Promises to Keep: A Political Biography of Allan Blakeney

David E. Smith is a professor of Political Studies at the University of
Saskatchewan and author of Jimmy Gardiner: Relentless Liberal.

Canadian premiers are generally more eccentric than the average citizen,
or more extroverted, or more egotistical. Allan Blakeney, premier of
Saskatchewan from 1971 to 1982, was none of these, just bright and
determined to remain true to his objectives—hence this book’s title.

Gruending quotes his subject as saying, “I’m not one of the boys
with anybody and I don’t know why I’m not.” After one reads
Promises to Keep, the answer is simple: if not a workaholic, he was a
close approximation of one. Nineteen of the book’s 21 chapters discuss
his years in Saskatchewan as a civil servant, minister, party leader,
and finally premier. The focus is fixed on his handling of such issues
as natural resources, agriculture, and the Constitution.

Blackeney’s reputation as the thinking man’s premier was the
product of his unremitting attention to policy and administration, and
of his ceaseless vigilance of his ministers, bureaucrats, and party
colleagues. Though never a convivial man, and a stranger to small talk,
Blakeney marshalled and led a team whose achievements were impressive
even when his government was in office; in retrospect, and in comparison
to the more folksy style of his successor, they are formidable.

This is not an introspective biography, for even now Blakeney keeps his
own counsel, but it is truthful, direct, and conscientious. In these
respects, it faithfully depicts its subject.