AbstractsPolitical Science

James G. Gardiner : the premier as a pragmatic politician 1926-1929

by Gordon Unger




Institution: University of Saskatchewan
Department:
Year: 2010
Record ID: 1862458
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/10388/etd-03192009-083006


Abstract

For three decades the name of James G. Gardiner was identified with prairie politics. The image of "Jimmy" Gardiner as a practical politician has become a part of political legend in Saskatchewan. This study of a brief part of Gardiner's political career explores some of the activities which gave birth to the legend. Gardiner was much more than a political organizer. He remains firmly identified as a spokesman for Western agrarianism and, as federal Minister of Agriculture, he profoundly influenced the pattern of governmental activity in the field of agriculture. Gardiner, was in addition, a very able administrator of the machinery of government. It is, nevertheless, the image of Gardiner in the role of pragmatic politician which remains most firmly fixed in legend, and it is this aspect of his career which is here investigated.