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Home , Cabinet secretary, Danielle Smith, Gordon Gibson, Jean Charest, Tom Axworthy

THE BEST PREMIER OF THE LAST 40 YEARS: LOUGHEED IN A LANDSLIDE

L. Ian MacDonald

To mark the occasion of the IRPP’s 40th anniversary, Policy Options asked a panel of 30 prominent to select the Best Premier of the Last 40 Years. Our Editor explains the survey and the results. The answer that came back was loud and clear: .

Pour souligner les 40 ans de l’IRPP, Options politiques a demandé à 30 éminents Canadiens de désigner le meilleur premier ministre provincial des 40 dernières années. Le rédacteur en chef explique pourquoi Peter Lougheed s’est facilement imposé en tête du classement.

elebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the Not only did he defend the interests of on the own- Institute for Research on Public Policy was co- ership of its resources, he created the Heritage Savings Trust Fund C endowed by Ottawa and the provinces. to save for a rainy day. And there would have been no agreement In recognition of the vital role of the provinces and on patriating the Constitution with an entrenched Charter of their importance in the Canadian federation, Policy Options Rights in 1981 had Ottawa not accepted Lougheed’s general assembled a jury of 30 prominent Canadians to select the “7/50” amending formula requiring the consent of Ottawa and Best Premier of the Last 40 Years. seven provinces representing 50 percent of the population, as Working with Tom Axworthy of the Munk School for well as the notwithstanding clause providing a legislative over- Global Affairs and Arthur Milnes, 2011 Fellow in Political ride clause to Parliament and the legislatures. Though never History at Queen’s University, we designed a questionnaire invoked by Ottawa, it was a deal maker at the federal-provincial comprising nine leadership attributes: winnability, communica- constitutional table in November 1981. tor, vision, fiscal frameworks, the economy, infrastructure, inter- Finally, he founded a Progressive Conservative political provincial relations, federal-provincial relations and legacy. dynasty that remains in office to this day. Forty-one years We asked the jury to rank each of the nominated former and counting. The Alberta PCs, under their new leader premiers — premiers still in office were excluded from con- , have just won their 12th consecutive elec- sideration — on each of the nine leadership attributes on a tion. Lougheed’s emphatic endorsement of Redford, with scale of 1 to 10. Finally, we asked them to pick a list of their only 10 days to go in an election in which her campaign had top 5 premiers from the long list of 18 nominees. been struggling against the surging and its leader, Danielle Smith, may well have been a game-changer. he answer that came back was resounding: Peter With 100 percent coverage in the top 5, and his sweep T Lougheed, by a landslide. of the nine leadership questions, Lougheed finished way out Lougheed was chosen as the Best Premier of the Last 40 in front in the scoring, which was tabulated by IRPP Years by 21 out of the 30 members of the jury, and he was Research Director Jeremy Leonard. picked in the top 5 by all 30 members of the panel. As the results came in, his lead only lengthened, and there Moreover, he swept the leadership categories, winning was never any doubt that he was going to win. all nine attributes. But the Man from Brampton, William G. Davis, was a As Lougheed himself said when he sat for our Q&A in very respectable second, with 86.7 percent of the jurors vot- : “I’m delighted and honoured.” ing for him and 84 points overall. Though he received no Lougheed was quite simply the builder of modern votes as Best Premier, Davis was the consensus choice for Alberta, from better roads to higher education. During the second place. Coincidentally, he was in office during the four terms and 14 years of his premiership, Alberta played same period as Lougheed, from 1971 to 1985. a leadership role in the Canadian federation as it has at no Allan Blakeney, the prairie socialist who never ran a deficit time since. as premier from 1971 to 1982, was a strong third,

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with coverage in the top 5 from 50 per- cent of the jurors and 44 points overall. Frank McKenna, who modernized the economy and infrastructure of , was in fourth place with top 5 coverage by 46.7 percent of the jury and 37 points. Finally, edged out René Lévesque for fifth place, based partly on his remarkable return from the political wilderness, reclaiming the Liberal leadership in 1983, and the premiership itself in 1985. He was also the father of the James Bay hydro- electric projects and played a promi- nent role in support of the Free Trade Agreement in 1987 and the from 1987 to 1990.

n selecting the jury, we were very I conscious of the need for balance on two “Gs” — geography and generations. We also wanted both official language communities, as well as minority lan- guage communities, represented. We believe the jury list reflects that. Every province was represented according to its weight in the federation. Official lan- guage and minority language communi- ties were well represented. The full list of the jury members can be seen at the end of this article. It’s a remarkable and very diverse group — including three former clerks of the Privy Council and two former senior federal ministers from the West — and we thank them all for taking the time to participate by responding to our questionnaire on the Best Premier of the Last 40 Years. It is also worth noting that the jurors worked inde- pendently and weren’t informed who their colleagues on the panel were until the results were fully tabulated. In sending us their short bios, CP Photo each jury member was asked to tell us The Best Premier of the Last 40 Years, Peter Lougheed. He swept all nine leadership where he or she was born or grew up. categories, was chosen as the best premier by 21 out of 30 jurors, and was in the top 5 What was quite striking about what of every member of the panel. Lougheed by a landslide. came back was that only 7 of the 30 members still lived in the city of their We weren’t sure what the results L. Ian MacDonald, Editor of Policy birth. The rest have all moved from would be, and whether the answers Options, is the author or editor of five one part of to another. to our questionnaire would be illu- books, including Mulroney: The Making When we started out to do the Best minating. of the Prime , and From Bourassa Premier of the Last 40 Years, we thought The results speak for themselves. to Bourassa: Wilderness to Restoration. it would be a lot of fun. And it was. And the answer is Peter Lougheed. [email protected]

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Thomas S. Axworthy: Tom is a native of . Early in and journalist for the Societé Radio-Canada (SRC) and the his career, he served as senior policy adviser and principal CBC, in which capacity she covered numerous provincial Secretary to Prime Minister . He left politics to and federal elections. She later became news director of SRC teach, and in 1984 he went to as a fel- and director of RDI (Réseau de l’information). She is now low of the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of managing partner of the office for National Public Government. He was subsequently appointed Visiting Relations. Mackenzie King Chair of Canadian Studies. He helped to create the Historica Foundation in 1999 to improve the Mel Cappe: A native of Toronto, Mel is a professor in the teaching and learning of Canadian history, and he became School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto. Historica’s executive director, a position he held until 2005. He was president of the Institute for Research on Public Policy In 2009, he became president and CEO of the Walter & from 2006 to 2011. He served in the Public Service of Canada Duncan Gordon Foundation. He is a distinguished senior fel- as high commissioner for Canada to the low at the Munk School of Global Affairs and a senior fellow from 2002 to 2006. Before that he was Clerk of the Privy at Massey College. Council and Secretary to the Cabinet. He is an Officer of the . Daniel Béland: A native of who spent the last decade on the Prairies, Daniel holds the Canada Research Thomas J. Courchene: Tom was born in Wakaw, Chair in Public Policy at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate Saskatchewan, and was educated at the universities of School of Public Policy (University of Saskatchewan campus). Saskatchewan (honours BA), Princeton (PhD economics) He was a visiting scholar at the Kennedy School of and Chicago (post-doctoral). He is currently the Government (Harvard University) and a public policy scholar Jarislowsky-Deutsch Professor at Queen’s University (eco- at the Woodrow Wilson Center (Washington, DC). An expert nomics and policy studies) and is senior scholar at the in comparative public policy, he has published eight books Institute for Research on Public Policy. He is the editor or and more than 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He regu- author of some 60 books and has written widely on broad larly engages with elected officials, civil servants, and the range of Canadian public policy issues. He is an Officer of media on a host of policy issues. the Order of Canada.

Raymond B.Blake: A native of Pushthrough, Newfoundland, Christopher Dunn: Born and raised in Winnipeg, Christopher Raymond is professor of history at the University of Regina is a professor of political science at Memorial University. He and a former director of the Saskatchewan Institute of Public has written and edited books and has published several arti- Policy. He is the author and editor of a dozen books, includ- cles on Canadian politics, federalism, public policy, public ing Narrating a Nation: Canadian History Post-Confederation administration and constitutional issues. He has been involved and Narrating a Nation: Canadian History Pre-Confederation with three Royal commissions and is a regular contributor to (both co-authored), From Rights to Needs: A History of Family Policy Options. Allowances in Canada, 1929-1992, and Transforming the Nation: Canada and . He has taught Canadian David Emerson: Born in Montreal, David pursued a public studies in Canada and abroad, and recently was Craig service and business career in before serving Dobbin Chair in Canadian Studies at University College as Canada’s minister of industry, of international trade and of Dublin, Ireland. foreign affairs. He recently was chair of the Energy Policy Institute of Canada and of the Alberta Premier’s Council for Derek H. Burney: Originally from Fort William, now Thunder Economic Strategy. He is currently co-chair of the Prime Bay, Derek is senior strategic adviser for Norton Rose Canada Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service and is LLP. A graduate of Queen’s University, he was Canadian leading a federal review of Canada’s aerospace and space ambassador to the United States from 1989 to 1993, after a industries. 30-year career in the Canadian Foreign Service. He served as chief of staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and was Daniel J. Gagnier: A native of Quebec, Dan serves on a directly involved in the negotiation of the Canada-US Free number of volunteer boards and is chair of the International Trade Agreement. He was president and chief executive offi- Institute for Sustainable Development. A graduate of Loyola cer of CAE Inc. (1999-2004) and chairman and chief execu- College and McGill University, he was a diplomat, a deputy tive officer of Bell Canada International Inc. (1993-99). minister in a number of Canadian governments, principal secretary to the premier of and chief of staff to the Catherine Cano: A native of Chicoutimi, Quebec, Catherine . He was senior vice-president of Alcan spent 30 years in communications, first as a press secretary Inc. responsible for corporate affairs, environment, and to the Right Honourable John Turner. She was a producer health and safety.

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Roger Gibbins: Roger was born in Prince George, British associate editor of Canadian Public Policy, and in 2000 he Columbia, and has an undergraduate degree from the shared with K. McKenzie the Purvis Prize for the best pub- University of British Columbia and a PhD in political science lished work in public policy. from Stanford University, California. He is president and chief executive officer of the Canada West Foundation. Kevin Lynch: A native Cape Bretoner, Kevin is the vice-chair Prior to assuming the leadership of the foundation in 1998, of BMO Financial Group. He is a graduate of Mount Allison he was a professor of political science at the University of University in economics, Manchester University with a mas- Calgary, where he started his academic career in 1973. He ter’s in economics, and McMaster University with a PhD in served as department head from 1987 to 1996. He is the economics. He is the incoming chair of the board of gover- author, co-author or editor of 22 books and more than 140 nors of the University of Waterloo. Before he retired from the articles and book chapters, most dealing with western Public Service of Canada, he had been the Clerk of the Privy Canadian themes. Council and Secretary to the cabinet. Made a privy councillor in 2009, he is an Officer of the Order of Canada. Gordon Gibson: Born in , Gordon is a former executive assistant to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, mem- Antonia Maioni: A native Montrealer, Antonia is associate ber of the Legislative Assembly, and Leader of the Liberal professor at McGill University in the Department of Political Party of British Columbia from 1974 to 1979. His public Science and the Institute for Health and Social Policy. From policy areas include federalism, democratic reform and 2001 to 2011, she served as director of the McGill Institute Aboriginal affairs, and he is the author of numerous mono- for the Study of Canada, while also holding the position of graphs and essays. He is a member of the Order of British William Dawson Scholar. She holds a PhD from Northwestern Columbia and a freelance columnist with the Globe and University in Illinois, and she has published widely in the fields Mail and the Vancouver Sun. He is senior external treaty of comparative politics, public policy and health care reform. negotiator for the Gitxsan Nation, and he serves on the She is an analyst on Quebec and Canadian politics for CTV board of Westshore Terminals and the advisory boards of News and a regular contributor to . the University of British Columbia Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions and the Graduate School of Christopher Manfredi: Born in Toronto and raised in Journalism. Saskatchewan and Alberta, Christopher is dean of the Faculty of Arts at McGill University. He received a BA and an MA from Jean-Herman Guay: Jean-Herman was born in Montreal. He the , and a master’s degree and a PhD received a master’s degree from the University of Ottawa and a from Claremont Graduate University in California. He is an PhD from the Université de Montréal at the end of the 1980s in author and scholar on the role of the judiciary, especially the political science. He has conducted many studies based on sur- Supreme Court, in democratic societies, principally Canada veys and other empirical methods, aimed at gauging significant and the United States. trends in public opinion. He is a professor at the University of , with which he has been associated since 1990, and Doug McArthur: Born and raised on a farm in Watrous, where he was the first director of the École de politique appliqué. Saskatchewan, Doug is professor in the School of Pubic Policy He is the author of seven books and many academic articles. at Simon Fraser University. He teaches government and poli- tics, public policy theory and process, and Aboriginal policy Tasha Kheiriddin: A native Montrealer, Tasha is a graduate of and negotiations. At various times he was to Collège Jean de Brébeuf and the McGill Law School. She is the premier and cabinet Secretary in British Columbia, deputy co-author of the best-selling Rescuing Canada’s Right and for- minister of Aboriginal affairs in British Columbia, chief land mer director for Quebec of the . She is current- claims negotiator in the , and deputy minister of agri- ly the co-host of the daily current affairs program “National culture and deputy minister of Northern Saskatchewan in Affairs” on CTV Newschannel, as well as a weekly commenta- Saskatchewan. He was minister of education in Saskatchewan tor on Radio-Canada’s “Le Téléjournal,” and she is a colum- from 1978 to 1982 and chair of the Canadian Council of nist with The National Post. She lives in Whitby, Ontario, with Ministers of Education. He is a graduate of the University of her daughter, Zara MacDonald. Saskatchewan, University of Toronto, and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Ron Kneebone: A native of Hamilton, Ontario, Ron is a pro- fessor of economics and director of economic and social poli- Velma McColl: A westerner who has lived for more than a cy in the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary. dozen years in Ottawa, Velma studied at the University of He is co-author of two undergraduate textbooks: Economics British Columbia and the Banff School of Management. A (with N.G. Mankiw and K. McKenzie) and Macroeconomics former adviser to several federal cabinet ministers, she has (with A. Abel, B. Bernanke and D. Croushore). He is a former also worked in politics at the provincial level in Alberta and

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British Columbia. She has been an entrepreneur and is now book series entitled Élections Made in USA (2004, 2008), he a principal of the Earnscliffe Strategy Group in Ottawa, taught at Concordia University. He is now teaching at the where her practice focuses on clean technology, energy and Université de Montréal. the environment. : A native of Timmins, Ontario, Jim is the senior Charles J. McMillan: Born in Charlottetown, Charles is a executive vice-president and vice-chair of the Canadian professor of international business and public policy at York Imperial Bank of Commerce. He was elected to the University. Active in public affairs in Canada and several in 2004, 2006 and 2008, and served countries, he has worked on provincial campaigns in four variously as Canada’s minister of industry, of environment provinces and has served as an adviser to several premiers, and of Indian affairs and northern development. He also including the premiers of four Atlantic provinces. His report, chaired the Operations Committee of cabinet from the time Focusing on the Future: The New Atlantic Revolution is avail- the government was elected in 2006 until able from the Council of Atlantic Premiers. He serves as in late 2010, when he retired from elected office. Jim chairman of Canada World Youth. Prentice is a graduate of the University of Alberta (com- merce) and Dalhousie University (law). He is currently a David J. Mitchell: A native of Montreal, David is the presi- director of BCE Canada and Bell Canada. dent and chief executive officer of Canada’s Public Policy Forum. A former British Columbia member of the Legislative Robin Sears: Born and raised in Toronto, Robin is a senior Assembly, he was also deputy Clerk of the Saskatchewan communications and public affairs adviser with experience Legislative Assembly. He has worked as an executive in west- on three continents. He has led client teams in health care, ern Canadian resource industries and as a newspaper colum- financial services, media and international democratic devel- nist and public affairs commentator, and he has served as a opment. As national director of the , vice-president of three Canadian universities: Simon Fraser he built its policy-making infrastructure, its first “issues” University, University of Ottawa and Queen’s University. He is publication, and its first national direct-mail fundraising. As the author of a number of books, including a biography of the NDP’s national campaign director, he managed three W.A.C. Bennett. national elections.

Geoff Norquay: Born and raised in rural , Geoff has Jennifer Smith: Born in Ontario, Jennifer has been a resident degrees in political science from the University of Manitoba of since 1973. She is professor emeritus at and York University. Initially he pursued a career in social poli- Dalhousie University. She wrote the volume Federalism (2004), cy with the Ontario and Alberta governments. He has been which was published as part of the Canadian Democratic involved in Conservative politics all his life, serving in various Audit series. She co-edited The Democratic Dilemma: Reforming capacities in the office of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney the Canadian Senate (2009), and The Evolving Canadian Crown between 1984 and 1988. In 2004-05, he was director of (with D. Michael Jackson, 2012). communications for Stephen Harper when he was Leader of the opposition. He is a principal with the Earnscliffe Strategy Paul M. Tellier: A native of Joliette, Quebec, Paul is a former Group in Ottawa. Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the cabinet. He is a former chief executive officer of CN and Bombardier. He is Roger Ouellette: A native of New Brunswick, Roger is a pro- now a corporate director. fessor of political science at the University of Moncton. He has degrees from the universities of Moncton, Ottawa, and Ronald L. Watts: Born in Japan and a long-time resident of the Sorbonne. A former student of the École nationale d’ad- Kingston, Ontario, Ron is professor emeritus of political stud- ministration, he served in the government of New Brunswick ies and principal and vice-chancellor emeritus at Queen’s before embarking on an academic career. His teaching, University. He is a former director and currently a fellow of research and publications deal mostly with Canadian and the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations at Queen’s Acadian policy. University. He was a founding board member of the Forum of Federations and is a former board member and chairman John Parisella: A native Montrealer, John is executive direc- of the Research Committee of the IRPP. On several occa- tor of the major fundraising campaign for the Université de sions, notably in 1980-82 and 1991-92, he was a consultant Montreal, HEC and Polytechnic Montréal. A graduate of to the Government of Canada during constitutional negotia- Concordia and McGill universities, he served as Quebec’s tions. His most recent book is Comparing Federal Systems (3rd delegate general in New York. He was chief of staff to ed., 2008). Premiers Robert Bourassa and Daniel Johnson, as well as special adviser to Premier Jean Charest. The co-author of a

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