State memorial service celebrates Barrett’s enduring legacy
Memorial service for legendary premier recalls his accomplishments and his drive
It’s extraordinary to ponder all that was accomplished by the NDP government of Dave Barrett in the 1970s, despite the very brief time that he was premier of British Columbia.
Barrett, who died on Feb. 2 at age 87, was premier for just three years, from 1972 to 1975. But, in that time, he did things that changed B.C. forever.
The list of achievements was recited frequently on Saturday during a state memorial service attended by 1,000 people at the University of Victoria.
Pharmacare. The Agricultural Land Reserve. The B.C. Ambulance Service. ICBC. The B.C. Labour Board. The B.C. Human Rights Code. Ending corporal punishment in schools. Introduction of Hansard transcription and question period at the legislature. Bargaining rights for teachers. French in schools. The first B.C. premier to visit China. Expanded B.C. parks, including his beloved Cypress Bowl.
All were well-known to many in attendance, but there was still an audible gasp as they were rhymed off by Lt.-Gov. Judith Guichon.
“The volume of bills, and the lasting nature of the changes wrought during the short duration of that first NDP government, is legendary: 357 bills,” Guichon said.
An amazing record. But what people enjoyed most on Saturday were the tall tales and terrific stories behind the Barrett legend.
He was born in Vancouver to Jewish parents and grew up in the Commercial Drive neighbourhood of East Vancouver. After studying philosophy and social work at university, he was drawn naturally to politics, where he had a gift for fiery speech-making.
As NDP leader, he clashed with the mighty W.A.C. Bennett and his 20-year Social Credit dynasty.
“Bennett was around forever and most us didn’t think we could beat him — but Dave did,” former cabinet minister Bob Williams told the service, recalling Bennett’s attacks in the legislature.
“The speech went something like: ‘I know you socialists! Saturday night rich, Sunday morning poor! You will never govern this province! The government benches roared and enjoyed it.”
But Barrett would use his trademark humour and wit in defence, like when Bennett compared his socialist ways to Marx.
“Which one? Groucho? You bet,” Williams quoted him.
There was still doubt in the 1972 election campaign, especially when Barrett and another former cabinet minister, Bill King, became stranded on an inland ferry near Revelstoke because of misplaced car keys.
“The captain of the ship came staggering across the deck and said, ‘You two want to run the province?’”
But run the province they did, after Barrett defeated Bennett in the election and began his transformation of B.C., including increasing the minimum wage to $2 an hour, provoking the wrath of Canadian Pacific Railway president Ian Sinclair, nicknamed “Big Julie.”
“Dave suggested to him that they go on television and debate the issue,” King recalled. “He thought the grotesque proposition of a man making a couple of million dollars a year in wages and benefits objecting to the maids making a small increase in the minimum wage might be an instructional procedure. Needless to say, Big Julie got the next first-class flight back home.”
After losing the 1975 election, Barrett went on to become a federal MP and a role model and mentor for a subsequent generation of NDP politicians.
Joy MacPhail, one of the just two NDP MLAs elected in the 2001 B.C. election won overwhelmingly by Gordon Campbell’s Liberals, said Barrett picked up her spirits.
“I was feeling low and I was complaining to Dave about how unfair it all was,” MacPhail said.
“Dave leaned across the desk and he said, ‘Listen Joy. Two of you and 77 of those sons-of-bitches, that’s a fair match! Get in there and kick crap out of them!’ And we never could. But Dave made us feel like we could.”
Premier John Horgan said he was inspired to get into politics after hearing Barrett speak at a 1983 rally against the cost-cutting measures of the Social Credit government.
“I had just graduated from university and I was waiting on tables,” Horgan said.
“This man came out onto the steps of the legislature. He started that low start to a Dave Barrett speech. About 15 minutes in, I was jumping up and down with everybody else. The passion ... the power.”
Horgan said he joined the NDP right after hearing the speech. “I’ve never looked back,” he said. “All thanks to Dave Barrett.”
“If you were fortunate to witness Dave Barrett speak, you would never forget it,” agreed Marc Eliesen, Barrett’s former deputy minister and his best friend. “He didn’t read from a prepared text. He had no teleprompter. In Dave, there always remained a part of the little kid from the east side of Vancouver. He had chutzpah. And he knew when and how to use it.”
Barrett is survived by his wife of 65 years, Shirley, who also received praise.
“They had an unbeatable partnership,” Eliesen said. “Dave would often ask Shirley, ‘Shirley, why do you stick around?’ And Shirley would say, ‘Dave, I just want to see what happens next.’”
Their three children — Dan, Joe and Jane — said their dad was just as funny, boisterous and passionate at home as he was in public.
“In university, I had hair down to my shoulders,” Joe said. “I came home one day and Dad looked up at me and said, ‘You look like Jesus!’ I looked back, and said: ‘Well, the son of God.’”
He said Alzheimer’s disease took his father’s famous voice, but not his spirit, in his final years.
“We knew he was there in gestures and smiles and the way he looked at us. With my mom, you could see the connection between them, even when the illness was very advanced.
“It was quite beautiful.”