Social Policy and Social Justice: The NDP Government in Saskatchewan during the Blakeney Years

David E. Smith is a professor of political science at the University of
Saskatchewan and the author of Building a Province: A History of
Saskatchewan in Documents and The Invisible Crown.

It is important to read the opening pages of this book carefully in
order to appreciate its ambitious objectives. These are to present
“the first book of its kind on the NDP”; “to dispel many myths
about social policy and social justice under the NDP”; “to expand
social policy analysis to comprehend structural and ideological forces
that influence policy”; “to facilitate an intellectual process among
[its contributors]”; and “to document the priorities and actions of
the Saskatchewan NDP government [between 1971 and 1982].” These are
large claims, and the medium chosen to realize them—seven case
studies, five chapters of “critical policy analysis,” and two
concluding summary pieces—add to the complexity of the undertaking.
Nevertheless the result, based on research that is both sophisticated
and compelling, is an analytical achievement.

The subjects of the case studies are day care, legal aid, the work
environment, income maintenance, subsidized drugs, policing, and
social-service spending; the policy chapters focus on economic growth,
public ownership, northern Saskatchewan, revenue allocation, and social
justice. Taken together they constitute the most intensive discussion to
date of a single government’s performance in Canada. Each chapter has
a postscript that summarizes developments since 1982, but the principal
topic is the government’s record in office measured against its own
stated priorities, those of the New Democratic Party, and the demands of
the Saskatchewan voter.

By general repute, the Blakeney government was a superior team with an
enlightened leader. For this reason the essays make for sombre reading,
since even in that congenial environment workers continued to be treated
as objects and not subjects of decisionmaking; income redistribution was
at best limited; and assistance of every kind was cut back when it was
most needed. For the faithful the results were disillusioning; for
activists they provided an incentive to

explore what went wrong. Social Policy and Social Justice offers some of
the disturbing

answers.