James Thomas Milton Anderson

James Thomas Milton Anderson (July 23, 1878 – December 29, 1946) was the fifth premier of Saskatchewan and the first Conservative to hold the office.

James Thomas Milton Anderson
5th Premier of Saskatchewan
In office September 9, 1929 – July 19, 1934
Monarch	George V
Lieutenant Governor	Henry William Newlands Hugh Edwin Munroe
Preceded by	James Garfield Gardiner
Succeeded by	James Garfield Gardiner
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for Saskatoon City
In office June 2, 1925 – June 19, 1934 Serving with Archibald Peter McNab, Howard McConnell
Preceded by	Harris Turner
Succeeded by	James Wilfred Estey George Wesley Norman
Personal details
Born	July 23, 1878 Fairbank, Ontario (now a neighbourhood of Toronto)
Died	December 29, 1946 (aged 68) Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Political party	Conservative
Residence	Saskatoon
Profession	Lawyer

Early career

Anderson was chosen as leader of the Conservatives in 1924 and was one of the party's three Members of the Legislative Assembly elected in the 1925 election.

Premiership

In the 1929 election, the Conservatives were able to exploit patronage scandals surrounding the Liberal government of Saskatchewan Premier James Garfield Gardiner to achieve a major breakthrough by winning 24 seats. The Liberals won 28 seats, with 5 going to the Progressive Party and the remaining 4 to independents. The Liberals tried to form a minority government but were defeated in a motion of no confidence, which allowed Anderson to form a co-operative government, a coalition between the Conservatives, Progressives and Independents.

Anderson was accused of working closely with the Ku Klux Klan, which was a major force in the province in the late 1920s and the early 1930s with an estimated 25,000 members. Pat Emmons, a senior Klan defector, alleged that Anderson and Klan officials regularly met, and the Liberals accused the Conservatives of being a front for the Klan. With few Blacks in the province, and First Nations largely confined to Indian reserves under the informal pass system, the focus of the Klan was against immigration, Catholics and francophones as well as opposition to the Gardiner Liberals, who were seen as supporting all three of those groups.

Anderson denied the allegations, but upon gaining power, he took the portfolio of Minister of Education while he was premier and proposed amendments to the Schools Act to ban the instruction of French in public schools and to outlaw the display of religious symbols in all schools, including the Catholic separate school system. The Klan supported those changes and worked hard to elect and defend the Conservative-dominated government.

Loss of office

The Anderson government also had to face the onset of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, which destroyed the province's agrarian economy. Anderson also had to deal with labour unrest culminating in the Estevan Riot of 1931. The government formed the Saskatchewan Relief Commission to try to help those affected by the drought and massive unemployment. Those efforts were insufficient, and in the 1934 elections, the Conservatives lost every seat in the legislature and remained a minor party for 40 years.

Sources

• Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan
• The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Saskatchewan Archives Board – Saskatchewan Election Results By Electoral Division