The author of a recent book chronicling the founding and the early years of the Saskatchewan Party paid a visit to the Battlefords recently.
Gail Krawetz, author of Risk & Reward: The Birth and Meteoric Rise of the Saskatchewan Party, was at the North Battleford Library to promote the book.
“I was encouraged to write the book because there were people who felt it was a story that needed to be told,” Krawetz said, “and it was a story that maybe would be lost if we didn’t capture the memories of many of those original founders of the party.”
There was also a desire by people to set the record straight as to what had happened. Plus, “it’s part of our province’s history,” Krawetz said.
The story revolves around the four Progressive Conservative and four Liberal MLAs who came together to form the Saskatchewan Party. While the actual formation of the party took place in 1997, the book also focuses on what transpired before that.
It was a big risk, Krawetz said, for the eight to leave their established parties.
“But they decided it was time to move forward. A majority of the people in the province did not want the NDP as government; however, because of vote-splitting, they were continuing to form majority governments.”
The Liberals and PCs were also in a sorry state at the time. The PCs had fallen into disgrace due to the Devine government’s expenses scandals, and while the Liberals had formed the opposition, they were consumed by party infighting.
The thinking was a new party could bring together the entire right-of-centre vote and challenge the NDP government of Premier Roy Romanow.
Krawetz also explains the original MLAs were driven by a desire to turn things around in the province.
“We were seeing many people leave the province. The province was facing some tough times,” said Krawetz.
“The biggest concern was we were losing our young people, and our brightest and our future. And so that was a big concern for those MLAs when they formed the party. They wanted to reverse that trend. They wanted Saskatchewan to take its rightful place in this country, and they felt it was an important place.”
The cast of characters included MLAs such as June Draude and Bob Bjornerud who bolted the Liberals, and Bill Boyd who had been leader of the PCs.
They had started the talks, and others such as Rod Gantefoer came on board as well.
The author herself had a front-row seat to what had happened because her husband was former Canora-Pelly MLA and Deputy Premier Ken Krawetz, who was also in North Battleford for the presentation.
He was the last one of the “founding eight” to join, but because he was also interim leader of the Liberals, the others had held off asking him until days before the formation of the party was announced.
The story in Risk and Reward went on to document the events that led to the party’s surprising near-win of the 1999 election under leader Elwin Hermanson, and the surprise defeat in 2003. The book ends with the rise of Brad Wall and the formation of government in 2007.
This was the first time Krawetz, an English and history teacher, had written a book.
She had written columns and had a blog, but putting a book together was a different challenge. She hired an editor to help her put it together.
Krawetz went the self-publishing route, and has been active in going out and promoting the book. Sales have been good, with 2,000 copies sold so far.
Readers are surprised to find out how easy a read the book is.
“They start reading it thinking it’s going to be dry political discourse,” said Krawetz. But the story plays out like a spy novel at times, and while it reads like fiction, it all actually happened.
“One fellow said it was like a cloak and dagger account, because there was a fair bit of intrigue and secret meetings and spying that went on, and so it is an interesting story.”
It was also a big challenge for the players involved to keep their plans under wraps, with the media remaining in the dark until the press conference announcing the new party in 1997.
Krawetz said the reaction to the book has been very positive both among political people and those on the outside. A big challenge for her was deciding how to tell the story in a way that would engage an audience that would not necessarily be interested in politics. She explained she finally opted for a third person, more folksy style of telling the story.
“Prof. Joe Garcea (University of Saskatchewan political studies professor) told me it was unlike any political book that has been written, so that meant a great deal to me.”
The book is still available at the major bookstores in Saskatchewan and online. It can also be ordered from www.riskrewardbook.ca.
