False Expectations: Politics and the Pursuit of the Saskatchewan Myth

False Expectations: Politics and Pursuit of Saskatchewan Myth. Dale Eisler. Regina: CPRC Press, 2006. $24.95 sc. 251 pp. False Expectations centers around an idea of Saskatchewan myth: that Saskatchewan is a bountiful land where success can be achieved. For Eisler (p. xi), belief in a greater future is at core of Saskatchewan identity. The argument is that myth can never be actualized. Saskatchewan is no El Dorado, though it often has been depicted as a lucrative promised land in national and provincial propaganda. This book will interest lay and scholarly readers concerned with Saskatchewan's place in Canada's history. Eisler's lucid history traces key events related to Saskatchewan's political and economic history. Early surveyors like John Palliser in late 1850s declared mid-west a desert unfit for civilized man. In 1870s, John Macoun described prairies as a fertile region that could sustain large populations. Immigration advertisements in Europe claimed prairies could support 50 million people. However, western settlers were kept as an economic colony of central through various federal governments' commitment to high tariffs. Eisler writes that the farm economy would create wealth that would be cycled from abroad into tariff-protected manufacturing economy of central Canada (p. 27). Highly fluctuating incomes of agriculture settlements made elevated charges of farming difficult to shoulder. The Seed Grain Act of 1908 and Hail Insurance Act of 1912 sought to provide farmers some protection from crop failure and damage. Groups like Saskatchewan Agriculture Credit Commission believed co-operation should be guiding principle of Saskatchewan farm economy. Growing connections between farming and labour politics allowed for creation of Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and writing of Regina Manifesto. Eisler chronicles Tommy Douglas' Fabian leadership of CCF through 1940s and 1950s, creation of initial Crown Corporations, development of a public health-care system, and move toward developing a natural resource sector with rise to power of Ross Thatcher's Liberals. Though Eisler does a decent job of substantiating his claims throughout False Expectations, it must be asked what a focus on such a spatialization of politics (e.g., the province) truncates from a history of region. A strong focus on Saskatchewan myth glosses over local forms of contestation based on urban place attachment. For instance, Eisler argues im/migration policy was focussed around settling grain belt and making it productive. While this is valid, Temperance Movement was also a major factor that influenced migration eastward from Ontario cities. …

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