THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

4

By JACik WILLIAMS
Editor Canadian Labour

This is the year of the home-
coming in Saskatchewan. The
provincial government has
officially dubbed it

_“Homecoming ’71.”’ and _ in-
vitations are going out from
one end of the country to the
other, and beyond, summoning
former Saskatchewans to the
celebrations. Many of those
who accept the invitations are
going to find a very different
province to that which they
left. Saskatchewan, the bir-
thplace of so much that was
progressive, has become the
bastion of reaction. The
celebrating visitors may even
find that the government which

invited them is no longer in
office.
Politically two things are

absolutely certain in
Saskatchewan — 1971 is an
election year and that election
will be fought on labour issues.
It is equally clear that what
happens in the Saskatchewan
election may affect the attitude
of a number of other provinces
that are actively considering
changes in their labour laws.
The evidence is undeniable.
Saskatchewan’s labour
legislation is the most
repressive in the country,
going beyond the much-
publicized British Columbia
mediation approach; and now
the prairie province’s premier,
Ross Thatcher, openly
proposes going :still further.

NEW LABOUR LAWS

In late November the
Saskatchewan Liberals
gathered in Regina for a
convention. They re-elected
Thatcher as their leader for his
12th term — that had been
taken for granted. But That-
cher, astute politician that he
is, used the convention: to set
the stage for the election,
which he said was getting near.
There are predictions it may
come in the Spring. In his key
address to the delegates, he
placed all the major emphasis
on his plans for new labour
laws and he used his
showmanship to entice the
delegates into a standing vote
to support the government’s

policies on labour —_ anti-
labour policies. The theme
which the master had ham-
mered home at the outset

pervaded the whole con-
vention.
At the same time he

disclosed that the legislature
will be called into session
February 4 and that one of the
major items of business will be
revisions in the labour laws. He
has made frequent reference to
suggestions of the establish-
ment of labour courts which he
implies — with a complete
disregard for the facts — would
be in line with the Swedish
practice.

STUDENT LOANS OUT

It was not only in labour
matters that the reactionary
attitude of the November
‘convention was demonstrated.
There was a resolution to end
medicare deterrent fees — the
Liberals politely call them
“utilization fees’’ for pen-
sioners and disabled people.
Thatcher personally _ in-
tervened to have the motion
watered down to provide for a
meaningless feasibility study.

' A resolution to provide free
drugs for old-age pensioners
was defeated. A proposal for
the establishment of a

~ department of consumer af-

fairs was also defeated. A plan
for extension of student loans
and bursaries for _ post-
secondary education failed to
get majority support.

Significant as all this is, it is

not something that has hap-
pened suddenly. To understand
both the importance of the
present situation and its
possible effect on the future —
and not only in Saskatchewan
— it is necessary to look at the
background.

A:spirit of co-operation has
been characteristic of
Saskatchewan from the

earliest days: the rugged
conditions that faced settlers
forced them into a close
relationship to meet their
common obstacles. By the
1920’s the wheat pools were
being formed by people who
were labelled ‘‘communists”’
and “‘socialists’’ by those of
more conservative views. The
co-operatives flourished.

But, difficult as times were
over a long period, the 1930’s
brought near-famine con-
ditions. Wheat that had sold for
$1.50 a bushel dropped to 25
cents, farmers were selling
their cattle for two cents a
pound. Roast wheat became
“Bennett Coffee,”’ in
recognition of Conservative
Prime Minister R. B. Bennett;
and cars, with the motors
removed and drawn by horses,
were ‘‘Bennett Buggies.”

It was in the aftermath of
this terrible experience that
the Co-operative Com-
monwealth Federation (CCF)
came to power. It was a
movement that had been-
conceived by a group that
included progressive-thinking
farmers, some teachers and
members of a_ then-growing
labour movement.

It was not only the farmers
who were suffering. The Great
Depression had _ spread
unemployment and despair
across the country. In Van-
couver there originated a treck
of men without jobs who, in
desperation, decided to go all
the way to Ottawa to place
their problems squarely before
those in authority. They rode
the freight trains, gathering
other supporters as they went;
and as they crossed Saskat-
chewan they paused in Regina.
Far as they were from the
nation’s capital they had
clearly made an impression on
Parliament Hill, and from
Ottawa to Regina went word
that the trek was to be stopped.
Special Royal Canadian
Mounted Police were hurried
‘to Saskatchewan and given a
crash course in riot control. A
riot, which history clearly
records as police-instigated,
broke out in the Regina market
square. In retrospect it was a
completely inexcuseable oc-
currence. Now, a quarter of a
century later, it still reflects
the tensions of the times.

It was against this
background that the first CCF

government was elected in
1944. Politics in Saskatchewan
were rough. Some years
earlier the Klu Klux Klan had
found a better reception there
than in any other province. At
the first session of the new CCF
government things in the
legislative chamber
sometimes became so hectic
that the speaker, Tom John-
ston, periodically left the chair
resulting in a suspension of
proceedings until the members
cooled off. .

But gradually things settled
down, and from that govern-
ment came legislation which
laid the base for a major part

of Canada's social ad-
vancement. Those years stand
in strange
direction in which the present
government has been
travelling and is still more
directly headed. Shortly @”er
being elected to power the CCF
was working on a precedent-
setting plan to meet people's
hospital bills, a program that
culminated in the medicare
legislation of 1962. This was the
government that adopted the
first human rights legislation
on the continent and that
pioneered paid vacations and
various other forms of labour
legislation.

WAS CCF SUPPORTER

The CCF held power from
1944 to 1964 when it was
dislodged by the Liberals
under the leadership of Ross
Thatcher, the present premier.
He had an_interesting
backgrqund which goes a

considerable way toward
explaining his present
behaviour. Born in Saskat-

chewan he graduated from
Queen’s University with a
Bachelor of Commerce degree
at the age of 17 and five years
later was an alderman in
Moose Jaw where he launched
his business career as a hard-
ware merchant. He was then a
strong CCF supporter. His
hardware interests expanded
to a chain of profitable stores
and he became, increasingly,
the voice of business interests.
His relations with those who
believed in the principles of the
CCF rapidly deteriorated and
finally, in 1956, he and the
party separated.

Thatcher was then a
member of the House of
Commons, having been first
elected in 1945. For a time he
sat as an independent; and,
according to C. H. Higgin-
bottom, author of a book on the
CCF in Saskatchewan, he
‘‘shopped- around” before
eventually joining the Liberal
party. Twice he failed in an
effort to gain election to the
House of Commons as a
Liberal candidate. His views
were embarassing to many in
the Liberal party. He was
openly opposed to universal old
age pensions and family
allowances and favoured the
sale to private interests of such
public enterprises as Air
Canada and the Polymer
Corporation. In 1959 he was
elected leader of the Liberal
party in Saskatchewan and the
next year won a seat in the
provincial legislature.

LED PARTY TO VICTORY

Then, in 1964, he led the
provincial party to victory in a
campaign in which he pledged
making Saskatchewan the
‘leading private enterprise
province.”’ The word “‘private’”’
may be significant; it was not
‘free enterprise.’’ Unions
which have tried to exercise
the freedom of enterprise on
behalf of their members have
felt the full weight of
legislative power descend on
them.

The nub of differences
between the Thatcher

government and organized.

labour in Saskatchewan has
been a piece of legislation
known as ‘Bill 2 — “tan Act
Respecting the Continuation of
Services Essential to the
Public.’ This was adopted by
the Saskatchewan Legislature
in 1966, and its significance in
the light of developments in
various parts of Canada today
is difficult to exaggerate.

contrast to the |