9 books by Sask. writers to read during the provincial election campaign - Action News
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Saskatchewan

9 books by Sask. writers to read during the provincial election campaign

These nine books on Saskatchewan politics include insider accounts of the NDP government of the 1990s and the formation of the Saskatchewan Party, polemics and memoirs about topics we're hearing about this campaign, and books about issues neither the Sask. Party or NDP seem keen to talk about.

These books offer insight into Sask. politics and provincial parties as voters prepare for Oct. 28 election

Eight books piled on top of each other atop a table.
Some of the books on CBC Saskatchewan's list of essential reading about the province's politics and election issues. (Jeremy Warren/CBC)

With 10 days left in the Saskatchewan provincial election campaign, you might be looking for a way to kill some time until you get to vote on Oct. 28.

Why not pick up one of these books about Saskatchewan politics by Saskatchewan authors?

This list includes insider accounts of Roy Romanow's NDP government and the formation of the Saskatchewan Party, polemics and memoirs about topics we're hearing aboutthis campaign, and some books about issues neither the Sask. Party or NDP seem keen to talk about.

This is not an exhaustive list, but a selection of books that provideinsight into our provincial politics and where we might go after the election.

A Healthy Society: How a Focus on Health Can Revive Canadian Democracy by Dr. Ryan Meili

A photo collage with the book cover for A Healthy Society and author Ryan Meili posing for a photo outdoors.
Before he was an MLA and NDP leader, Dr. Ryan Meili wrote a book about health care. (CBC)

With both the Saskatchewan Party and the NDP making health care a key issue in their campaigns, you might find this book by a doctor and former politician a helpful read. Written several years before Ryan Meili became leader of the Saskatchewan NDP in 2018, A Healthy Society recounts hisexperience working in Saskatoon's core neighbourhoods, while making the case that governments need to focus on the factors influencing health income, housing, education to fix an ailing society.

From Left to Right : Saskatchewan's Political and Economic Transformation by Dale Eisler

A photo collage of a man in a suit posing for a picture and the book cover of From Left to Right.
Dale Eisler is author of From Left to Right: Saskatchewans Political and Economic Transformation. (CBC)

How did the SaskatchewanParty so soundly and repeatedly defeat the NDP and maintain power for the past 17 years? Former Saskatchewan journalist Dale Eisler wrote a book that examines how the provinceturned away from its socialist past and embraced Prairie populism. From Left to Right won a 2023 Saskatchewan Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2023 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and The Hill Times Best Books of 2022.

Minding the Public Purse:The Fiscal Crisis, Political Trade-offs, and Canada's Future by Janice MacKinnon

A photo collage of the book cover for Minding the Pubic Purse and a profile shot of author Janice MacKinnon.
Janice MacKinnon wrote about her time as finance minister in the Roy Romanow NDP government. (CBC)

The 2024 provincial election has been filled with references to Saskatchewan NDP governments from the 1990s. This insider account of the early days of Roy Romanow's government from former finance minister Janice MacKinnon provides some context about the debt crisis that threatened the province with bankruptcy.MacKinnon also reveals fractures within the NDP at the time, singling out the "Liquor Cabinet" the party's old guard of men drinking and plotting in the legislature's basement.

Peace And Good Order:The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada by Harold R. Johnson

The cover of the book Peace and Good Order and a profile picture of author Harold R. Johnson.
Harold R. Johnson drew on his own experience as a Crown prosecutor for his book Peace and Good Order. (McClelland & Stewart)

Harold R. Johnson, who died in 2022, was a Crown prosecutor and trapper from Montreal Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan.

Using his experience as a lawyer and events like the death of Colten Boushie and the subsequent trial of the man eventuallyacquitted in his death,Johnson's2019 book examines how the justicesystem fails Indigenous people, as well as how the legal profession including himperpetuatestrauma and preventstrue reconciliation.

Potash: An Inside Account of Saskatchewan's Pink Gold by John Burton andSquandered: Canada's Potash Legacyby Eric Cline

A collage of the book covers for Squandered: Canada's Potash Legacy and Potash: An Inside Account of Saskatchewan's Pink Gold.
Books by two former NDP politicians, Eric Cline and John Burton, examine the political and economic history of potash in the province. (CBC)

We haven't heard much about potash during this election despite its significant influence in Saskatchewan's economy and provincial budgets.In Potash, John Burton, an NDP politician and party operative who died in 2022, takes readers behind the scenes of the battle over nationalizing Saskatchewan's potash industry. Much like Burton, former NDP cabinet minister Eric Cline argues in Squandered that Saskatchewan's lax royalty regime allows corporations to reap record profits while shortchanging citizens.

Risk & Reward: The Birth & Meteoric Rise of the Saskatchewan Party by Gail Krawetz

A woman sits and works on a laptop at a table covered in papers.
Gail Krawetz at her desk while writing a history of the Saskatchewan Party. (GailKrawetz/X)

This is a history of how the Saskatchewan Party formed and laid the groundwork for successive dominant election victories. Author Gail Krawetz had access to plenty of party insiders to tell the tale she's married to Ken Krawetz, one of the original seven Liberal and Progressive Conservative MLAs who joined forces to create a new provincial party. Ten years later, that little band of disrupters turned into a political powerhouse.

Towards a Prairie Atonement by Trevor Herriot

A collage of the book cover for Towards a Prairie Atonement and the author's profile picture
Trevor Herriot's book Towards a Prairie Atonement uses the lens of land and environmental issues to explore how governments and settlers perpetuate inequality against Indigenous people. (CBC)

Saskatchewan author and naturalist Trevor Herriot, with help from Mtis Elder Norman Fleury, exploreshow governments and settlers perpetuate inequality against Indigenous people, through the lens of land and environmental issues. Herriot offers solutions to protect native grasslands that don't exclude Indigenous knowledge and might even rectify past injustices. Towards a Prairie Atonement won the 2017 City of Regina Book Award.

Truth Telling: Seven Conversations About Indigenous Life in Canada by Michelle Good

A composite photo of a white book cover with an illustration of a turtle and the book's author, an older woman with white hair and a purple sweater looking at the ground.
Truth Telling is an essay collection by Michelle Good. (HarperCollins, Silken Sellinger Photography)

Cree author Michelle Good just won a 2024 High Plains Book Award for Truth Telling, a collection of personal essays about Indigenous identity and reconciliation that challenges non-Indigenous to question their assumptions and engage in Indigenous issues. A member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, Good also wroteFive Little Indians, which won the 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction and CBC's Canada Reads 2022.