The Saskatchewan General Election of 1929

Abstract

The democratic system of government is based on the dual right of the individual citizen to choose those who will govern him and to call to account those chosen. Without these two essentials no system of government can properly be called "democratic". An election, therefore, is an initial step in the political process, and the study of electoral behavior is of immense importance to a comprehension of the underlying processes through which men govern themselves, not only as members of a political unit, but also as segments of a social organism. An election and its preceding campaign is often a synopsis of the temperament of an era; to study an election campaign is to reveal the social harmony or disharmony, the economic prosperity or depression, of a particular point in time. The Saskatchewan general election of 1929 was such a synopsis.