John Buchanan, folksy Nova Scotia premier who held office for 12 years, dies at 88

“He was a true champion of Nova Scotia,” Liberal Premier Stephen McNeil told reporters outside the house chamber.

McNeil said Buchanan would be best remembered for his ability to be “connected to a place and connected to people.”

“No one doubted where he was from, he was a true promoter of this province and all he believed it could be.”

The man who would gain prominence as an old-style, glad-handing politician, joined the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservatives at the request of then-premier Robert Stanfield.

He was first elected to the legislature as the member for the constituency of Halifax Atlantic in May 1967 and later held various cabinet posts, including finance, public works and fisheries before being elected party leader in 1971.

After an emphatic defeat to the Gerald Regan Liberals in 1974, Buchanan was elected as Nova Scotia’s 20th premier in September 1978 at the age of 47.

The morning after the win Buchanan and his wife Mavis famously stood in the middle of the Armdale Rotary in west-end Halifax, waving at rush hour traffic with a sign that read “Thank You.”

Personable and often more popular than his party, he subsequently led the Tories to three more election victories in 1981, 1984 and 1988. The tireless extrovert used expressions like “gosh” and “golly” and took great pride in his ability to connect with people.

While in government, Buchanan sought to make the province self-sufficient. He was an enthusiastic supporter of offshore energy development and championed the development of the tidal power plant in Annapolis Royal, the first of its kind in North America.

But he was criticized for his financial policies, which massively ballooned Nova Scotia’s net debt, and by 1986 his government was also reeling under the weight of a messy expense-claims scandal that landed two members in court.

Billy Joe MacLean, the culture minister of the day and a close friend of Buchanan, was eventually convicted and fined on four counts of uttering forged expense claims, while Cape Breton backbencher Greg MacIsaac was sentenced to a year in jail on similar charges and was disbarred by the provincial barrister’s society.

Fiercely loyal, Buchanan nonetheless recalled the legislature to expel MacLean after he refused to quit. He broke down and cried inside the chamber before casting his vote.

“I still consider him a friend,” Buchanan said later in an interview with The Canadian Press. “Some people say that kind of statement hurts you. Well if it hurts me, it hurts me. I’ve always been pretty blunt about that kind of thing.”

Reached at his home in Port Hawkesbury, N.S., on Friday, MacLean recalled his more than 40-year friendship with Buchanan calling him a “kind, warm, and compassionate individual.” He said a cabinet colleague once put his finger on Buchanan’s biggest problem: “He didn’t like saying no to people. He always liked to help people.”

MacLean also remarked on Buchanan’s talent for retail politics, saying he could work a room at an event for an hour and come out knowing everyone’s name. “There was no pretense … what you saw was what you’d get,” he said.

In June 1990, the controversy surrounding Buchanan’s government reached a crescendo when Michael Zareski, the former deputy minister of the Government Services Department, alleged widespread corruption reaching into the premier’s office.

Buchanan denied the claims that he accepted kickbacks and personally interfered with government spending decisions by directing work to friends.

But in a stunning turn two months later, he abruptly resigned in the midst of an RCMP criminal investigation to accept a Senate appointment offered by then-prime minister Brian Mulroney.

He was the first sitting premier in Canada to leave the job to sit directly in the upper house, a move that earned widespread political condemnation. Buchanan left for Ottawa that August after holding a meeting with his caucus and issuing a terse news release.

The Mounties cleared him a year later of the kickback and patronage allegations, and in 1992 they said there was insufficient evidence to charge him in relation to a separate investigation into a secret Tory trust fund that supplemented Buchanan’s income.

Regardless, the damage was already done to his meticulously built public image as “Honest John.” He finally left public life as a Senator after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75 in 2006.

Tim Houston, Nova Scotia’s current Tory leader, hailed Buchanan Friday as a master campaigner and skilled politician who never lost his sense of humour.

He said Buchanan was “full of life” in his later years, often turning up to speak and even sing at party events.

“He was certainly proud of his four majority governments,” Houston said. “He would often say to me ‘You know Tim I won four majorities,’ and I would say ‘Yes John I know’. He would reply, ‘I hope you win three’.”

Buchanan was born in Sydney, N.S., on April 22, 1931. His father died when he was 11, and he cited his mother Flora as a strong influence.

As a young man, Buchanan paid for his education working as a labourer at the Sydney Steel plant and also did stints as a sales clerk and a vacuum-cleaner salesman. He graduated from Mount Allison University in 1954 and earned a law degree from Dalhousie University in 1958.

Buchanan is survived by his wife Mavis and five children.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2019.

Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

John Buchanan, folksy Nova Scotia premier who held office for 12 years, dies at 88

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