Former premier Calvert sees ‘a different world’ a decade on
In the decade since he served as Saskatchewan’s premier, the political landscape has become “such a different world,” Lorne Calvert says.
Facebook and Twitter started becoming hugely popular near the end of his time in politics. All subsequent premiers would need to worry about how to manage and take advantage of the reach of social media.
“I like to think, had some of those tools been available to us, we’d have used them well,” Calvert said this summer from his office on the Saskatoon campus of St. Andrew ’s College.
“I don’t rue the social media. It’s a great tool. It’s a great community builder — or can be. But, on occasion on social media, I believe we end up talking to ourselves and it’s very easy to confirm our own opinions by surrounding ourselves with social media contacts who think as we think. And so I’m not sure that is a healthy component for democracy.”
Calvert’s professional life, by his own estimation, has been a series of surprises. As a young man he attended St. Andrew’s College and became an ordained minister of the United Church of Canada in 1976. He was a minister for various congregations until he ran successfully for the Saskatchewan NDP in 1986.
He served as minister of health and minister of social services before being elected as NDP leader in 2001 and becoming premier. After the NDP lost the 2007 election, Calvert served as Opposition leader until 2009, then left politics to take the helm of St. Andrew’s College.
When he was first offered the position of principal of his alma mater, he was skeptical, Calvert said. The principal who had overseen the college when he was a student had been a lifelong academic — which Calvert was not.
“I initially thought this is not something I am capable of,” he recalled.
But Calvert has thrived in the job. He said he takes a huge amount of pride every year in watching his students cross the stage during commencement ceremonies.
“It’s been, for me, a wonderful experience of learning a whole new side of life and people. In government you know many, many, many people, but only almost on the surface level. Whereas, in a small college — even, I think, in the university classroom setting and so on — the numbers of people you’re relating with shrinks, but you begin to know them at a much deeper level.”
As a rule, Calvert said he does not comment on political events, but he is unable to hide his dismay over the provincial government’s most recent budget, which included cuts to post-secondary institutions, welfare and cities.
“Why does the government think it should solve its financial, fiscal policy problem by reducing benefits for funerals for people who are the poorest of the poor? Why does that kind of thought even enter the mind, never mind become public policy?” he said.
He also expressed concern about funding for the province’s postsecondary institutions, including the University of Saskatchewan, where St. Andrew’s College is located. Cuts to educational institutions and reduced funding for First Nations education are “very, very short-sighted,” he said.
“I’ve gained a deeper appreciation of the role of the academic. This is not an ivory tower. It is an institution that is deeply enmeshed — and should be — in the life of the community.”
Calvert doesn’t go to many NDP functions these days, but said that when he does go, he is pleased to see that he doesn’t recognize half the people there. New people are joining the party, which is going through an obvious renewal, he said, adding he’s impressed by both Ryan Meili and Trent Wotherspoon and feels either would make a good leader.
Neither of them is likely to get any words of wisdom from the former leader, however.
“My phone is always available, but I’m not prone to pick it up and offer advice. Those of us who have been there, we may have some wisdom to offer and, if we can, that’s fine, but every generation needs to establish its own understandings.”
Calvert’s term at St. Andrew’s College ends next summer. After that? Who knows. His family is building a small home at Buffalo Pound Lake and Calvert, who is now 64, said he may choose to retire. Perhaps he’ll find some other opportunity to serve.
“Mostly, I’m just looking for the next surprise,” he said.