Third Administration
In the 1912 election, the Legislature was expanded again, and Scott's Liberals won 46 of the 54 ridings. By this point, their opposition – the Provincial Rights Party – had decided to re-join mainstream politics and renamed itself the Conservative Party. Haultain resigned as leader in the wake of the 1912 electoral defeat.
Saskatchewan's importance in Confederation and the wider British Empire was confirmed in October 1912 when the Legislative Building was officially opened by Queen Victoria's favourite son Arthur, Duke of Connaught, who was the Canadian Governor-General.
As of 1913, Scott also served as Minister of Education. In that year, he introduced legislation to require religious minority ratepayers (i.e. Catholics) to support their own separate schools. This proposal met with fierce opposition from the Rev. Murdoch Mackinnon, pastor of Regina's Knox Presbyterian Church (Scott's own congregation) who was resolutely opposed to measures which would financially strengthen the position of the Roman Catholic Church. Mackinnon would remain a thorn in Scott's side – as late as 1919 fiercely denouncing Scott's compromise position of allowing up to 1 hour a day of French language instruction in public schools.
Another development in 1913 was the creation of a provincial Board of Censors to deal with the corrupting influence of new-fangled motion pictures.
With the commencement of hostilities in World War I, Scott called an emergency session of the Saskatchewan Legislature on September 15, 1914. He pledged that all government MLAs would contribute 10% of their salaries to the Canadian Patriotic Fund, and that the province would donate 1500 horses to the British war effort. The Leader of the Opposition immediately rose to applaud these measures, and the session ended with Liberal and Conservative members joining in a rousing chorus of God Save the King.
Scott had long claimed to be in favour of women's suffrage, but as of 1912, Scott was musing that women didn't really want the vote. Pressed on the matter in early 1914, he said that he didn't feel his government had a mandate from the people to enact such a major change as introducing female suffrage. When, however, in late 1915, Scott learned that Manitoba had enacted women's suffrage, he was quick to follow suit – introducing legislation on February 14, 1916, to allow women to vote.
Scott had longed opposed the prohibition of alcohol, but the war made it all but impossible to resist the pressure of temperance advocates. In a March 1915 speech in Oxbow, Scott announced that all drinking establishments in Saskatchewan would be closed as of July 1, to be replaced by provincially-run liquor stores. This move would prove inadequate in the following months, as both Alberta and Manitoba enacted Prohibition. Sensing the sign of the times, Scott held a provincial referendum on the topic – the first time women had been allowed to vote in Saskatchewan – and in December 1916, 80% of Saskatchewan voters voted to ban alcohol in the province.
Scott's departure from politics by this time was virtually certain, for 2 main reasons. First, he had become increasingly prone to bouts of depression – with his outburst against his own pastor, Murdoch Mackinnon, during the debate about educational policy, serving as indication to the province that he was no longer entirely up for the job of premier.
Second, in February 1916, Conservative MLA J.E. Bradshaw alleged in the House that Liberals had been receiving kickbacks for highway work, liquor licences, and public building contracts. A Royal Commission was appointed, and several Liberal backbenchers were indicted and eventually convicted. Amidst the scandal, Scott stepped down as premier on October 16, 1916.
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