The Honourable Allan Blakeney PC OC SOM QC FRSC
Blakeney in 2009
10th Premier of Saskatchewan
In office June 30, 1971 – May 8, 1982
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Lieutenant Governor	Stephen Worobetz George Porteous Irwin McIntosh
Preceded by	Ross Thatcher
Succeeded by	Grant Devine
Leader of the Opposition
In office July 4, 1970 – June 30, 1971
Preceded by	Woodrow Lloyd
Succeeded by	David Steuart
In office May 8, 1982 – November 7, 1987
Preceded by	Eric Berntson
Succeeded by	Roy Romanow
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for Regina City
In office June 8, 1960 – April 22, 1964 Serving with Charles C. Williams, Marjorie Cooper, Edward C. Whelan
Preceded by	Clarence Melvin Fines
Succeeded by	District divided
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for Regina West
In office April 22, 1964 – October 11, 1967 Serving with Marjorie Cooper
Preceded by	District divided
Succeeded by	District abolished
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for Regina Centre
In office October 11, 1967 – June 11, 1975
Preceded by	District created
Succeeded by	District renamed
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan for Regina Elphinstone
In office June 11, 1975 – March 21, 1988
Preceded by	District renamed
Succeeded by	Dwain Lingenfelter
President of the New Democratic Party
In office 1969–1971
Preceded by	James Renwick
Succeeded by	Donald C. MacDonald
Personal details
Born	Allan Emrys Blakeney (1925-09-07)September 7, 1925 Bridgewater, Nova Scotia
Died	April 16, 2011(2011-04-16) (aged 85) Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Political party	New Democratic Party
Spouse	Anne Gorham
Children	4

Allan Emrys Blakeney PC OC SOM QC FRSC (September 7, 1925 – April 16, 2011) was the tenth premier of Saskatchewan from 1971 to 1982, and leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party (NDP).^[1]

Early life and career

Born in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Blakeney took his law degree at Dalhousie Law School, winning the gold medal. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Queen's College, Oxford, where he played for the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club.^[1] He earned a bachelor's degree, second class, in politics and economics.^[2]

On returning to Canada, he passed the Nova Scotia bar exam in 1950. He then took a job with the Saskatchewan civil service, eventually becoming a senior civil servant in Saskatchewan, before he entered politics in 1960 and represented part of Regina. He would represent a Regina-based riding without interruption until his retirement in 1988.

Blakeney served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Tommy Douglas and Woodrow S. Lloyd until the government was defeated in 1964.^[1] As minister of health, he played a crucial role in the introduction of Medicare.^[3][4]

In 1969, Blakeney was elected national president of the New Democratic Party of Canada, and succeeded James Renwick.^[5]

NDP leader

In 1970, Blakeney succeeded Lloyd as leader of the Saskatchewan NDP, which was then in opposition. Historically, his election as leader has been interpreted as a victory of the provincial NDP's "establishment" over the left-wing Waffle faction, because Lloyd was trying to move the party more to the left and supported the Waffle Manifesto at the October 1969 federal NDP convention in Winnipeg.^[6] As well, Lloyd backed the Waffle's right to debate issues after the convention, which disturbed many of his MLAs, who eventually forced him to resign in March 1970.^[6]

Premier

In the 1971 provincial election, Blakeney led the party to power and defeated Ross Thatcher's Liberal government.

Blakeney's government practiced state-led economic intervention in the economy.

The farmers were a high priority, as globalization began transforming agriculture and weakened the traditional family farm through consolidation, mechanization, and corporatization. The NDP promised a "revitalized rural Saskatchewan," and Blakeney introduced programs to stabilize crop prices, retain transportation links, and modernize rural life. Looking back, he lamented the gradual conversion of Saskatchewan's family farms into larger agricultural ventures: without resorting to the "very high costs" and "billions of dollars" that preserved family farming in Europe and the United States, "[w]e were, it seems, King Canute trying to hold back the tide."^[7]

His government created a crown corporation in the potash industry in an attempt to further diversify the province's agrarian economy and threatened the expropriation of private potash mines in the province.^[8] Blakeney pointed out that the sums paid for the mines were slightly in excess of their appraised "book" value. However, the mere threat of expropriation created a political firestorm that involved even the US government.^[9]

Blakeney also created a state-owned oil and gas corporation, SaskOil, to handle oil exploration and production.^[8] The private oil industry had essentially abandoned Saskatchewan after the NDP's policy of imposing extremely-high royalty rates in the early 1970s. Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's policies to centralize control in Ottawa outraged Blakeney, and he moved closer to Alberta's position of open hostility.

Blakeney joined Alberta Progressive Conservative Premier Peter Lougheed in a fight for provincial rights over minerals, oil, and gas.^{[8] [10]}

Blakeney played an important role in the federal-provincial negotiations that led to the 1982 patriation of the Canadian constitution.^[8]

Later career

Blakeney's government was defeated in the 1982 provincial election, its attempt to win a fourth successive term, being defeated by the Progressive Conservative Party, led by Grant Devine.^[8] The NDP lost 35 of its 44 seats, then the third-worst defeat of a sitting government in the province's history. The party was cut down to only nine seats, its smallest presence in the legislature since its first election in 1934 (as the Saskatchewan CCF).

Once in opposition, Blakeney continued to lead the party up to the 1986 provincial election. The NDP not only regained much of what it had lost in its severe beating of four years earlier, but also gained more votes overall than Devine's Progressive Conservatives.^[8] However, much of that margin was wasted on landslide margins in Regina and Saskatoon, which left the NDP eight seats short of regaining power. Blakeney resigned in 1987 and was succeeded by Roy Romanow.

On April 30, 1992, he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada for his work as Premier of Saskatchewan, his enormous contribution to the field of public administration, and a key player in introducing the first comprehensive public medical health care plan in Canada.^[3] In 2000, he was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit. In 2001, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Blakeney was also a past president of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

As a private citizen, Blakeney served as a consultant to the Romanow government in the 1990s, when it sold the SaskOil to Occidental Petroleum. Blakeney then served on the board of directors of the successor corporation.

Death

Blakeney died on April 16, 2011, at his home in Saskatoon of complications from cancer.^[4][11]

Federal NDP leader Jack Layton dedicated the rest of his federal election campaign to Blakeney, who died about halfway through the campaign.^[12] About 600 people attended his memorial, including federal NDP leaders Jack Layton and Ed Broadbent, former provincial premiers Roy Romanow, Lorne Calvert, Peter Lougheed, Ed Schreyer, Bill Davis, and Bob Rae, as well as then Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall.^[13]

Notes

References

• Allan Blakeney. An Honourable Calling: Political Memoirs (University of Toronto Press, 2008) 258 pp. ISBN 978-0-8020-9891-7.
• * Gruending, Dennis (1990). Promises to keep : a political biography of Allan Blakeney. Saskatoon, Sask.: Western Producer Prairie Books. ISBN 0-88833-324-2. OCLC 28115877.
• McLeod, Thomas H.; McLeod, Ian (1987). Tommy Douglas : the road to Jerusalem. Edmonton: Hurtig. ISBN 0-88830-316-5. OCLC 16577811.