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Colin Thatcher

Canadian politician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ5145617
Source-derived summary

Wilbert Colin Thatcher (born August 25, 1938) is a Canadian politician who was convicted for the murder of his ex-wife, JoAnn Wilson.

Early life

Colin Thatcher was born in Toronto, Ontario, on August 25, 1938. His father, Saskatchewan-born Ross Thatcher, was working for Canada Packers, a predecessor of Maple Leaf Foods, at the time of his birth. He moved to Saskatchewan when his father returned home to run the family business. His father subsequently entered politics and became Premier of Saskatchewan from 1964 to 1971.

Thatcher began studying agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan. After one year, he transferred to Iowa State University. He graduated from Iowa State with B.S. and M.S. degrees in agriculture, and returned to Saskatchewan to work on his father's ranch in Moose Jaw.

Political career

After his father's death in 1971, Thatcher cultivated his own interest in politics. In 1975, he won the provincial riding of Thunder Creek as a Liberal, but he defected to the Progressive Conservatives two years later.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Colin Thatcher” is canadian politician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Colin, Thatcher and Canadian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1938, 1964, 1971, 1975—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1938-08-25. For this dossier, Colin, Thatcher and Canadian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “canadian politician” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5145617. VIAF identifies the subject as 1465933. The Library of Congress control number is n85318756. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1938, 1964, 1971 and 1975.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Colin Thatcher”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Colin Thatcher primary sources, Colin Thatcher archive and Colin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Colin Thatcher”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Colin Thatcher” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.