On May 20, 1957, the Mossbank Community Hall was the site of a debate between Saskatchewan CCF Premier Tommy Douglas and Liberal MP Ross Thatcher. The debate garnered national attention, and despite terrible rain, attracted reporters from all over Canada along with more than 1000 spectators.
In 1935 Tommy Douglas was elected to the House of Commons as the CCF Party MP for the Weyburn riding. He served a total of 9 years as MP. In 1944 he left federal politics and returned to provincial politics. In 1944 his CCF Party won the Saskatchewan provincial election garnering 47 out of the 55 available seats. He remained as Premier until 1961 when he returned to Ottawa to lead the NDP Party. In the 1962 federal election he failed in his bid to win a seat in a Regina riding. Four months later in a by-election in Burnaby, BC he was elected to a seat.
Ross Thatcher was elected to political office in 1945 as the federal MP for the CCF Party in the Moose Jaw riding. He eventually carved out a reputation as a right-wing maverick. He wanted higher corporate taxes and means testing for old age pensioners. These stances put him at odds with CCF Party leader M.J. Coldwell. In 1955, Ross Thatcher broke ranks with the CCF Party and sat in the Commons as an Independent. In preparation for what was expected to be an election in 1957, he crossed the floor in the House of Commons to join the Liberal Party. He announced his intention to seek re-election under the Liberal banner in the riding of Assiniboia.
Thatcher, in a bid to attract attention, then turned his sights on the Saskatchewan government of Tommy Douglas. Thatcher began to criticize the Crown corporation policy of Douglas’s CCF government calling the policy a “dismal failure.” Thatcher took this political stance because he knew that in the next federal election he would have to win his seat in the Assiniboia riding under the Liberal banner. He realized that he had to draw attention to himself if he was to get re-elected in the next election.
Douglas was incensed by Thatcher’s remarks and challenged him to debate the issue of Saskatchewan’s Crown corporations anywhere and anytime. Thatcher, who was now in the midst of his campaign to win the Assiniboia riding for the Liberal Party, accepted the invitation but stipulated the debate would be in Mossbank. Thatcher evidently knew that it would be the rural voters in his riding that would be most likely to vote for him under the Liberal banner. Mossbank was the perfect rural venue in the riding for having a debate event.
The debate took place on May 20, 1957 and was a raucous event. Over 1000 people were in attendance along with radio stations who broadcast the event live across the province.
Douglas accused Thatcher of misrepresentation and maligning of the province. Thatcher retorted that the only hides being tanned at the provincially-owned tannery were those of the Saskatchewan taxpayer. And so it went, back and forth on and on. Many of the issues debated went on to define the political discourse in the ensuing years.
Thatcher failed in his effort to win the Assiniboia riding for the Liberals in the 1957 election, losing to CCF candidate Hazen Argue. Thatcher tried to win the riding again in the 1958 election, but again lost to Argue. In 1959 Thatcher became leader of the Saskatchewan Liberal Party. He went on to be Premier of Saskatchewan from 1964 until 1971.
Author, and Mossbank resident, M.G. Bucholtz has now researched the history of Douglas, Thatcher, and the Debate. His findings have been assembled into a book which was released in September 2023. The book is available on Amazon at the following link:
