Wilbert Colin Thatcher

Wilbert Colin Thatcher, rancher, politician (b at Toronto, Ont 25 Aug 1938). The only son of Liberal premier Ross Thatcher, Colin Thatcher entered Saskatchewan politics in 1975 as Liberal MLA for Thunder Creek. In 1977 he switched to the Conservatives, acting as finance critic and house leader until that party's victory in 1982, after which he was named minister of energy and mines. Although regarded by some as the best minister in the government, his overbearing personality and erratic behaviour made him unpopular in the Cabinet and in 1983 he was forced to resign. His arrest and conviction in 1984 for the brutal murder of his ex-wife, with whom he had for several years been locked in bitter dispute, marked the first time in Canadian history that a former government minister had been convicted of such a crime. He served his 25-year sentence at Edmonton Institution until 1998, when he was transferred to Ferndale Institution in Mission, BC.