Allan Blakeney - Premier

Premier

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

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

The farmers were a high priority, as globalization began transforming agriculture, weakening the traditional family farm through consolidation, mechanization, and corporatization. The NDP promised a "revitalized rural Saskatchewan," and Blakeney's introduced programs to stabilize crop prices, retain transportation links, and modernize rural life. Looking back he lamented his lack of success: "We were, it seems, King Canute trying to hold back the tide."

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

Blakeney also created a state-owned oil and gas corporation, SaskOil, to handle oil exploration and production. The private oil industry had essentially abandoned Saskatchewan following the NDP's imposition of extremely high royalty rate policy of the early 1970s. Prime Minister 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.

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