| Election Name: | 1964 Saskatchewan general election |
| Country: | Saskatchewan |
| Flag Year: | 1957 |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Party Colour: | no |
| Party Name: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1960 Saskatchewan general election |
| Previous Year: | 1960 |
| Previous Mps: | 14th Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan |
| Elected Mps: | members |
| Next Election: | 1967 Saskatchewan general election |
| Next Year: | 1967 |
| Next Mps: | 16th Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan |
| Seats For Election: | 59 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan |
| Majority Seats: | 30 |
| Image1: | LIB |
| Leader1: | Ross Thatcher |
| Leader Since1: | September 24, 1959 |
| Leaders Seat1: | Morse |
| Last Election1: | 17 |
| Seats1: | 32 |
| Seat Change1: | 15 |
| Popular Vote1: | 269,402 |
| Percentage1: | 40.40% |
| Swing1: | 7.3pp |
| Leader2: | Woodrow Lloyd |
| Leader Since2: | November 3, 1961 |
| Leaders Seat2: | Biggar |
| Last Election2: | 37 |
| Seats2: | 26 |
| Seat Change2: | 11 |
| Popular Vote2: | 268,742 |
| Percentage2: | 40.30% |
| Swing2: | 0.46pp |
| Image3: | PC |
| Leader3: | Martin Pederson |
| Leader Since3: | October 28, 1958 |
| Leaders Seat3: | Arm River |
| Last Election3: | 0 |
| Seats3: | 1 |
| Seat Change3: | 1 |
| Popular Vote3: | 126,028 |
| Percentage3: | 18.90% |
| Swing3: | 4.95pp |
| Premier | |
| Before Election: | Woodrow Lloyd |
| Posttitle: | Premier after election |
| After Election: | Ross Thatcher |
The 1964 Saskatchewan general election was held on April 22, 1964, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) government of Premier Woodrow Lloyd was defeated by the Liberal Party, led by Ross Thatcher. The CCF had governed Saskatchewan since the 1944 election under the leadership (until December 1961) of Tommy Douglas.
By 1964 the provincial Social Credit Party had collapsed, nominating only two candidates. In another morale hit, the federal Social Credit Party endorsed the Liberals during the election. While the CCF held on to nearly all of their vote from the previous election and only trailed the Liberals by 0.1%, most of the shift in Social Credit support went to the Liberals and proved decisive in helping to push Thatcher to a majority government.
The Progressive Conservative Party also picked up some support at the expense of Social Credit but won only one seat in the legislature, that of leader Martin Pederson.
Douglas' government was the first social democratic government in North America, and had introduced the medicare system in Canada. This led to a 23-day strike by the province's physicians. Universal public health care, however, was not an issue in the campaign. In fact, following its successful introduction, the opposition Liberals were for expanding Medicare even more. The only provincial party to advocate eliminating Medicare was the small Social Credit Party.
The Social Credit party nominated only two candidates in the election, and they were hurt by statements by the federal Social Credit party leader, Robert N. Thompson, supporting the Saskatchewan Liberals. The Socreds' leader, Martin Kelln, chose not to spend much time on the campaign, in part because of the recent death of his mother.
The Progressive Conservatives returned to the Legislative Assembly for the first time since 1934. They won only one seat despite winning almost 19% of the popular vote. The Tories promised to keep Medicare in place, but opposed the Liberals' plans to expand it. They argued that the Liberals were too radical, and that the CCF government was not doing enough to develop the province's natural resources.
The Liberals were able to capitalize on the collapse of Social Credit and were more effective than the Tories in drawing the "anti-socialist" (anti-CCF) vote. Yet the campaign was not marked by any major issues.
There was, however, considerable animosity between the Liberals and the CCF. The Liberals employed what were called "Madison Avenue campaign tactics" and spent a lot of money on campaign advertising, especially television advertising. They tried to characterize the election as being a choice between socialism and private enterprise-oriented reform. The Saskatchewan Liberals ran well to the right of the federal Liberals and claimed that the CCF government was stagnating.
A warning sign came in the 1962 federal election. The federal CCF had merged with the Canadian Labour Congress to form the New Democratic Party, though the Saskatchewan branch kept the CCF name. Douglas resigned as premier and party leader to become the NDP's first leader, and was succeeded by then-Treasurer Woodrow Lloyd, a former teacher. However, the NDP was completely shut out in Saskatchewan, and Douglas lost by almost 10,000 votes in his bid for a Regina-area riding.
The CCF campaigned heavily on its 17-year record in government. Lloyd attacked the Liberal campaign, stating that they had resorted to "hucksterism, the kind of sales attempts that one usually associates with useless pills, second hand cars and body deodorants."[1]
Lloyd faced several challenges: taxes in Saskatchewan were among the highest in Canada; spending on health care, welfare and education were high; and he lacked the popular support Douglas had enjoyed. However, Saskatchewan had the second highest per capita income in Canada and the lowest unemployment rate in Canada.
In this election, Saskatchewan used a mixture of single-member districts, electing through First past the post, and multiple-member districts, electing through Plurality block voting.
Before the next election, Saskatchewan switched to consistent single-member districts.[2]
| Party | Party leader |
| Seats | Popular vote | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Dissol. | Elected | % Change | % | % Change | Ross Thatcher | 59 | 17 | 19 | 32 | +68.4% | 269,402 | 40.40% | +7.73% | Woodrow Lloyd | 59 | 37 | 35 | 25/261 | align="right" | -25.7% | 268,742 | 40.30% | align="right" | -0.46% | Martin Pederson | 42 | – | – | 1 | +1000% | 126,028 | 18.90% | +4.95% | Martin Kelln | 2 | – | – | – | – | 2,621 | 0.39% | align="right" | -11.96% | 1 | – | – | – | – | 68 | 0.01% | align="right" | -0.05% | ||
| Total | 163 | 54 | 54 | 591 | +9.3% | 666,861 | 100% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Source: Elections Saskatchewan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Seats | Second | Third | 32 | 26 | 1 | 26 | 31 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 39 | Other parties | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Names in bold represent cabinet ministers and the Speaker. Party leaders are italicized. The symbol " ** " indicates MLAs who are not running again.
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Athabasca|| |Allan Ray Guy
1,076||John M. Stonehocker
684||Harry J. Houghton
909|||| |Allan Ray Guy|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cut Knife-Lloydminster||Raymond H. Rooney
1,821|| |Isidore Charles Nollet
2,927||Gordon Goodfellow
1,617|||| |Isidore Charles Nollet|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Meadow Lake|| |Henry Coupland
3,149||Martin Semchuk
2,113||Frederick L. Dunbar
1,014|||| |Martin Semchuk|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Redberry||Bernard L. Korchinski
1,993|| |Dick Michayluk
2,200||Walter John Dolynny
1,238|||| |Demitro Wasyl Michayluk|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Rosthern|| |David Boldt
2,873||George Guenther
1,949||||Isaak Elias (Social Credit) 1,239|| |David Boldt|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Shellbrook|| |John Cuelenaere
2,427||John Thiessen
2,259||Norval Horner
1,701|||| |John Thiessen|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|The Battlefords||Herbert O.M. Sparrow
4,242|| |Eiling Kramer
4,645|||||| |Eiling Kramer|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Turtleford||Frank Foley
2,123|| |Bob Wooff
2,221||William Elmer Armstrong
1,502|||| |Franklin Edward Foley
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cumberland||Eldon McLachlan
1,630|| |Bill Berezowsky
2,135||Emanuel Sonnenschein
963|||| |Bill Berezowsky|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Humboldt|| |Mathieu Breker
4,226||Sylvester E. Wiegers
3,030||Frank J. Martin
1,244|||| |Mary Batten**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Kelsey||William John McHugh
2269|| |John Hewgill Brockelbank
5283||Carsten Johnson
703|||| |John Hewgill Brockelbank|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Kelvington|| |Bryan Bjarnason
2,888||Neil Byers
2,398||Joseph M. Ratch
1,341|||| |Clifford Benjamin Peterson**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Kinistino||Michael A. Hnidy
3,125|| |Arthur Thibault
3,334|||||| |Arthur Thibault|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Melfort-Tisdale||William Ernest Hurd
3,056|| |Clarence George Willis
3,471||Kenneth Aseltine
2,094|||| |Clarence George Willis|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Nipawin|| |Frank Radloff
2,652||Bob Perkins
2,440||John A. Whittome
1,942|||| |Robert Irvin Perkins|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Prince Albert|| |Davey Steuart
5,024||Joseph E. Leon Lamontagne
4,946||Richard E. Spencer
3,828|||| |David Gordon Steuart
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Arm River||Gustaf Herman Danielson
2,020||Emanuel Lang
1,550|| |Martin Pederson
2,326|||| |Gustaf Herman Danielson|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Biggar||Benson McLeod Blacklock
1,992|| |Woodrow S. Lloyd
2,875||George Loucks
1,120|||| |Woodrow Lloyd|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Hanley||Herbert C. "Charlie" Pinder||
3,938Robert Alexander Walker||
3,940Hans Taal|||| |Robert Alexander Walker|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Kerrobert-Kindersley|| |William S. Howes
2,602
3,799||Eldon Johnson
2,937|||||| |Eldon Arthur Johnson|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Rosetown|| |George Loken
2,573||Allan Stevens
2,367||Les P. Hickson
1,396|||| |Allan Leonard Frederick Stevens|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Watrous||Neil McArthur
2,602|| |Hans Broten
2,725|||||| |Hans Broten|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Wilkie|| |Joseph "Cliff" McIsaac
3,593||W. Ray Grant
2,162||Donald Wallace
1,649|||| |John Whitmore Horsman**
|-|style="width: 130px"|CCF|Robert Walker|align="right"|4,608|align="right"|45.14%|align="right"|+7.55|Liberal|Herb Pinder|align="right"|3,864|align="right"|37.86%|align="right"|+0.28|Prog. Conservative|W. Hugh Arscott|align="right"|1,735|align="right"|17.00%|align="right"|-7.83|- bgcolor="white"!align="left" colspan=3|Total!align="right"|10,207!align="right"|100.00%!align="right"|
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Canora|| |Ken Romuld
3,391||Alex Kuziak
3,348|||||| |Alex Gordon Kuziak|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Last Mountain|| |Donald MacLennan
2,857||Russell Brown
2,799||||Martin Kelln (Social Credit) 1,382|| |Russell Brown|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Melville|| |James W. Gardiner
3,485||William Wiwchar
3,229||Douglas A. Ellis
1,627|||| |James Wilfrid Gardiner|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Pelly||Jim Barrie
2,669|| |Leo Larson
2,705||Bohdan E. Lozinsky
1,212|||| |Jim Barrie|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Saltcoats|| |James Snedker
3,260||Baldur M. Olson
2,275||David Arthur Keyes
1,537|||| |James Snedker|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Touchwood|| |George Trapp
2,692||Frank Meakes
2,566||Alice M.L. Turner
1,320|||| |Frank Meakes|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Wadena||Elizabeth Mary Paulson
2,580|| |Fred Dewhurst
3,295||H.D. McPhail
1,405|||| |Frederick Arthur Dewhurst|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Yorkton|| |Barry Gallagher
4,337||Karl Rokeby Bartelt
3,494||Lawrence L. Ball
1,841|||| |Bernard David Gallagher
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Elrose|| |George Leith
3,317||Alex Turnbull
3,263|||||| |Olaf Alexander Turnbull|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Gravelbourg|| |Leo Coderre
2,999||Roland Leblanc
2,448|||||| |Lionel Philas Coderre|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Maple Creek|| |Alexander Cameron
2,977||William Percy Rolick
2,424||Marlyn K. Clary
1,389|||| |Alexander C. Cameron|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Morse|| |Ross Thatcher
3,188||Paul W. Beach
2,952|||||| |Ross Thatcher|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Notukeu-Willow Bunch|| |Jim Hooker
2,660||Hasket Merle Sproule
2,193||Boyd M. Anderson
946|||| |Karl Frank Klein**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Shaunavon|| |Fernand Larochelle
2,955||Art Kluzak
2,545||Clifford Boyd Clark
1,225|||| |Arthur Kluzak|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Swift Current||T. Lawrence Salloum
4,647|| |Everett Irvine Wood
5,238|||||| |Everett Irvine Wood
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Bengough|| |Sam Asbell
2,613||Hjalmar Dahlman
2,311||Roy Bailey
1,192|||| |Hjalmar Reinhold Dahlman|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Cannington|| |Tom Weatherald
3,852||Henry George Doty
2,489||Glenn Brimner
1,917|||| |Rosscoe Arnold McCarthy**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Lumsden|| |Darrel Heald
2,469||Cliff Thurston
2,068||William Clyde Tufts
1,614|||| |Clifford Honey Thurston|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Milestone|| |Cyril MacDonald
2,568||James M. Hubbs
1,972||Leonard Frederick Westrum
1,023|||| |Jacob Walter Erb**|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Moosomin|| |Alexander Hamilton McDonald
4,523||William Francis Goodwin
3,102|||||| |Alex "Hammy" McDonald|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Qu'Appelle-Wolseley|| |Doug McFarlane
3,525||John Stephen Leier
2,188||Victor Edward Horsman
2,164|||| |Douglas Thomas McFarlane|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Souris-Estevan|| |Ian MacDougall
6,220||Ivar Johann Kristianson
4,040|||||| |Ian Hugh MacDougall|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Weyburn||Junior Staveley
4,347|| |Jim Pepper
4,453||Jean Benson
1,234|||| |Junior Herbert Staveley
|style="width: 130px"|Liberal|Frank Gardner|align="right"|3,033|align="right"|36.72%|align="right"|-22.60|CCF|William Francis Goodwin|align="right"|2,821|align="right"|34.14%|align="right"|-6.54|Prog. Conservative|Andrew Emerson Bruce|align="right"|2,407|align="right"|29.14%|align="right"|-|- bgcolor="white"!align="left" colspan=3|Total!align="right"|8,261!align="right"|100.00%!align="right"|
|style="width: 130px"|Liberal|Alex Mitchell|align="right"|2,423|align="right"|42.74%|align="right"|+0.02|CCF|Hjalmar Dahlman|align="right"|2,285|align="right"|40.31%|align="right"|+2.52|Prog. Conservative|George W. Spicer|align="right"|961|align="right"|16.95%|align="right"|-2.54|- bgcolor="white"!align="left" colspan=3|Total!align="right"|5,669!align="right"|100.00%!align="right"|
|-| style="width: 130px"|CCF|William Davies (incumbent)|align="right"|7,749|align="right"|24.55%|align="right"|-| style="width: 130px"|CCF|Gordon Snyder (incumbent)|align="right"|7,550|align="right"|23.92%|align="right"|-|Prog. Conservative|Daniel J. Patterson|align="right"|7,115|align="right"|22.54%|align="right"|-|Liberal|E. A. Astell|align="right"|5,455|align="right"|17.28%|align="right"|-|Prog. Conservative|Gordon A. Hume|align="right"|3,697|align="right"|11.71%|align="right"|-|- bgcolor="white"!align="left" colspan=3|Total!align="right"|31,566!align="right"|100.00%!align="right"|
|-| style="width: 130px"|CCF|Alex M. Nicholson (incumbent)|align="right"|16,701|align="right"|7.83%|align="right"|-| style="width: 130px"|CCF|Edward Brockelbank (elected)|align="right"|16,559|align="right"|7.76%|align="right"|-| style="width: 130px"|CCF|Wes Robbins (elected)|align="right"|16,126|align="right"|7.56%|align="right"|-|Liberal|Sally Merchant (elected)|align="right"|16,068|align="right"|7.53%|align="right"|-| style="width: 130px"|CCF|Harry D. Link (elected)|align="right"|16,041|align="right"|7.52%|align="right"|-|Liberal|Clarence Estey|align="right"|15,761|align="right"|7.39%|align="right"|-| style="width: 130px"|CCF|Gladys Strum (incumbent)|align="right"|15,741|align="right"|7.38%|align="right"|-|Liberal|Keith McLean Crocker|align="right"|15,661|align="right"|7.34%|align="right"|-|Liberal|Joseph J. Charlebois|align="right"|15,542|align="right"|7.28%|align="right"|-|Liberal|Victor C. Hession|align="right"|14,770|align="right"|6.92%|align="right"|-|Prog. Conservative|Lewis Brand|align="right"|11,401|align="right"|5.34%|align="right"|-|Prog. Conservative|W. Hugh Arscott|align="right"|11,344|align="right"|5.32%|align="right"|-|Prog. Conservative|Ray Hnatyshyn|align="right"|10,874|align="right"|5.09%|align="right"|-|Prog. Conservative|Henry Clay Rees|align="right"|10,543|align="right"|4.94%|align="right"|-|Prog. Conservative|Irving Goldenberg|align="right"|10,240|align="right"|4.80%|align="right"|-|- bgcolor="white"!align="left" colspan=3|Total!align="right"|213,372!align="right"|100.00%!align="right"|
|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Regina East||Paul Dojack
8,208Jacob W. Erb
8,060|| |Henry Baker
8,953Walt Smishek
8,395||Dick Shelton
2,356George J. Tkach
2,343||| colspan=2 style="background:whitesmoke; text-align:center;"|New District|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Regina North||Ron Atchison
3,867|| |Ed Whelan
4,722||||Norman Brudy (Communist) 68| colspan=2 style="background:whitesmoke; text-align:center;"|New District|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Regina South|| |Gordon Grant
7,788||George R. Bothwell
3,440||||| colspan=2 style="background:whitesmoke; text-align:center;"|New District|-|bgcolor=whitesmoke|Regina West||Alex Cochrane
7,770Betty Sear
6,981|| |Allan Blakeney
9,076Marjorie Cooper
8,413||Donald K. MacPherson
4,495||| colspan=2 style="background:whitesmoke; text-align:center;"|New District