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Home , Allan Blakeney, Brian Topp, Ross Thatcher, Roy Romanow, Saskatchewan Legislature, Tommy Douglas

: DEFTLY NAVIGATING THUNDERSTORMS

Brian Topp

Saskatchewan Premier Allan Blakeney was one of ’s greatest premiers, and there is much for us to learn from his approach to issues ranging from managing a resource dependent economy and the Charter, to how to run a fiscally responsible, economically literate and socially progressive social democratic government.

Premier ministre de la , Allan Blakeney a été l’un des meilleurs chefs provinciaux du pays et aurait beaucoup à nous apprendre aujourd’hui sur la gestion d’une économie tributaire des ressources naturelles, sur la Charte des droits et libertés tout comme le fonctionnement d’un gouvernement social-démocrate qui est à la fois financièrement responsable, économiquement compétent et socialement progressiste.

first met Allan Blakeney, one of Canada’s greatest pre- CEOs; constitutional issues; national ; trade issues. It is miers, during a high-risk aeronautics experiment. not the easy problems that make it onto a premier’s desk. It I Specifically, in the 1990s the Government of is the toughest problems — and it was the very toughest Saskatchewan wanted to see what would happen when a ones that Romanow discussed with Blakeney. couple of Cessna airplanes purchased in the 1960s contin- ued to be flown as the government’s “executive air” fleet to lakeney approached each issue like a fascinating little ferry ministers and officials around the sprawling province. B chess puzzle. What if we did this? What if we did that? Would the planes stay in the air? Or would one of them Did you think of this? What would it mean if that were so? finally break up after decades of loyal service, tumbling with All with a cheerful, wry humour and the slightest undertone some of the province’s most senior people into a wheat field of skepticism about the high principles invoked by princi- 10,000 feet below? The planes spent more time being serv- pals making their cases, usually at high decibels, before the iced than they did flying — they were the last planes of their premier. “When they say it isn’t the money, it’s the money,” vintage flying anywhere in the world. But we kept them in I heard him quote , more than once. service instead of replacing them, in order to avoid the pre- It is more than fitting that Allan Blakeney is remembered dictable firestorm of blind populist rage in the legislature as one of Canada’s greatest premiers, since he was exactly and the media. that. He was an extraordinary leader, public servant, politi- We also made sure opposition MLAs could fly in them, cian and statesman. He has much to teach us today about too, just to keep the whole airplane thing out of the news. Canada’s greatest economic blessing and our greatest eco- Whatever happened, we were in this together. nomic curse — our prodigious natural resources. He played a So it came to be that I would find myself flying, fairly decisive role in framing Canada’s modern Constitution. And regularly, in one of these tiny, ancient and dangerous planes last but not least, he incarnates the core of the New in the company of my boss, Saskatchewan Premier Roy Democratic Party’s tradition of good government. Romanow, and Allan Blakeney, Romanow’s predecessor as I’ve made some bold claims about Allan Blakeney. As he NDP leader and premier. would say: here’s my evidence. They would sit crammed next to each other, talking He was an extraordinary leader, public servant, politician through the toughest problems facing the government. It and statesman: Let’s trace his career. He was born in 1925 into was the continuation of a conversation they had been hav- a Loyalist family in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia. His politically ing together since 1970, just about the time when the conservative father ran a wholesale fruit business serving the planes were bought. south shore of the province (one of the most beautiful places Cabinet shuffles and ministerial bad behaviour; bond in the world, I can report). Blakeney attended Dalhousie ratings; health care reform; public-sector bargaining; the University, picking up an undergraduate degree in history clockspins of politics and political polls; angry demands for and political science and then a law degree. He emerged with bailouts and subsidies from wealthy rentiers and corporate a deep respect for the beautiful prose of English legal

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judgments. He also gained his first taste Executive Council, the province’s He was elected to the of electoral politics when he took on equivalent of the federal Privy Council in 1960 and the “medical establishment” by suc- Office and the Prime ’s Office. was appointed minister of education cessfully running against the medical- by Premier Douglas. student-dominated student council, his was the engine room of the In 1961, Douglas became national and also as one of the founders of the T Douglas government — the practi- leader at the NDP’s founding conven- campus CCF club. cal-minded, nuts and bolts centre of the tion. He was succeeded as premier by His interest in politics and his government that wove together the , who appointed Blak- obvious ability commended him to hopes and dreams of the party; the will eney as finance minister. In this role, the attention of two important talent of cabinet, the enthusiasms and grass- Blakeney played a critical role in shaping the Saskatchewan govern- He was an extraordinary leader, public servant, politician and ment’s nimble management statesman. He has much to teach us today about Canada’s of the doctors’ strike, greatest economic blessing and our greatest economic curse designed to prevent universal — our prodigious natural resources. He played a decisive role public from being introduced in North Ameri- in framing Canada’s modern Constitution. ca. A complex negotiation, spotters. The first was the Rhodes roots feedback of the caucus and the the “ agreement” gave Canadi- Scholarship committee, which sent executive determination of Premier an medicare the basic form it has had him to Oxford for two fulfilling years Douglas and Finance Minister Clarence ever since — not the last time Blakeney studying philosophy, political science Fines — and then made much of what would be involved in a complex negoti- and economics. the Douglas team (and its succeeding ation that shaped Canada. The other was George Cadbury. To CCF-NDP governments) hoped to In 1962, in the wake of the understand Blakeney, we do well to accomplish actually happen, one prac- Saskatchewan doctors’ strike, Premier pause for a moment to understand tical step at a time, through balanced Lloyd appointed Blakeney minister of Cadbury. Cadbury (yes, that Cadbury) budgets and prudent good government. health to consolidate the public’s vic- was the heir to a not insignificant As the architect of much of this, and the introduction of medicare. English Quaker fortune built on the Cadbury was a relentless talent-hunter. The Lloyd government was defeat- chocolate-making business. Having He encouraged Allan Blakeney to con- ed in 1964. In 1970, after Lloyd’s resig- learned to manage large organizations sider a role in the government of nation, Blakeney was elected leader of in the family business in England, he Saskatchewan after he completed his the Saskatchewan NDP, defeating a 29- signed up to serve in the British gov- studies, and Blakeney, like many of us, year-old first-term MLA named Roy ernment during the Second World found the opportunity to serve in Romanow, who gave him quite a run War, spending three years as deputy Canada’s first social democratic gov- for his money. (Romanow led on every director of production in the Ministry ernment irresistible. ballot, except the last. Blakeney of Aircraft Production. Cadbury was And so, in 1950, Blakeney took up appointed Romanow as his deputy also a long-time member of the British a position in the very heart of the premier on assuming office.) Fabian Society and the , Douglas government — in the The NDP was elected to govern and a friend of a number of CCF mem- Government Finance Office, as its rep- the province in 1971, and was reelect- bers who encouraged him to look into resentative and corporate secretary on ed in 1975 and in 1978. Blakeney’s the newly elected CCF government in the boards of many of the province’s team was defeated in 1982 in a spec- Saskatchewan — North America’s first growing stable of Crowns. He served in tacular rout. Blakeney led a strongly social democratic government. that role for five years. resurgent NDP in one more election He did so in 1945. He and Premier In 1955, he was appointed chair of in 1986 and then retired to a produc- Tommy Douglas hit it off. And so the Saskatchewan Securities tive life as a university professor, cor- Cadbury was soon chairing the Commission. He then began to con- porate director and thoughtful Douglas government’s Economic template a political career and was adviser to many NDP premiers and Advisory and Planning Board — the encouraged to do so by his minister, federal party leaders, including Jack kernel that would grow into the Clarence Fines, and by the premier. He Layton. He died in April 2011. It is a Saskatchewan government’s robust resigned from the civil service in 1959, measure of how his leadership crossed portfolio of Crown corporations (man- briefly worked in a law firm and then partisan lines that aged through a holding entity called stood for a CCF nomination in 1960 was one of the speakers at his memo- first the Government Finance Office with the organizational support of the rial service. and later the Crown Investments finance minister, who clearly viewed So what did Allan Blakeney do Corporation) and key elements of its Blakeney as his political heir. during this career that merits him

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being remembered as one of Canada’s Under this plan, Premier Thatcher ‘trade and commerce’ clause,” greatest premiers? had allocated production allowances Romanow told me. “Joining as a co- To begin, he demonstrated that it to the province’s 10 (mostly foreign- plaintiff might be explained by is possible to manage a wealth of natu- owned) potash mines and had Trudeau’s agreement with this constitu- ral resources in the public interest — imposed minimum prices — aiming to tional interpretation, and less because one of the central issues that lie before end rounds of overproduction and of the actual policy. In fact, when the Canada today. price undercutting that had driven the US State Department wrote a diplomat- Allan Blakeney demonstrated that entire Saskatchewan potash industry ic note to Trudeau complaining about a Canadian government can govern, to the brink of bankruptcy. This was, our actions — I was responsible for rather than be governed by, resources as Blakeney acknowledged in his mem- drafting both bills and navigating a and resource companies. A Canadian oirs (An Honourable Calling, Political four-month filibuster in the House by government can uphold the public Memoirs, 2008), possibly an arrange- provincial Liberals who did not object interest, can stare down powerful ment of dubious legality. But the feder- on constitutional grounds but in sup- multinationals and a federal govern- al Liberal government under Pierre port of corporate interests — Trudeau ment in their power, can insist the Trudeau did not challenge the doings publicly defended Saskatchewan’s public be paid for its own resources, of its provincial Liberal cousins, and actions as a domestic, internal matter. can insist they be developed in Canada no one else did either. By joining as a co-plaintiff, Trudeau by Canadian-owned companies. And Things changed when the newly positioned the federal government to they can think in the long term — elected NDP government under Premier prosecute the case even if we settled even if that means waiting a little Blakeney tinkered with these arrange- with Central Canada Potash.” while before building a new The federal Liberals then mine or sinking a new well. The province’s resources were further upped the ante. In May Saskatchewan has some of developed by a mix of public and 1974, Finance Minister John the world’s largest reserves of private players who earned robust Turner introduced a budget that petroleum, potash and urani- profits, created thousands of jobs provided that corporations um. Using a variety of public could no longer deduct provin- policy tools — including Crown and actually paid appropriate cial royalties and like taxes from corporations, royalties and royalties and taxes — permitting the their expenses when calculating taxes, and with tough, unblink- Blakeney government to balance its federal corporation taxes — in ing negotiations with some of budget every year, to attack poverty, effect, seeking to appropriate the world’s largest corporations virtually all applicable provin- — the Blakeney government to improve education and health cial resource royalties. promoted a substantial increase care, and to implement many other In his memoirs, Blakeney in development of all of those innovative and important reforms refers to these federal measures resources, on terms that actually and initiatives. as, among other things, a “dec- worked for the province and for laration of war.” Canada. There was no race to the bot- ments to try to make them work better tom. There was no bonfire of the public and to wring more reasonable royalty he Blakeney government respond- interest, begging for foreign capital on payments from the industry. After some T ed to Turner’s budget measures any terms. There was no pillaging of preliminary skirmishing, the largest pro- with an alternative tax, which the our resources, for pennies on the dollar, ducer, Central Canada Potash, filed a industry, illegally, refused to pay — to build the industrial economies of lawsuit seeking to have the whole sys- waiting out the 1975 provincial elec- other countries. Blakeney used the tem declared illegal. tion, which the industry clearly hoped province’s resources to leverage devel- In November 1973, the Trudeau Blakeney was going to lose. opment and to build capital — not to government asked to be added as a co- That was, all in all, some pretty blight the economy and to throw our plaintiff in this action — on the side of serious firepower aimed at the capital (and Canadian ownership) out the private corporation, against the Saskatchewan government. the window, as is currently fashionable. government. remembers A legal challenge from both indus- that intervention well. “Central Canada try and the federal government here are many stories available to Potash challenged the legislation alleg- designed to break the province’s regu- T illustrate this. I’ll offer you one. ing it was ‘unconstitutional’ because it latory authority, a federal budget In 1971, the Blakeney government touched on a product (potash) that designed to break the province’s royal- inherited a potash “pro-rationing crossed interprovincial and internation- ty regime and a corporate tax strike — plan” from its predecessor, the Liberal al borders, and thus arguably fell with- the kind of pressure that these days government of . in ’s power under S.91(2), the tends to break governments.

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But they didn’t break the Blakeney government, which responded in the most robust manner possible. Safely reelected, the government chartered the Saskatchewan Potash Corporation and set out to nationalize the industry — or, at least, to threaten to do so. “Technically, the second bill did not nationalize the industry,” recalls Romanow. “We enacted a trigger in the legislation if we were unsuccessful in buying out a company. We succeeded in doing so, and so no ‘act of nationaliza- tion’ ever took place. This shows Blakeney’s deft touch, his carrot and stick approach, in achieving our goals.” Blakeney explained the benefits of this approach this way. “Firstly,” he writes in his memoirs, this move would “place beyond the reach of the federal government the returns from that part of the potash industry that would be owned by the Crown. Secondly, it would signal to Ottawa that the vehicle of public ownership was available for other industries, namely oil and uranium, if they per- sisted in their policy of attempting to get for themselves a substantial part of the increased value of those resources. Thirdly, it would signal to the potash industry that it was whol- ly unacceptable for the industry to withhold taxes that were acknowl- edged to be due and owing, and would signal to them also that there were other options for developing the potash industry in Saskatchewan, and accordingly that they could not name their own CP Photo terms. Negotiations were required. Fourthly, it would signal to other Former Saskatchewan Premier Allan Blakeney with his successor, Roy Romanow, on elec- tion night in 1991. Both were known as sensible prairie socialists who balanced their resource industries that our govern- books. Blakeney finished third on our top 5 list of the best premiers of the last 40 years. ment considered public ownership of some of the resources as an option, a mix of public and private players cessors a public sector with zero net and we believed that this would be who earned robust profits, created public debt and a growing “heritage part of their thinking when negotiat- thousands of jobs and actually paid fund” that could have been used as ing with the government.” appropriate royalties and taxes — per- investment capital to build a value- All of which proved to be so. mitting the Blakeney government to added economy. balance its budget every year, to attack As is evident from his words, nd so, for the rest of its term, the poverty, to improve education and Blakeney didn’t fetishize public owner- A Blakeney government oversaw an health care, to implement many other ship or believe it should drive resource era of growing prosperity, in which the innovative and important reforms and development, necessarily. It was one of province’s resources were developed by initiatives, and to hand off to its suc- many tools in the tool box, available to be

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used to ensure that the public interest on his promise and accepted an amend- through door-to-door campaigning would prevail. A refreshingly modern ment clarifying the resource issue. than through costly and uncertain idea, that moderate progressive reformists “Trudeau also gave me assurances Supreme Court decisions, decisions will return to when today’s failed neo- that the government would be open in which, once made, had the effect of conservative economic orthodoxies find principle to other amendments on the being a ‘constitutional amendment.’” their way to the dustbin they deserve. constitutional package,” Broadbent “That debate in was awe- He played a decisive role in framing remembered. “This I noted in my pub- some, it should have been taped,” Canada’s modern Constitution: licly released letter at the time and of remembered , Blakeney’s prin- Arguably, the last truly great debate to course reported to the federal caucus. cipal secretary (and, interestingly, later Ed occur on the floor of a federal NDP Again, subsequent amendments to the Broadbent’s principal secretary as well). convention (at least, until something constitutional package included major “Blakeney believed that concrete legisla- tive reform, like medicare or During the 1981 Vancouver debate and in many public labour standards, was the way statements before and after it, Blakeney took strong issue with to make progress and to act Trudeau’s whole initiative, arguing passionately that the together collectively. And that achieving gains like these federal and provincial governments should be led by elected through elections and then legislatures, and not by appointed courts enforcing a through legislation passed by constitutionally entrenched charter. an elected legislature would move us with wider equally interesting comes along, at changes affecting the rights of First societal buy-in and less conflict than some point in the future) occurred in Nations people and women. On both of court-ordered and imposed norms.” 1981 in Vancouver. The key protago- these matters, I had direct conversations Writing many years later in his nists were Allan Blakeney and Ed with Trudeau, who was neither a femi- memoirs, Blakeney added a second argu- Broadbent, arguing the merits of the nist nor a supporter of Aboriginal rights. ment: that, on reflection, Trudeau’s Trudeau government’s constitutional Demonstrating his own flexibility and Charter didn’t go far enough to merit initiative. political intelligence, he did accept support. Specifically, the Charter protect- Broadbent broadly supported the amendments in both of these areas that ed individual (civil and political) rights, patriation initiative — on terms. He were proposed either in committee or but was largely silent on collective argued that it was time for Canada to on the floor of the House by the NDP.” (social, economic and cultural) rights have a Canadian constitution; that we So then, there was the other side like, for example, the right to education, needed a functioning amendment for- of the debate. health care and the necessities of life. On mula in lieu of having to refer amend- this argument, Trudeau’s Charter consti- ments to the British ; and that uring the 1981 Vancouver debate tutionalizes a form of liberalism that it was good for Canada to add a charter of D and in many public statements courts have used in many countries to rights, including guarantees for minority before and after it, Blakeney took nullify the public interest, when that language rights. He was supported in this strong issue with Trudeau’s whole ini- public interest is collective (as I write, the position by two of his predecessors, tiative, arguing passionately that the US Supreme Court is contemplating Tommy Douglas and David Lewis. federal and provincial governments Barack Obama’s health care reform from Federal NDP policy had long called for an should be led by elected legislatures, within precisely this frame, for example). entrenched charter of rights. and not by appointed courts enforcing Making the best of a bad situation “However, it was a condition of my a constitutionally entrenched charter. sums up Blakeney’s approach to the support, publicly acknowledged and “I remember the Vancouver con- whole matter. accepted in writing by Trudeau, that vention well, since I was in the line-up In 1980-81, Blakeney was (although there be an amendment to the package to speak, sometime after Allan he didn’t know it yet) in the last years of that would clarify and confirm provin- Blakeney,” Romanow said. “It was a his mandate. He was being challenged cial jurisdictional control over natural moment of high political drama, since by a recklessly irresponsible but political- resources,” Broadbent told me in a the debate reflected two competing ly clever right-wing populist, recent exchange. “The resource amend- visions of Canada. Blakeney feared the Conservative leader . ment was of course something Allan transfer of power from electoral politics, Debating the Constitution was the last had been calling for, for some time, and our tradition in Saskatchewan at the thing Blakeney wanted to focus on. But that I thought was necessary. And time, to judicial ‘politics’. In the tradi- those were the cards he was handed by might also be an inducement to the tion of Douglas et al., we strongly Prime Minister Trudeau, who was also in Government of Saskatchewan to sup- believed that as difficult as it was, social his last mandate and was determined to port the package. Trudeau did deliver stood a better chance address these issues.

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Blakeney brought to the patria- if the Trudeau Liberals had gone ahead referendum teach us not to attempt tion issue his deep schooling in with unilateral patriation, instead of constitutional amendments unless we Tommy Douglas’ engine room — in the filing a Supreme Court reference that can be certain we will succeed. core central agencies of the govern- blew up in their faces, forcing them He incarnates the core of the New ment whose job is to tackle the tough- back to the table with the provinces. Democratic Party’s tradition of good govern- est issues and to get the best possible Blakeney believed the British govern- ment: As my final piece of evidence of result. People with that kind of experi- ment would likely have given Trudeau the merits of Allan Blakeney, a few words ence aren’t fazed by difficult problems what he wanted. And all the provinces about one of his most lasting contribu- and are slow to give up. He also could then have been outraged togeth- tions to his political party and to social brought deep experience in stepping er, without isolating .) democracy in Canada — the NDP’s deep up to seemingly insoluble conflicts. And finally, Blakeney and his tradition of good government. Like the 1962 doctors’ strike which he team went for the deal — once it was In 1992, Blakeney, working with played a key role in resolving as clear that common front confronta- University of professor finance minister. And like the potash tion had lived out its usefulness. Sandford Borins, published his best tax strike, which he resolved by cutting Blakeney was never going to agree to book, Political Management in Canada his counterparties off at the knees. René Lévesque’s last-minute solution (1992). It is a sort of Socratic dialogue of putting the whole package to a ref- between Blakeney and Borins, dis- he events around patriation have erendum (look how well that worked cussing the art of political leadership, T often been told and I’m not going out in the subsequent Charlottetown leading a cabinet, getting best results to rehearse them here. But I’ll point to referendum). He wanted the file from the public service and many his game plan and to the outcome. closed and off the table. And, as had other topics. It is a treasure chest, that Broadly speaking, Blakeney pursued been the case in 1962 during the set- book — and should be mandatory three strategies during the patriation tlement negotiations to end the doc- reading for any Canadian social demo- debate. tors’ strike, he knew that meant that crat with any hopes of working in any First, he experimented with bilater- all parties were going to have to role in government. I got to see that al bargaining with Trudeau. In a series weave together a compromise. governing tradition in action, and I of conversations between the two gov- And so that is what he went for, and feel strongly it is an approach to gov- ernments, Blakeney attempted to get that is what Canada got — the Charter of ernment that can serve our party well, Trudeau to change his patriation pack- Rights, with a notwithstanding clause both provincially and federally. age to make it more acceptable. Some that preserved, in some cases, the Blakeney’s book speaks for itself. progress was made — for example, the supremacy of elected representatives over I’ll just point to a few of the character- Trudeau government ulti- mately agreed to enshrine Blakeney brought to the patriation issue his deep schooling in clearer provincial control of Tommy Douglas’ engine room — in the core central agencies natural resources in the of the government whose job is to tackle the toughest issues Constitution through a new and to get the best possible result. section 92A, resolving the legal issues raised during the acrimo- appointed judges. A trade-off between istics of that governing tradition that nious potash litigation. But it became Trudeau’s vision and Blakeney’s. struck me when I was living in it. clear to Blakeney that Trudeau was con- The Canadian Constitution is, I First, it is a responsible approach to ducting numerous concurrent negotia- think Blakeney would be the first to government. In particular, this tradi- tions and was going to have a hard time agree, an unfinished piece of business. tion has a prairie socialist’s allergy to successfully resolving all of them. Blakeney’s view, as set out in his mem- excessive reliance on public debt. And He then experimented with collec- oirs, that a worthy charter of rights so, New Democrats governing in that tive bargaining. He helped engineer a should include collective rights, might tradition are careful with the family sil- common front among six, and then point us to where we need to go next, as ver, do what they can to repair public eight of the provincial governments, this dark period of neo-conservatism revenues and then tailor the suit to fit and tried to simultaneously derail the comes to an end. That will be an impor- the cloth — rather than running struc- federal government’s emerging strategy tant discussion, if so, and should include tural deficits that can only have one of repatriating the Constitution unilat- the collective rights of the people of end, as we see in parts of Europe today. erally, while concurrently trying to Quebec, whose National Assembly has Second, it is a respectful approach bring the parties together around some not ratified the 1981 settlement. to government. New Democrats gov- sort of negotiated solution. (Blakeney Blakeney would also be the first to erning in that tradition tend to be later wryly wrote that in hindsight, it say, I think, that the fates of the Meech respectful of Parliament and of legisla- might have been better for the country Lake Accord and the Charlottetown tures, for example, and would never

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dream of delivering a budget speech in vant in that he had sent them in the uncertain world of prag- an auto parts plant, or a Throne back to the individual, meticulously matism. He was much like the fisher- Speech on a talk radio station. showing how a memo should be struc- men and farmers who were Allan tured and written in proper clear Blakeney’s influences. People who pur- hird, it is a relatively open and English. I commented that he must see sued their dreams, but sometimes had T inclusive approach to government. great promise in this public servant to to temper them.” One of Blakeney’s mantras, Bill Knight take the time to show him the way. ‘Yes,’ Saskatchewan makes up about 3 remembered, was this: “Don’t bring me Blakeney replied, ‘but he didn’t correct percent of Canada’s population. When the problem. I know the problem. Bring the structure or English. He changed his well led, its provincial government has me the solution!” This is a premier recommendations. I agreed with the rec- boxed well above its weight in this speaking to a minister or to a senior ommendations!” He laughed. I laughed. ever-changing, complex federation. The province has been very Saskatchewan makes up about 3 percent of Canada’s well led indeed by a string population. When well led, its provincial government has boxed of competent, thoughtful, well above its weight in this ever-changing, complex federation. determined and tough CCF and NDP premiers, of The province has been very well led indeed by a string of whom Allan Blakeney was competent, thoughtful, determined and tough CCF and NDP one of the best. Just like premiers, of whom Allan Blakeney was one of the best. those ancient Cessna air- planes we used to fly official, letting her or him know that Between those two laughs the whole around in, those governments were their role is to propose solutions as well building shook.”) extremely good at manœuvring over as to raise problems. This may seem a Finally, it is a systematic approach or around the occasional thunder- little trite, but it is fundamental to to government: this model of govern- storm in their way — and even flew Blakeney’s approach to leadership. He ment can move quickly when it has right through a couple of them when expected all the lights to be on in the to, but it generally takes a systematic, absolutely necessary (I flew in those building; he wanted the full benefit of comprehensive (and, some might per- planes once or twice when they did everyone’s proposals, as well as their haps occasionally mutter, an ever-so- that — it is not for the faint of heart). ability to identify problems. I’ve looked slightly plodding) approach to public For the government, as for the air- into governments rooted in other polit- affairs. Cabinet business, the work of plane, it was always extremely reassur- ical traditions, whose premiers believed the central agencies, the tasks of min- ing to know that the pilot knew they had all the answers all the time, isters and cabinet, the machinery of exactly what he was doing. and spoke to their colleagues in the government, are carefully thought As a final note, in his brief con- form of orders, often barked. That did through, carefully managed and done cluding speech at Allan Blakeney’s not make for happy teams, from what I in an orderly and thoughtful way. In memorial, his son Hugh didn’t talk could see, or particularly effective ones. the result, governments in this style much about Allan Blakeney’s degrees, (On this theme, here is another don’t crackle with entrepreneurial ini- or his ministerial career, or his adven- Blakeney story, offered by Knight: “One tiative quite the way they might oth- tures as premier, or any of Allan time the premier’s assistant called down erwise do. On the other hand, if we Blakeney’s many other accomplish- to my office in the basement late in the look at, say, the increasingly embar- ments and contributions. But he did afternoon saying the premier wanted to rassing antics of BC Liberal Premier speak, in unforgettable terms, about see me — now. As always I tried to charm , her fractious cabinet the song Allan Blakeney sang to his what the subject matter might be, only and her long-suffering political team children at night to help them get to to be told ‘The premier seems perplexed.’ (who must be wondering what they sleep. It was a reminder that Allan This was code to be on alert. Up the got themselves into), we can see what Blakeney had time in his life for much stairs I went, thinking hard on what I government without a centreboard more than politics — and a timely may have misfired on lately. When I looks like. reminder, in an era of 24/7 politics, of came through the door Allan Blakeney “Allan Blakeney was a principled what the people closest to people in was behind his desk throwing pages pragmatist,” Romanow said. “This politics really remember and value from a report up in the air muttering to phrase reflects his complexity, sensitiv- most about them. himself. I was immediately relieved since ity and determination, which is so I didn’t write things down! So bravely I essential to a functioning and progres- Brian Topp is past president of the New said — ‘Well, Mr. Premier, how goes your sive democracy — something we are Democratic Party of Canada. In the day?’ He proceeded to tell me that he far from today. He was true to his prin- 1990s he served as deputy chief of staff had a report from a midlevel public ser- ciples, to the end, and would pursue to Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow.

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