The Western Independence Party of Saskatchewan (often shortened to WIP of Saskatchewan or WIP-SK) was a provincial

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It advocated for the

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

of Saskatchewan and

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

ideals. The party leader was Neil Fenske. WIP-SK was not affiliated with any federal party.

History

The WIP of Saskatchewan was formed on July 12, 2003, and nominated 17 candidates for the November 5, 2003 provincial election. These candidates won a total of 2,735 votes, or 0.64% of the provincial total. The first party president was Frank Serfas, and the first deputy leader was David Sawkiw. The party nominated eight candidates for the 2007 election, two in the 2011 election, and four in the 2016 election. The party was not affiliated with the

Western Canada Concept Party of British Columbia The Western Canada Concept Party of BC is a provincial political party in British Columbia, Canada. It was the British Columbia branch of the Western Canada Concept, a political party that operated at the federal level, advocating the separation ...

or the

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

-based

Western Block Party The Western Block Party (WBP) was a federal political party in Canada, founded in 2005 by Doug Christie. The party was registered on December 29, 2005, and deregistered on January 31, 2014. Platform The aim of the party was to promote the indep ...

, and has made considerable effort to distance itself from

Doug Christie Douglas Dale Christie (born May 9, 1970) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Standing at , he played the shooting guard p ...

, the leader of those parties. Whereas Christie has been mired in controversy for defending

Holocaust deniers Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: * ...

and has been accused of being an

anti-Semite Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

, the WIP of Saskatchewan has made an explicit statement in support of the

State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. The WIP of Saskatchewan also has no ties with the

Separation Party of Alberta The Alberta First Party french: Alberta d'abord) was an Albertan separatist political party in Alberta, Canada. It went through several iterations before becoming its current incarnation as the Freedom Conservative Party. History (1999–2018) ...

, the

Western Canada Party The Western Canada Party (WCP) is a Canadian political party that advocates the separation from Canada of the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well as the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut to form a new co ...

, or the

Alberta Independence Party The Independence Party (TIP), known as the Alberta Independence Party from 2001 to 2019, is an Albertan provincial political party. It was originally dedicated to increasing the autonomy of Alberta within Canadian Confederation, partly as a r ...

De-registration

The party was formally de-registered by

Elections Saskatchewan Elections Saskatchewan is the non-partisan organization which oversees general elections and by-elections for the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan. References External links * Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and ter ...

on May 10, 2019. The party had missed the deadline to report their election expenses related to the 2018

Regina Northeast Regina Northeast is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Canada. This district includes the neighbourhoods of Parkridge, Uplands, Glencairn and Glencairn Village. The district was created in 1967 out ...

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. According to Fenske, missing the dealine was an "oversight" and the party had been lacking the manpower to function as a proper party for a few years. The party was also dealing with internal divisions. Indeed, some members who were disappointed by Fenske's non-commitment to Western separatism had attempted to oust him as leader in the months prior to the party's de-registration.

Ideology

The WIP of Saskatchewan's platform was

and

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

in nature, a distinguishing feature from some of the other separatist parties in

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...

. It supported

fiscally conservative Fiscal conservatism is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, limited government, and ''laissez-faire'' economics.M. O. Dickerson et al., ''An ...

and socially moderate policies. Though the party was originally established with a pro-independence stance, in its final years it had focused less on

separatism Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...

and has instead advocated for strengthened political power at the federal level for Saskatchewan, to combat the perceived notion of

Western alienation In Canadian politics, Western alienation is the notion that the Western provinces – British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba – have been alienated, and in some cases excluded, from mainstream Canadian political affairs in fav ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Western Independence Party Of Saskatchewan 2003 establishments in Saskatchewan Provincial political parties in Saskatchewan Secessionist organizations in Canada Political parties established in 2003 Conservative parties in Canada

History

De-registration

Ideology

See also

References

External links