I note that the Liberal - NDP agreement refers to it as a "Cooperative Government."
The only other use of that phrase that I am aware of in Canadian parliamentary history was in reference to the coalition government in Saskatchewan from 1929 - 1935.
There are several unsavoury aspects to that history, and I have no doubt that every New Democrat, Bloc and Liberal MP would disavow any connection to that earlier Cooperative Government's connections to the Ku Klux Klan, to the worst elements of the Orange Order, to anti-rFench and anti-Catholic bigotry &c.
Given that history, I can only think of two possible reasons for resurrecting the name.
The first, ignorance, is easily dismissed. Both Allan Blakeney and Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan premiers, have been deeply involved in the current negotiations and are well aware of the historical significant of the Cooperative Government of Dr. J.T.M. Anderson. Similarly, NDP federal secretary Dick Proctor's deep roots in the Saskatchewan NDP preclude him missing the significance of the name. Liberal MP Ralph Goodale would similarly know the story of the Cooperative Government.
Clearly, therefore, this nomenclatural hat tip to a discredited regime from eight decades ago was deliberate.
Of course, the creation of the Anderson coalition closely paralleles the present circumstances. In the 1929 election, the Liberal Party under Jimmy Gardiner was returned with a minority (28/63). Within a short time, it bacame obvious that Gardiner had lost (if indeed he ever had) the confidence of the House. Gardiner asked Lieutenant-Governor Newlands to dissolve the Legislature and issue a writ of election. This advice was declined, and Dr. Anderson was asked to form a government. He quickly negotiated an agreement among his Conservative Party (24), the Progressive Party (5) and all the independent MLAs (6), creating a working majority of 35 seats.
In fact, the 1929 change of government in Saskatchewan is the single strongest (and almost certainly irrefutable) precedent in favour of the present arrangement.
So, given the involvement of four eager students of Saskatchewan political history (Blakeney, Romanow, Proctor, Goodale) in the current agreement, is the use of "Cooperative Government" a deliberate attempt to draw attention to the precedent which best favours their venture?
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NB, the Cooperative Government did have some things right. It created Saskatchewan's first Crown Corporation (SaskPower).
I also note that the Saskatchewan Cooperative Government was a coalition of the Official Opposition Party, the Progressive Party and the independents, whereas the present Cooperative Government (in waiting) is a coalition of the Official Opposition Party, the progressive party and the independantistes.
