Allan J’s Canada
Written for And Then Again column of the Inverness Oran.
"If one was to ask someone under thirty years old to list Canadians who have left an indelible positive impact on Canada, odds are you would hear the standard group of nominees put forward; former prime ministers, athletes, musicians, actors, activists, and other well-known celebrities would likely be mentioned by most. However, a name that would be unlikely to roll off the tongues of very many is someone who certainly could have a strong case made for being near the very top of the list; Allan Joseph MacEachen.
During five decades in Ottawa, Allan J. accumulated a long list of ministerial portfolios and top-level positions that would make anyone with a drop of sense pause before mentioning another politician in the same breath. MacEachen served as Canada's first Deputy Prime Minister, as Secretary of State for External Affairs, Government House Leader, Minister of Finance, Labour, Manpower and Immigration, National Health and Welfare, President of the Privy Council, and after he retired from the House of Commons, a Senator.
In those positions, Allan J, wielded wide-ranging authority as an extremely influential voice in the cabinets of Prime Ministers Pearson, Trudeau, and Turner. MacEachen's role in the enactment of vast social reforms in this country can not possibly be understated. He spearheaded the passage of Medicare which serves as the foundation of our universal healthcare system, reformed the Canadian labour code, delivered new standards for the national minimum wage, and passed the Old Age Security Act, and the Canadian Assistance Plan, among countless other historic pieces of legislation that have had an incalculable beneficial effect on the lives of everyday Canadians. Allan J.'s parliamentary wizardry only deepened the loyalty of his supporters, and eventually won the begrudging respect of critics and adversaries.
However, for most people of this region that remember him, his main legacy has been his ability to relate and empathize with others, particularly the less fortunate. This was likely because Allan J. did not need to stretch his imagination very far to put himself in their shoes. Born into a poor mining family in 1921, MacEachen experienced the hardships of life firsthand. Growing up, his mother Anne was often in poor health having lost her three first-born children. MacEachen's father, Angus, was a miner who like most others in the mines was paid a poor wage that made it difficult to make ends meet. Allan was cognisant of the difficult upbringing that he had, but he did not allow that to hold him back, or be an excuse for failure. Instead, he used it to fuel his passion for social justice issues.
One would hardly expect someone who rose to the strata of dining with Kings and Queens, meeting with Presidents of the United States in the Oval Office, and travelling the globe as one of the most senior figures in the Canadian government, to stay grounded and in touch with the values of the average person in small communities. However, Allan's most cherished title was never "Minister*, it was 'Cape Bretoner" and "Invernesser*. Few would argue that MacEachen did a better job keeping his finger on the pulse of the public on this island than any other elected representative since Confederation.
Any time Allan J. was home in Inverness, he would welcome a discussion of issues as he walked the shores of Inverness Beach. He also took criticism in stride, never afraid to poke fun at himself - a quality that is increasingly rare in politicians nowadays. Plastered along the walls of his Lake Ainslie home were political cartoons of himself cut from newspapers, often embellishing the size of his ears, enhancing the puffiness of his hair, and exaggerating his political views. While many politicians would have been upset with these not-so-flattering depictions, not Allan. He would bust a gut laughing any time he showed them off to the visitors he would get.
Even those who couldn't bring themselves to vote for the man dubbed the "Celtic Sphynx", few would breathe a harsh word about his tireless efforts to promote Inverness, and Cape Breton, which was not forgotten by the people of the region. A story that Allan J. was always proud to share was of a conversation he had in the Margaree Forks Co-op before the 1984 federal election, which he had announced he would not contest after having been elected ten times to parliament since his first win in 1953. As Allan told it, he met a constituent who supported themselves by living off the land and working in the forest. They approached him and said "I hear you're not running again. You certainly kept bread on the table here in the North all those years." Allan J. would say later that "as a compliment, it was enormous. As a summation of one's political career from a citizen who made a living the hard way, it was heart-warming.
His appraisal of the end of my service in the House of Commons took me back to its beginnings and why keeping bread on the table, in the widest interpretation of that expression, was the principal reason I left the university teaching post to enter politics Ultimately, that is what Allan J. understood better than most - politics does not always need to be a brutal social bloodsport. In its most basic form, politics is about people and delivering results for them. In recent years, many Canadians have grown to think of "politics as a dirty word. Their faith in our democratic institutions has been eroded by what they view, often correctly, as the rich elite holding an unshakeable grip on power. Even though oftentimes that is a fair assessment, what is usually lost when viewing it that way is the good that can come from politics. Allan J. was far from perfect, and so is Canada. However, his career exemplified many of the great parts of this country.
MacEachen's pawprints are all over many of the pieces of the national fabric that Canadians are most proud of. Not just Universal Healthcare and the previous' mentioned legislative achievements, but also the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Most younger Canadians do not even know who Allan J. MacEachen was, let alone comprehend the enormous impact he had on shaping their country. But whether they know it or not, even though he's gone, largely speaking we are all still living in Allan J’s Canada, and we’re all better off for it.
As Invernessers and Cape Bretoners, that should make us all enormously proud.Last year. Beaton Street in Inverness was renamed "Allan J. Memorial Avenue. The new street sign will be unveiled at the Art Centre on July 25th in a short ceremony before the premieres of two wonderful films, The Broken Ground, and Jenny. Tickets for that night's event are sold out at this time, however, the unveiling ceremony will be recorded and uploaded to the Inverness Miners Museum Facebook page next week.