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A 'sunshine budget' for a soggy season

Broadcast Date: March 28, 1966

A 'sunshine budget' for a soggy season

• Before 1888, government leaders in Manitoba were not affiliated with a specific party. The first such premier was Thomas Greenway, a Liberal, who led the province for 12 years.

• Greenway was succeeded briefly in 1900 by a Conservative, Sir Hugh John Macdonald. He was the son of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister.

• The younger Macdonald was then succeeded by Sir Rodmond P. Roblin, also a Conservative. He was premier for 15 years; Duff Roblin, another conservative, was his grandson.

• A Liberal, Tobias Norris, then took the reins and governed for seven years.

• A party without a leader, the United Farmers of Manitoba, won 28 seats in the 1922 election and earned the right to form a government. They appointed John Braken to the premier's chair. He was the president of the Manitoba Agricultural College and had to be talked into the role. He ran for a seat in a deferred election in the northern riding of The Pas and was premier for 20 years.

• Hear a CBC Archives clip about the United Farmers of Manitoba.

• In 1931, Bracken proposed a non-partisan government to deal with the economic crisis in the province brought on by the stock market crash of 1929. The Liberals agreed to form a coalition with his party, which by then had come to be known as the Progressives.

• The Liberal-Progressive coalition won 38 seats in the 1932 election, leaving its opponents, the Conservatives, with 10. Five "Independent Labour" candidates were elected, as were two independents.

• Another coalition was formed after the 1936 election. It consisted of 22 Liberal-Progressives and five Social Credit members.

• In 1940, an extraordinary agreement was formed among all the parties in the legislature. Members of the Conservatives, Liberal-Progressives, Social Credit and Canadian Commonwealth Federation (CCF) all united to administer the province during the Second World War.

• Bracken was succeeded by Stuart Garson as leader of the Liberal-Progressives in 1943; he in turn was replaced by Douglas L. Campbell in 1948.

• The CCF left the coalition in 1943, but coalition governments with Liberal-Progressive premiers were elected in 1945 and 1949. The coalition dissolved in 1950 when the Progressive Conservatives (who added "Progressive" to their name in 1946) left.

• Campbell was elected premier again in 1953.

• Duff Roblin first entered the legislature in 1949 as an "Independent Conservative." In 1954, he was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party.

• Roblin fought his first election as leader in 1958 and won a minority government. The next year, seeking a greater mandate, he called another election and won a majority. A second majority followed in 1962.

• Within two months of this CBC interview, Roblin called an election for June 23, 1966. On election day he won his fourth mandate, and the Progressive Conservatives won a majority with 31 seats. The Liberals took 14 seats, the NDP took 11 and Social Credit took one.

• Roblin quit as premier in 1967 to run for the leadership of the federal Progressive Conservatives. He lost to Robert Stanfield and finished out his political career in the Senate, where he served from 1978 to 1992.

• Roblin's greatest legacy in Manitoba is probably the Winnipeg Floodway, affectionately nicknamed "Duff's Ditch." Determined that the city would never again face the devastation wrought by the great flood of 1950, Roblin championed the diversion project when he became premier.

• Construction of the floodway began in 1962 and was completed six years later. It saved the city from major floods 20 times between 1968 and 1999.
• For more, see the CBC Archives clip The Winnipeg Floodway.

A 'sunshine budget' for a soggy season

Medium: Television

Program: The Sixties

Broadcast Date: March 28, 1966

Guest(s): Duff Roblin

Host: Charles Lynch

Duration: 3:24

Last updated:
July 17, 2009