1964 Saskatchewan general election

Douglas's 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 positioned themselves as more right-wing than the federal Liberal Party of Canada and claimed that the CCF government was stagnating.

The CCF, led by former teacher Woodrow Lloyd, campaigned on the CCF record. 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 that previous CCF leader and premier Tommy 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]

Note: ¹ One seat declared void.

Names in bold represent cabinet ministers and the Speaker. Party leaders are italicized. The symbol " ** " indicates MLAs who are not running again.

• List of political parties in Saskatchewan
• List of Saskatchewan provincial electoral districts

• Saskatchewan Archives Board - Election Results By Electoral Division
• Elections Saskatchewan: Provincial Vote Summaries

• Saywell, John T., ed. (1965). Canadian Annual Review for 1964. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.