Robert Bonner, Rest in Peace

Robert Bonner, the former attorney general of B.C. under W.A.C. Bennett, passed away last Friday at the age of 84. Bonner was recruited to serve by Bennett at the age of 31 and would serve in that position for the next 16 years.

Along with Bennett, Phil Gaglardi, and Ray Williston, Bonner deserves credit for setting the foundations of what B.C. is today. Bennett’s twenty-year-old government was a golden age in B.C. history. Throughout his tenure the Social Credit government expanded the province’s resource base and manufacturing capabilities. The government built highways in order to open up the stagnant B.C. interior to development and built dams to power the growing province. They “provincialized” ferry lines and power companies when private interests stood in the way of BC’s development (Bonner played a significant role in both events). They negotiated with both the Americans and the federal government over compensation for exported power and wrung a deal out of them that continues to benefit British Columbians.

B.C. would be in the same position that the Atlantic provinces currently are without the energies and visions of men like Robert Bonner, despite that I’d guess very few people in the province at present would have any idea who he is. Tonight I’ll raise my glass to a great figure in the history of this province.