WAC Bennett

William Andrew Cecil Bennett PC , OC (born September 6, 1900 in Hastings , New Brunswick , † February 23, 1979 in Kelowna ), commonly referred to as WAC Bennett , was a Canadian politician . With a tenure of twenty years to date, he is the longest-ruling Prime Minister of British Columbia . He ruled this province from August 1, 1952 to September 15, 1972, during which time he was chairman of the British Columbia Social Credit Party . His son Bill Bennett held these offices from 1975 to 1986. His father was a third cousin of Richard Bedford Bennett , Prime Minister of Canada from 1930 to 1935.

Provincial politics

When Bennett was 18 years old, he and his family moved first to Edmonton and a little later to Westlock , where his father ran a household goods store. In 1930 he settled in Kelowna and opened his own shop there. In 1932 he joined the Freemasons . From 1937 to 1939 he was president of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce. Bennett joined the British Columbia Conservative Party and was elected to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly on October 21, 1941 as a member of the Okanagan South constituency. After his plan to become chairman of the Conservative Party had failed, he resigned from the party in 1951, initially politicized as an independent, and joined the British Columbia Social Credit Party that same year .

The conservative-liberal coalition government introduced instant run-off voting as an electoral system in 1952 , in the expectation that conservative voters would give the liberals as a second preference, and vice versa. This should prevent the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) from winning the election . However, it was not the governing parties that benefited from this electoral system, but surprisingly the Socreds , who formed a minority government. The party had no chairman at the time and elected Bennett to that office on June 15, 1952.

prime minister

On August 1, 1952, Lieutenant Governor Clarence Wallace sworn Bennett in as Prime Minister. In 1953, the Socreds succeeded in winning the majority of seats for the first time in early elections. Bennett's party was originally founded to implement social credit theories . However, this was not possible at the provincial level alone, which is why Bennett quickly gave up the old ideology and turned the Socreds into a conservative party with populist features. By repeatedly warning of the “red threat” and “socialist hordes”, his party managed to keep the CCF (later the British Columbia New Democratic Party ) out of the government.

During his twenty years in office, Bennett was not only Prime Minister but also Treasury Secretary. Numerous extensive infrastructure projects have been implemented, such as the expansion of the main road network, the extension of the British Columbia Railway to the north of the province and hydropower plants on the Peace River and the Columbia River . Although Bennett was basically in favor of the free market economy, in 1961 he nationalized the electricity companies and founded the state-owned company BC Hydro . The ferry company BC Ferries had been founded three years earlier . Bennett's government curtailed trade union rights, kept the administrative apparatus small and cut social spending, but expanded education.

The Socreds suffered a heavy defeat in the August 1972 elections . On September 15, 1972, Bennett resigned as Prime Minister, handing over to David Barrett . He initially remained leader of the opposition, but then resigned his parliamentary mandate in June 1973. His son Bill Bennett won this seat in a by-election three months later, was elected the new party leader in November 1973 and was Prime Minister himself from 1975 to 1986.

WAC Bennett received the Order of Canada in 1976 . He died in 1979 at the age of 78 and was buried in the Kelowna Municipal Cemetery. In 1998 the Canadian Post honored him with a stamp . The W. A. ​​C. Bennett Dam is named after him, and the Simon Fraser University library also bears his name.

literature

• David J. Mitchell: WAC Bennett and the rise of British Columbia Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver 1983. ISBN 0-88894-395-4 .

Web links

• William Andrew Cecil Bennett ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Short Biography - Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon