Editing Saskatchewan Progress Party (section)

===Political wilderness (1978–1995)===
The resurgence of the PCs under [[Dick Collver]]'s leadership sapped support from the Liberals, and in the [[1978 Saskatchewan general election|1978 election]], for the first time in their history, the Liberals failed to win a single seat, dropping to less than 15% support.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Quiring |first=Brett |title=Collver, Richard Lee |url=https://www.esask.uregina.ca/entry/collver_richard_lee_1936-.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080122123241/https://www.esask.uregina.ca/entry/collver_richard_lee_1936-.html |archive-date=2008-01-22 |access-date=2023-11-20 |website=The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan}}</ref> The result was even worse in [[1982 Saskatchewan general election|1982]]; while the PCs surged to power under [[Grant Devine]], Liberals won less than five percent of the vote. Leader [[Ralph Goodale]] was able to return the party to the Legislature with his single seat in the [[1986 Saskatchewan general election|1986 election]], a feat repeated by new leader [[Lynda Haverstock]] in the [[1991 Saskatchewan general election|1991 election]]. But for the better part of two decades the Liberals were largely on the outside of provincial politics. In addition to the PCs staking out a position on the right side of the political spectrum, space the Liberals had taken up firmly since the 1940s, this was exacerbated by the growing unpopularity of the federal Liberal Party in the province; the party's unpopular resource policies in the 1970s and early 1980s gave rise to a wave of powerful [[western alienation]] sentiment and damaged the Liberal brand. Moreover, Saskatchewan politics had become increasingly divided between perceived urban and rural issues, and the Liberal brand was particularly unpopular in rural areas.<ref name=":1" />

Ahead of the [[1995 Saskatchewan general election|1995 election]], the Liberals appeared poised to take advantage of a scandal-ridden Progressive Conservative Party badly damaged by an [[Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan#Expense fraud scandal|expense fraud scandal]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=O'Fee |first=Kevin |title=Saskatchewan Politics: Crowding the Centre |publisher=Canadian Plains Research Centre |year=2008 |isbn=9780889772342 |editor-last=Leeson |editor-first=Howard A. |location=Regina |pages=192-193 |language=en-CA |chapter=Saskatchewan's Political Party Systems and the Development of Third Party Politics}}</ref> For the first time since the 1970s, the Liberals returned to Official Opposition status. However, the party's eleven seats to the NDP's forty two were seen as a disappointment.