Canada 150 a local retrospective: Yorktonites struggle to care about election in 1967

1967 is a wild period in twentyth-century history. The war in Vietnam was causing stress at home and abroad. American cinema was exploding and evolving. The Beatles were expanding the definition of pop music. It was a tumultuous time.

But for Yorkton, in October at least, it was a little dull.

It shouldn’t have been. The week of Oct. 11, 1967 was supposedly a big deal. The provincial general election was being held, as Ross Thatcher’s Liberal Party squared off against the newly christened NDP (formerly the CCF). The Liberals won with a slightly larger majority than before.

The Yorkton newspaper came out the day people headed to the polls. Liberal incumbent Bernard Gallagher faced Irving Carlson of the CCF for the riding. Polls opened at 9 a.m. and would close at 7 p.m. All liquor stores were closed.

The newspaper could hardly muster much excitement about the election. They described the campaign as “quiet.” In today’s modern political circus, I think we’d all appreciate some quiet.

The paper predicted Gallagher would handily  win the race, which he did. They briefly mentioned how resource development was a big talking point during the campaign.

The paper did get riled up over one thing: Voter participation. They said over 10,000 Yorktonites were expected to vote. However, when the paper went to press at noon, only 25% of eligible voters had cast their ballots. That was an unacceptable number for the paper. If they saw modern voter turnout numbers, they might pop a blood vessel.

Before the election,  national NDP leader Tommy Douglas visited Yorkton. You might have heard of him.

Outside of the election, two news items dominated the paper. Yorkton and Melville were the latest towns to join the Saskatchewan legal aid plan. The program, which started last spring, aimed to help successful applicants obtain services from a lawyer. Over half the towns in the province had joined.

Elsewhere, low crop yields were keeping everyone on edge. The wheat crop yield for the province was 592 million bushels, down 28 per cent from 1966’s record-setting 827 million bushels. That’s the problem with reaching such a peak; you can only go down.

Overall, it was a standard autumn edition of the newspaper, with the Macleods Family Shopping Centre buying ad space encouraging people to get their winter tires right away.

Finally, the paper asked citizens to send in photos for their centennial edition on Oct. 25 celebrating Canada’s confederation. Hey, that’s just like how we’re celebrating Canada’s sesquicentennial with this series.