Woodrow Stanley Lloyd
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Woodrow Stanley Lloyd
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| In office November 7, 1961 – May 2, 1964 |
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| Preceded by | Tommy Douglas |
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| Succeeded by | Ross Thatcher |
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| In office 1944 – 1971 |
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| Preceded by | John Allan Young (CCF) |
| Succeeded by | Elwood Lorrie Cowley (NDP) |
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| In office 1965 – 1970 |
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| Preceded by | Ross Thatcher |
| Succeeded by | Allan Blakeney |
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| Born | July 16, 1913 Webb, Saskatchewan |
| Died | April 7, 1972 (aged 58) Seoul, South Korea |
| Political party | CCF-NDP |
Woodrow Stanley Lloyd (July 16, 1913 — April 7, 1972) was a Canadian politician who succeeded Tommy Douglas as Premier of the Province of Saskatchewan. Douglas left provincial politics to become leader of the federal New Democratic Party.
Born in Webb, Saskatchewan on July 16, 1913. He was educated as a teacher in Moose Jaw and began teaching in 1933. He soon became active in the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation and held many positions in the organization including holding the office of president from 1941 to 1944.
In 1944, Woodrow Lloyd was elected to the Saskatchewan Legislature as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation member for the constituency of Biggar, a seat he held until his retirement in 1971. Lloyd would become the youngest cabinet minister in Saskatchewan history, up to that point, when he was appointed to cabinet as Minister of Education by new Premier Tommy Douglas. Lloyd served as Minister of Education for the next sixteen years and oversaw the complete overhaul of the Saskatchewan education system. The most controversial measure he introduced was the amalgamation of Saskatchewan over 5,000 local school boards into 56 Larger School Units. The measure was instituted to create more equitably education opportunities for students across the province by providing students greater opportunity to receive instruction by specialized teachers and access to increased education resources. The move however was opposed by some in rural Saskatchewan who resented the loss of local control over schools, as the move to LSUs resulted in the closure of nearly all rural one-room schools over the next two decades.
After the 1960 election Douglas appointed Lloyd the Provincial Treasurer. In 1961 Douglas resigned as Premier to assume the leadership of the newly-formed federal New Democratic Party (NDP). Lloyd was elected leader of what was now called the Saskatchewan CCF-NDP after he easily defeated Olaf Turnbull in the leadership contest.
As Premier, Lloyd was responsible for implementing the universal health care plan that Douglas had introduced. Lloyd's government had to cope with the Saskatchewan Doctors' Strike of July 1962, in which the province's physicians withdrew service in an attempt to defeat the Medicare initiative.
Lloyd and his government refused to back down on the concept of a universal public health care system, and persuaded the doctors to settle after 23 days.
While Medicare was implemented, the political turmoil did lasting damage to the Lloyd government, contributing to its defeat at the hands of Ross Thatcher's Saskatchewan Liberal Party in the 1964 provincial election. Medicare was later extended to all provinces and territories in Canada as a result of the Saskatchewan experiment.
After his government’s defeat Lloyd became Leader of the Opposition a post he held until 1970 when Allan Blakeney was elected leader of the Saskatchewan NDP. After retirement from the Saskatchewan Legislature in 1971, Lloyd was appointed as representative for the United Nations Development Program in South Korea. However just months after assuming this post, he died suddenly in Seoul, South Korea.
[edit] Further reading
C.B. Koester ed. The Measure of the Man: Selected Speeches of Woodrow Stanley Lloyd. Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books, 1976.
Dianne Norton. "Woodrow S. Lloyd" in Gordon L. Barnhart ed. Saskatchewan Premiers of the Twentieth Century. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 2004.
Brett Quiring. "The Social and Political Philosophy of Woodrow S. Lloyd" in Saskatchewan History Vol. 56 No. 1 (Spring 2004) pgs 5-20.
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