“The Debate of the Century” was a historical re-enactment of the famous Debate between Tommy Douglas and Ross Thatcher, which took place in the town of Mossbank in 1957. The debate has been recognized as one of the most significant and colourful political events in Saskatchewan history. The idea to re-enact the debate came from historian and former Mossbank district resident Mike Fedyk. As early as 2002, Fedyk had been trying to generate interest in the idea of re-enacting the 100 most important events in Saskatchewan history as part of the upcoming Saskatchewan Centennial in 2005. By 2003, Fedyk decided that to create interest in the idea he would need to show that a historical re-enactment could generate excitement and most importantly an audience.
The choice of the Mossbank debate was natural, not simply because Fedyk was from Mossbank (although that certainly didn’t hurt). “Tommy Douglas, the icon of prairie socialism vs. Ross Thatcher, the champion of free enterprise,” stated Fedyk, “both men were idolized by their followers and demonized by their enemies – both were suburb orators. This debate captured what Saskatchewan politics has been about for 50 years.” Fedyk returned to Mossbank and convinced community leaders of the potential of the re-enactment to attract tourist dollars and positive attention for the town. The Mossbank and District Historical Society was formed to organize logistics for the debate on the local level, while Fedyk would be responsible for developing the re-enactment and publicity.
The script for the re-enactment was developed from a recording of the debate that was made by CHAB radio, when they broadcasted the event live in 1957. Using the CHAB tapes (preserved by the Saskatchewan Archives Board) allowed Fedyk to develop a script that was almost entirely a verbatim version of the original event, with only a few sections shortened to fit a two-hour time-frame. Fedyk recruited Moose Jaw actor Will Barber to play Douglas, and Regina actor Kelly Munce to play Thatcher. Both physically resembled the famous political leaders they were to portray and both listened to recordings of the original debates, so, they could duplicate their particular icons’ speech patterns.
While the lead actors were essential, Fedyk’s most innovative idea concerned audience participation. “At the original debate,” he explained, “the audience were not passive, they heckled, cheered – it was very rowdy.” To re-capture that element of the event, local Mossbank folks played the role of CCF and Liberal partisans who were planted throughout the crowd to heckle and encourage audience participation through cheering. “Everyone who came in the hall picked either the CCF or Liberal side,” said Fedyk, “this was no play, where people sat with their arms folded – we gave them Thatcher or CCF signs and they were part of the show.”
Fedyk was also innovative in how the re-enactment was promoted. Realizing that it would be difficult to get the media to come to Mossbank (almost two hours from Regina), Fedyk took Mossbank to the media. A media conference was held in the Saskatchewan Gallery (which features portraits of Saskatchewan’s Premiers) in the Saskatchewan Legislature. Barber and Munce performed in character some of their lines from the Debate, much to the delight of the over 100 people working the Legislature who stopped by during their coffee breaks to see the show. The gambit worked and the Debate received coverage on all three Regina television stations and the Leader Post ran a story on the event featuring a picture of “Douglas” being confronted by “Thatcher.” “I think it is important to remember,” stated Fedyk, “that we were undertaking this event before all the hoopla surrounding CBC’s The Greatest Canadian and the Tommy Douglas movie. We were ahead of the pack.”
Two performances of “The Debate of the Century” were scheduled for June 28, 2003, and both sold out. The Historical Society organized tours of Mossbank, bake sales, a pancake breakfast and even a parade to make sure that people attending the program got a little of everything Mossbank had to offer. “Most of the over 600 people who bought tickets came from outside the Mossbank area,” indicated Fedyk, “we had people from all over Saskatchewan and some people from as far away as Calgary.”
The twin performances raised over $7000.00 for the Historical Society who disbursed the funds to a number of community organizations. The event received significant media coverage, with even a reporter from Time Magazine in attendance. Comments from several of those who attended captured the significance of the re-enactment. One attendee from Fort Qu’Appelle wrote: “It was great to see what history and small-town spirit can do to bring people together (and without TV or the internet).” Another attendee from Leader, Saskatchewan stated: “Wonderful job done by a rural community. It proves the pioneer spirit is still with us.”