ALLAN BLAKENEY: DEFTLY NAVIGATING THUNDERSTORMS Brian Topp Saskatchewan Premier Allan Blakeney was one of Canada’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 Saskatchewan, 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 unity; 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 Tommy Douglas, 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 42 OPTIONS POLITIQUES JUIN-JUILLET 2012 Allan Blakeney: Deftly navigating thunderstorms 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 Saskatchewan legislature in 1960 and the “medical establishment” by suc- Office and the Prime Minister’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 Woodrow Lloyd, 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 medicare 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 “Saskatoon 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, tory 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 Labour Party, 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 Peter Lougheed 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.