Bill Blaikie

Blaikie had the longest continuous parliamentary record in the 38th and 39th Canadian parliaments, and in this capacity served as the Dean of the House.

He was a member of the King's Privy Council for Canada.

William Alexander "Bill" Blaikie (June 19, 1951 – September 24, 2022) was a Canadian politician.

Blaikie was born to a working-class family in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on June 19, 1951.

His father was employed by Canadian National for over forty years, at first as a machinist and later in management.

Blaikie served in The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada from 1967 to 1972, and was a labourer on and off with the Canadian National Railway from 1969 to 1974 while attending university.

He was a member of the Young Progressive Conservatives in high school, and joined the NDP in 1971.

Blaikie earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and religious studies from the University of Winnipeg (1973), and a Master of Divinity from Emmanuel College, Toronto School of Theology (1977).

From 1977 to 1979, he worked as the Minister/Director of North End Community Ministry, an inner-city outreach ministry of the United Church located within the historic Stella Ave. Mission in Winnipeg.

The New Democratic Party has never formed the national government in Canada, and Blaikie served in Ottawa for 29 years as an opposition MP.

He held many important critic portfolios, and was respected by members of all parties for his personal integrity and conviction.

He was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Canada on June 4, 1978, and subsequently became a politician in the social gospel tradition of such figures as J.S. Woodsworth, Tommy Douglas and Stanley Knowles.

He served as a member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 to 2008, representing Elmwood—Transcona and its antecedent ridings in the House of Commons of Canada for the federal New Democratic Party.

Blaikie was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1979 federal election, defeating incumbent Progressive Conservative MP Dean Whiteway (who had previously been elected in the riding of Selkirk, which was eliminated by redistribution).

The Progressive Conservatives won a minority government under the leadership of Joe Clark, but lost a parliamentary motion of non-confidence later in the year.

Blaikie was appointed the NDP's Social Policy Critic in 1979, and was promoted to Health Critic in 1980.

A new election was held in early 1980, in which the Liberal Party won a majority government under the leadership of Pierre Trudeau.

Blaikie was comfortably re-elected in his own riding.

He also served as caucus chair in 1983–84.

He was instrumental in forcing Minister of Health, Monique Bégin, to enact the Canada Health Act in 1984, to deal with the crisis in medicare due to user fees and physicians' extra-billing.

In her memoirs, Bégin wrote that Blaikie waged "guerilla warfare" in the House of Commons over the issue.

The Progressive Conservatives won a landslide majority government in the 1984 federal election under Brian Mulroney, defeating the Liberals under their new leader John Turner.

Blaikie was again returned for his riding, and was appointed NDP Environment Critic in the new parliament.

He opposed the Mulroney government's budget cuts and was strongly critical of Environment Minister, Suzanne Blais-Grenier, saying, "It is clear she does not think about the environment. She thinks about the deficit."

He called for Blais-Grenier's resignation in June 1985, after she remarked that national parks could be opened to mining and logging.

In the same year, Blaikie brought forward a private member's bill calling for a three-year moratorium on the construction and export of nuclear power stations, to be followed by a national referendum on any further development.

Blaikie spoke against a bill that proposed the return of capital punishment in 1987, saying that its passage would mark "a step toward not a less violent society, but a more violent society".

The bill was defeated in a free vote.

He was also an opponent of Sunday shopping law reform in this period, arguing that it interfered with a community's right to determine common rest times.

He was promoted to External Affairs Critic in September 1987.

One of his first major policy statements in this portfolio was to call for Canada to stop allowing American cruise missile tests over its territory.

He was also critical of Canada's proposed Free Trade Agreement with the United States, and released a document entitled A Time To Choose Canada, the New Democrats' Trade Option with fellow MP Steven Langdon in February 1988.

He also served as co-chairman of the NDP's international affairs committee, and held consultation meetings on whether or not the party should reaffirm its traditional opposition to Canadian membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Blaikie considered running for the leadership of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba in 1988, following the surprise resignation of Howard Pawley.

He eventually chose not to run, and did not endorse any other candidate.

He was retained as the NDP's External Affairs Critic after the Progressive Conservatives won a second consecutive majority government in the 1988 federal election, and was also chosen as his party's spokesman for federal–provincial relations and the Constitution.

He was an international observer during Namibia's transformation to independence in 1989, and for Lithuania's first multi-party elections in early 1990.

Blaikie was the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada from 2006 to 2008.

Following his retirement from federal politics, he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 2009 until 2011, representing the Winnipeg division of Elmwood as a member of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba, and served as Minister of Conservation and Government House Leader.

Prior to the 2011 Manitoba election, he announced that he was retiring from political life.