberta, they're starting to come back. Wheat prices are higher than they have been in years. Even the Roughriders are doing well. So no one is declaring the election over yet.

Calvert has demonstrated a knack for surprising those who might underestimate him, whether it's winning the party leadership in 2001 or winning another mandate for the NDP in 2003.

Before he was premier

Born in Moose Jaw in 1952, Calvert went to university, trained to be a United Church minister and raised two children with his wife Betty. He was first elected to the Moose Jaw South constituency in 1986.

In the early years of the NDP Roy Romanow government, he did not have the high profile of such cabinet ministers as Dwain Lingenfelter and Janice MacKinnon, both of whom were often cited in the media as possible successors.

Calvert handled a number of portfolios, including the health and social services ministries, without any scandals.

Calvert quit as an MLA in 1998 to spend more time with his family. He continued to work as Romanow's policy adviser.

When Romanow announced he was stepping down a few years later, Calvert entered the leadership race, and in early 2001 he defeated rivals Nettie Wiebe, Chris Axworthy, Maynard Sonntag, Buckley Belanger and Scott Banda to become Saskatchewan's new premier. Two months later, Calvert won a byelection in Romanow's old seat, Saskatoon Riversdale.

Taking over from Romanow

From Romanow, Calvert also inherited a coalition that included two Liberals in his cabinet. From the beginning, it was expected that Premier Calvert, perceived as being ideologically further to the left than Romanow, would take the NDP in a different direction.

He campaigned in 2003 on a promise to make Saskatchewan the best place in Canada to work, go to school and raise a family with the lowest-priced bundle of utility costs in the country.

Polls at the time suggested the Saskatchewan Party was in a position to defeat the NDP, but that didn't happen. The NDP capitalized on public concerns the Saskatchewan Party might sell off Crown corporations if elected. Calvert's folksy charm was put on display, and the NDP won, 30 seats to 28.

A change in provincial fortunes

Following the 2003 election, some austerity measures were introduced by the government. The NDP raised the provincial sales tax to seven per cent from six and announced layoffs in the civil service.

However, over the next three years there was a major turnaround in the province's finances, thanks in large part to burgeoning oil and gas revenues.

Then came huge tax cuts. The PST was cut to five per cent from seven and business and corporate taxes were slashed.

There were increases to social spending, a tuition freeze and more money for highways and cities. There was also a greater NDP emphasis on job growth that took Calvert and Industry Minister Eric Cline to Asia to tout Saskatchewan's uranium industry.

Calvert was front and centre last month when the government and Domtar rolled out a plan to reopen the Prince Albert pulp mill, one that would involve another $100 million in taxpayers' money.
The Opposition called the plan unrealistic and a cruel trick on laid-off millworkers.

Veteran MLAs stepping down

Calvert has never faced a serious challenge to his leadership, though there was speculation about discontent in his caucus last year when Regina MLA Kevin Yates was dropped from cabinet.
Following departures and announced departures of a number of NDP MLAs, including Serby, Thomson, Eric Cline, Joanne Crofford, Myron Kowalsky, Eldon Laudermilch and Peter Prebble, Calvert welcomed Yates back into cabinet earlier this year.

Because the NDP's victory in the last election was razor thin, there was always the possibility the numbers would change in the Saskatchewan Party's favour and the government would fall at some point. However, that never happened, and four years later, the balance of power in the Saskatchewan legislature remains exactly the same.

Once again, Calvert is going into a campaign as the standard bearer of a party that been in power since 1991, charged with convincing the electorate it still has fresh ideas and can guide Saskatchewan into prosperous times.

Will Calvert and NDP be able to confound the conventional wisdom one more time? The public will find out in the weeks ahead.

The CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites. External links will open in a new window.