From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Saskatchewan Liberal Party is a political party in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It was last in government under Ross Thatcher, from 1964 to 1971.
After its defeat at the hands of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party (NDP), the party remained the principal opposition party in the province until the 1978 election when the it was wiped out and replaced on the right by the Progressive Conservatives.
WIth the collapse of the scandal and deficit ridden Grant Devine government in 1995 the Liberals became the Official Opposition to the new NDP government of Roy Romanow and had an opportunity of following the path of the Liberals in British Columbia and becoming the umbrella party for centre-right in Saskatchewan but dissatisfaction with the party's political moderation and suspicions about the party's links to the federal Liberals led to supporters of the Reform Party of Canada to form a coalition with right wing Liberals (including a number of sitting Liberal MLAs) and form the Saskatchewan Party.
The 1999 election reduced the Liberals to only four seats and third party status in the legislature. The NDP, however, had been unable to win an outright of majority of seats and persuaded the Liberals to form a coalition government with Liberal MLAs appointed to positions in the Cabinet. One of the four Liberals in the Legislative Assembly, David Karwacki opposed joining the coalition and continued to sit in opposition. Rank and file members of the party sided with Karwacki and he was elected party leader and ordered the three other Liberal MLAs to leave the coalition. They refused and the party split with the pro-coalition Liberals eventually joining the NDP. The internal party feud hurt Liberal fortunes and the party was again shut out of the legislature in the 2003 election with Karwacki losing his seat.
