Return and Opposition Leader (1986–1991)
Romanow ran to reclaim his seat from Zazelenchuk in the 1986 election,and he won with nearly 70% of the vote. [8] The NDP largely rebounded in 1986,narrowly winning the popular vote,but Devine's PCs secured a second majority government with a particularly strong performance in rural Saskatchewan. [9] The result led Blakeney,who had stayed on as Opposition leader after the loss in 1982,to resign as party leader. Romanow ran to succeed Blakeney,and with no challengers was acclaimed the new NDP leader—and leader of the Opposition—on November 7,1987.
It became clear during the PCs second term that the province's finances were in dire straits. The PCs ran a succession of large budget deficits,which peaked in 1986–87 at $1.2 billion,rapidly increasing the provincial debt. [10] Devine used the fiscal situation as justification to pursue the privatization of a wide range of crown corporations—including PotashCorp,one of the key achievements of the Blakeney era—which engendered fierce opposition from the NDP. The situation came to a head in 1989 when the government moved to privatize SaskEnergy,the natural gas division of SaskPower;in response,Romanow led a legislative walk-out of the Opposition,effectively bringing government business to a halt. After 17 days,the government relented and ended the sell-off of SaskEnergy. [11] [12] When legislation to privatize PotashCorp was introduced later in 1989,the NDP,buoyed by its success with SaskEnergy,remained in the Legislature,ready to debate the legislation;however,the PCs enacted closure for the first time in provincial history to avoid debate on the issue and move forward with the legislation with no public scrutiny. [13] The PCs were persistently criticized late in their term for undemocratic tactics including prorogation of the Legislature and the dubious use of special warrants for spending. [14] [15]
Devine's PCs,which were clearly deeply unpopular,put off the next election as long as legally possible. [15] When it finally occurred,Romanow led the NDP to a landslide majority government in the 1991 provincial election,winning 55 out of 66 seats,making Romanow Premier. [16]
Premier of Saskatchewan (1991–2001)
When Romanow assumed office in 1991,the extent of the fiscal crisis facing the province began to become clearer. The provincial debt had reached nearly $15 billion under the Progressive Conservatives,and the province was facing the prospect of bankruptcy;interest payments on debt alone were accounting for more than 20% of government spending,second only to healthcare. [17] [18] Romanow had campaigned on getting the province's fiscal house back in order,and dealing with the fiscal crisis became his government's top priority. [16] [17]
Economic policy
In justifying his prioritization of the fiscal crisis,Romanow appealed to the previous CCF/NDP regimes of Blakeney and Tommy Douglas who,despite increasing the size and role of the government and its spending,prioritized sound fiscal management and balanced budgets. [19] [20] However,in their approach to dealing with the crisis,Romanow and finance minister Janice MacKinnon practiced austerity,greatly reducing government spending by downsizing the government and cutting services. They cited pressure from bondholders and a lack of assistance from the federal government as factors that increased the pressure to drastically reduce spending. [21] Some of the most controversial cuts including reforming provincial health care—replacing more than one hundred hospital boards with approximately thirty health regions,and ending acute-care in more than fifty rural hospitals—and ending the Gross Revenue Insurance Plan,which had directly supported crop farm incomes. [22] Such cuts were seen as disproportionately targeting rural life in the province. [23] Moreover,Romanow's governments adopted some of the same tactics the PCs had introduced to pass legislation,including closure when it came to their health care reforms. [24] The cuts to programs and services in rural Saskatchewan were deeply unpopular and would prove costly to the NDP in those regions. [10] [23] However,such measures did lead to a balanced budget by 1995,sooner than had been expected and effectively ending concerns about the fiscal crisis. [25] [26] After 1995,Romanow's government ran successive surpluses and paid the debt down to approximately $10 billion. [18]
Re-elections and retirement
Romanow led the NDP to a second majority in the 1995 provincial election. The PCs were reduced to third-party status amid revelations of a major expense fraud scandal stemming from their last term in government,while the Liberals under Lynda Haverstock surged to Opposition status. [27] However,the NDP's seemingly solid grip on government and the growing frustrations of rural regions provided an impetus for a reorganization of conservatives in the province. In 1997,working behind the scenes with members of the federal Reform Party,four PC MLAs,including new leader Bill Boyd,and four Liberal MLAs—all from rural ridings—walked away from their parties and established the Saskatchewan Party. [28] With eight MLAs,the new party immediately took over Opposition status. In 1998,it chose former Reform MP Elwin Hermanson as its first leader. [29] Romanow framed the new party as an effort to rebrand the moribund Progressive Conservatives and took to referring to them as the "Saskatories". [30] [31]
The NDP were widely expected to secure another majority in the 1999 provincial election. [32] [33] The party was re-elected to a third consecutive term,but was in fact reduced to a minority of seats in the legislature,forcing Romanow to negotiate a coalition government with the Liberals,an agreement that resulted in appointing three Liberals to Cabinet. [34] This was the result of a strong performance by Hermanson's party—which actually edged the NDP in the popular vote—in rural areas;the Saskatchewan Party won 25 seats,but none in either Regina or Saskatoon. Hermanson capitalized on rural discontent with the NDP,characterizing spending cuts there as the NDP's "rural revenge",putting into stark relief the growing divide between urban and rural voters in the province. [24] Critics of Romanow's austerity politics pointed to declining party membership and voter engagement as troubling factors in the election. [32]
In 2000,less than a year after the election,Romanow announced that he would be retiring as soon as a successor was chosen by the party. [35] The announcement triggered a hotly contested leadership race with seven candidates—a far cry from Romanow's acclimation in 1987—with differing views for the future of the party. [36] Anti-neoliberal candidate Nettie Wiebe placed third in the 2001 leadership vote,while Romanow's attorney general Chris Axworthy was defeated on the final ballot by former cabinet minister Lorne Calvert,who was sworn in as premier on February 8,2001. [37] Calvert had campaigned on the party's traditional social democratic values and a commitment to increase social spending. After Romanow's resignation,Calvert also succeeded him as MLA for Saskatoon Riversdale,winning the by-election there on March 19,2001. [38]
