Grant Devine

Donald Grant Devine, SOM (born July 5, 1944) was the 11th Premier of Saskatchewan from May 8, 1982 to November 1, 1991.

Early life

Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, he received a B.Sc. in Agriculture degree specializing in Agricultural Economics in 1967 from the University of Saskatchewan, an M.Sc. specializing in Agricultural Economics in 1969 from the University of Alberta, an M.B.A. from the University of Alberta in 1970, and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Ohio State University in 1976.

A farmer, teacher and agricultural economist, Devine taught at the University of Saskatchewan in the 1970s before entering politics.

Political career

Although he was defeated during 1978 election in a Saskatoon seat, he was elected leader of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party in 1979. He lost a 1980 by-election in Estevan in a three-way split in which each party received more than 27 percent of the vote.

Devine won election to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan in the 1982 general election that brought him and 54 other Progressive Conservatives to power—the first time that the party had won government in its own right. Only nine members of the long-ruling New Democratic Party (NDP) was left as opposition in what is still the second-worst defeat a sitting government has ever suffered in Saskatchewan. Devine became only the second Tory to serve as premier; the first, James T.M. Anderson, formed a coalition government in 1929.