I’ll let you in on a secret. Sas- katchewan has a population fixation. We worry about our population the way other people worry about global warming, world peace or their waistlines.
That’s because Saskatchewan has been stuck at around one million people for the past 75 years.
Saskatchewan was the fastest-growing province in Canada in the early decades of the 20th century. Buoyed by waves of immigrants from Europe, the province’s population swelled to roughly 500,000 by 1911 from about 250,000 in 1905. And it kept growing.
By 1921, its population was 757,510. Ten years later it had grown to 921,785, making Saskatchewan the third-biggest province in Canada, behind Ontario and Quebec.
Then came the Great Depression. Arguably, no province suffered more. From unbridled growth in its first 25 years, it was mired in drought and destitution for the next decade. By 1937, two-thirds of the province was on relief and thousands fled for more prosperous places.
The province soldiered on through the Second World War, prosperity slowly returning. But it had been permanently scarred by the Depression and, in reaction to the apparent failure of the market economy, voted the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) into office in 1944.
Led by charismatic Tommy Douglas, the CCF eschewed the right-wing populism of its neighbour to the west and adopted a more interventionist approach to the economy. Some say the CCF/NDP’s left-wing policies drove many out of the province.
Meanwhile, the province’s population stagnated. By 1961, Saskatchewan had fallen to fifth place among the provinces. By 1966, it had dropped to sixth place.
The population grew to 955,344 in 1966 from 925,181 in 1961, then fell back to 926,242 by 1971, just slightly higher than in 1931.
From the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, the population rose above the one-million mark to reach the record high of 1,031,922 people in April 1987.
Throughout the 1990s, the population hovered around the one-million mark, rising to 1,020,000, then fell below one million after 2001 where it has languished until Statistics Canada reported this April that the population reached 987,939 on Jan. 1, 2007, up 2,080 from Oct. 1, 2006.
A 2,000-person population hike may not make headlines in other provinces, but it was front-page news in Saskatchewan. It was welcome news for the struggling New Democrats, who will probably go to the polls this year.
It marked the third consecutive quarter the province’s population had increased. More important, it was the first time in 23 years the population had grown at a higher rate than the national average.
It marked the first time in living memory that Saskatchewan gained more people from Alberta than we lost to our booming sister province. In the fourth quarter, 2,838 Albertans moved to Saskatchewan, while only 2,710 went in the other direction.
Indeed, 20,000 people moved to Sas-katchewan from other provinces in 2006, a 39% increase over 2005, while out-migration was down 5% over 2005.
More people are coming to Saskatchewan and fewer are leaving because of economic growth, competitive taxes, affordable housing, plentiful jobs and good quality of life.
Saskatchewan residents hope the recent population increase marks the beginning of a new era of growth, rather than a blip in a long slide toward oblivion. IE
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