By Jon Weier
As many of you know, our great friend, Bill Blaikie, passed away last Saturday. Bill’s life-long work was forwarding the cause of social democracy and social justice in Canada. The board and staff of the Douglas-Coldwell-Layton Foundation sends its deepest condolences to Brenda, Rebecca, Jessica, Daniel, Tessa and the entire Blaikie family.
I had the immense good fortune to work closely with Bill as his legislative assistant for five years from 2001 to 2005. In that time he was a leading voice in the struggle against undemocratic neo-liberal free-trade deals, he led parliamentary opposition to Canada’s involvement in the War on Terror, and he spoke up against draconian anti-terror legislation that led to the disgraceful treatment and imprisonment of Maher Arar and Omar Khadr. Working with Bill was inspiring and life-defining. I learnt from Bill that public service means giving voice to the voiceless, showing solidarity with those without power or privilege, and never being indifferent to the suffering of others.
The five years I spent working with Bill were only a small part of his career of public service. Bill was the Member of Parliament for his hometown of Transcona for almost thirty years from his first election in 1979 until he retired from the House of Commons in 2008. In that time he served in almost every critic role and supported Jack Layton as the NDP's parliamentary leader before Jack’s election in 2004. Bill then made the move to provincial politics and for two years was the provincial NDP Minister of Conservation. He ended up being one of the longest serving CCF or NDP MPs, emulating the example of his political mentors, Tommy Douglas and Stanley Knowles. Of his many accomplishments, he was especially proud to have been chosen to officiate at Tommy’s funeral in 1986, and to have been asked to give the eulogy for Stanley in 1997.
Throughout his career Bill has inspired those around him to embark on lives of public service to continue the important work of building true social democracy in Canada. At the Douglas-Coldwell-Layton Foundation we are committed to furthering Bill’s work, inspiring new generations of social democratic organizers and activists, and honouring and sharing Bill’s legacy and the legacies of all of those who have built our movement.
Jon Weier is a member of the DCL Foundation Board of Directors, a historian and professor of Labour Studies at George Brown College.
We have some very important information to share and it is my sincere desire that you will read through to the end of this post and learn about an important project we’ve undertaken to bring awareness to a major problem our country is facing in our healthcare system, and to help bring proposed solutions to the attention of policy makers in our work to defend public healthcare.
From all of us at the Foundation, we wish you a joyful Pride month filled with celebration and love. As we celebrate queer love, joy and success we must also take the time to reflect on the history that has led us to where we are today.
In advance of the event “Trends in Social Democracy” a survey was conducted to test the feelings of BC Voters on issues of concern and solutions offered by Social Democracy as it relates to the upcoming provincial election.
From May 6 to 9, 2024, Abacus Data conducted a survey of 1,000 eligible voters in British Columbia exploring their views on provincial politics and government.
These are the findings:
