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Dale Eisler. False Expectations: Politics and the Pursuit of the Saskatchewan Myth. Regina, Saskatchewan: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 2006.
Dale Eisler. From Left to Right: Saskatchewan's Political and Economic Transformation. Regina, Saskatchewan: University of Regina Press, 2022.
Dale Eisler was one of two journalists who covered Saskatchewan provincial politics for the Regina Leader Post newspaper when I lived in Regina during the 1970s and 1980s. Eisler was considered politically in the centre or maybe right-wing and a consistent critic of the (then) left-wing New Democratic Party (NDP) government of Premier Alan E. Blakeney. The other journalist was John Twigg, who was considered more sympathetic to the government. The Regina Leader-Post is now part of the right-wing Postmedia Network.
Eisler grew up in south-eastern Saskatchewan, worked for 26 years as a Saskatchewan and Alberta journalist, and spent 16 years as a senior public servant in the federal government of Canada. He was Assistant Deputy Minister for the Energy Security, Prosperity, Sustainability Task Force at Natural Resources Canada; Assistant Deputy Minister of Communications at Finance Canada; Consul General for Canada in Denver, Colorado; and Assistant Secretary to Cabinet (Consultations and Communications) in the Privy Council Office (the Prime Minister's department). He clearly has excellent communication skills did him well. He is now a Senior Policy Fellow, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina.
Journalists, like most other people, are not always consistent with their politics in their writings but most tend in a direction, as newspapers also do. Eisler's two books on Saskatchewan politics reviewed here reveal something more about him. He is supportive of the right-wing Liberal governments (1905-29, 1934-44, 1964-71), critical of the left-wing CCF and NDP governments (1944-64, 1971-82). He especially liked the Liberal Ross Thatcher government (1964-71), about which he wrote another book, Rumours of Glory: Saskatchewan and the Thatcher Years (Eisler, 1987). While he has some criticisms of the incompetent, corrupt and ideological Grant Devine Progressive Conservative government (1982-91), he is not as critical as some commentators. He is rather neutral about the centre-left Roy Romanow government (19912007) and right-wing Saskatchewan Party governments (2007 to present).
In my opinion, Eisler's perspective on Saskatchewan history is (not surprisingly), informed by his (unnamed) politics. He argues against the...