The Lougheed Legacy

Darlene Money was a writer in Mississauga, Ontario.

In his Preface, David Wood says he makes no apologies for the pro-Lougheed, pro-Alberta bias of his book, explaining that he wrote it to help balance the view of provincial-federal disputes taken in recent works dominated by central Canadian viewpoints. This statement colors the entire book, an admiring, pro-Albertan, pro-Conservative look at the former premier (Wood was a colleague of Lougheed’s both in and out of government). The admission of bias makes it no less irritating in a book that asks to be taken seriously as biography and modern Canadian history.

Much of the book is dry description of Lougheed-ian and Albertan history. Although Wood was involved in Conservative campaigns and worked as a civil servant under Lougheed, he obviously lacked the insider status that could have made this partisan volume lively and interesting. An account of a slogan-choosing meeting is a rare behind-the-scenes look at the party machine in operation (the choices of “Now” and “The Lougheed Team” helped win the 1971 election); for the most part Wood’s descriptions are dry as a drought-ridden prairie. This is not a definitive biography of Lougheed, since we see very little of the man, and a great deal of The Premier.

Still, the explanation of Alberta’s case against Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Plan is persuasive; unfortunately, the book’s scope ends just before Lougheed’s retirement, without assessing the subsequent Western Accord between the Mulroney government and the province.

No doubt there will be more, and better, books written on this subject in the future.