I was saddened to learn about the passing of Bill Blaikie, who served as a Member of Parliament from Winnipeg under the NDP banner for nearly 30 years. Blaikie succumbed to kidney cancer on Saturday at the age of 71.
A Unitarian Minister by vocation, Blaikie was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1979 and would be re-elected eight times until retiring in 2008. In 2003, Blaikie sought the NDP leadership but was defeated by Jack Layton. During his last years in the Commons, Blaikie served as Deputy Speaker. He also served a single term as a NDP member of the Manitoba legislature from 2009 to 2011 before retiring from politics for good. His son Daniel is currently a MP from the same area while his daughter Rebecca served as President of the NDP for a number of years.
When I lived in Ottawa attending Carleton University during the early 1990's, I served as a parliamentary intern for several NDP MPs. Although I did not intern for Blaikie, I came across him regularly. He was a large bear of a man who could come across as gruff. But he also possessed a dry sense of humor.
When I interned for Nelson Riis in the fall of 1994, I did some research into corporate taxation and had found the Royal Bank of Canada had not paid any corporate tax at all which the NDP saw fit to use. Blaikie congratulated me during a NDP caucus meeting stating, "Aaron, you have a bright future ahead of you, but it won't be with the Royal Bank."
I don't know if he remembered uttering it nor can I say how bright my future turned out to be, but it is one of the nicest things anyone has said about me. R.I.P.
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