
W. J. Patterson
'William John Patterson' (
May 13,
1886 -
June 10,
1976) was a
Liberal Premier of
Saskatchewan,
Canada. He was first elected to the
Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan in the
1921 election. He succeeded
James G. Gardiner to become the province's first Saskatchewan-born
premier in
1935.
Patterson's leadership was considered to be uninspired. He was unable to resist the
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation's rise to power in the
1944 election under
Tommy Douglas. Patterson's Liberals were reduced to five seats in the Legislature. He resigned as Liberal leader in 1946.
Patterson served as
lieutenant-governor of the province from 1951 to 1958, becoming the first person to have been both Premier and lieutenant-governor of the province.