Tom Symons: A Canadian Life

Chapter 6: Robert L. Stanfield and Tom Symons: A Public Policy Partnership

Robert L. Stanfield and Tom Symons: A Public Policy Partnership TOM MCMILLAN I n September 1967, when Robert Stanfield became the national leader of the Progressive Conservative Party—at the most exciting leadership convention in Canadian political history— he had been premier of Nova Scotia for eleven years, the most successful politician in the province’s history. Stanfield achieved all this electoral success by doing exactly what he was about to do as national PC leader, including—and I would argue especially—in policy development. Hard work and tireless attention to detail enabled him to prepare the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada— both for opposition and, it was hoped, for government—more carefully, and to better effect, than any previous Tory leader had ever done before him. On the policy front, as in party organization (almost as badly in disarray), the need for such steady leadership could not have been more dire. His predecessor, John Diefenbaker, a spell-binding orator and unsurpassed stump campaigner, had regarded policy “as a sub-branch of rhetoric and given [it] the very lowest priority.”1 When Stanfield inherited the leadership, consequently, the PC Party was adrift, without a detailed policy on a single issue or even the vaguest idea of where it wanted to take the country. To the surprise of everyone, except those of his admirers who knew him best, Stanfield rose masterfully to the challenge. True to his character, he did what he had always done—exceeded expectations. C H A P T E R 6 118 TOM SYMONS: A CAnAdiAn Life To build a policy “cupboard” and lead a team to develop party policy to fill it, Stanfield initially turned to the man who had run third—behind himself and Manitoba premier Duff Roblin—at the September 1967 leadership convention. That man was E. Davie Fulton. Fulton was an excellent choice, for he was a brilliant and scholarly man (indeed, a former Rhodes Scholar). Unfortunately for Stanfield, Fulton was a spent force, both politically and physically, by the time he agreed to undertake this vital policy-development assignment. In fact, he was soon to lose his bid for re-election to the House of Commons, in Kamloops, in the 1968 election. Stanfield was to make a completely different choice for Fulton’s successor, reaching far outside caucus. The new policy chair replaced Fulton in April 1968, literally on the eve of the 25 June election campaign, much too late in the game to affect its outcome. 1. Stanfield’s Policy Partner Enter stage right—or, more accurately, left of centre—the new chair of Robert Stanfield’s Policy Advisory Committee: Tom Symons, the young president of Trent University. It was he to whom Stanfield turned to play the starring role in a show the director knew urgently required not only a new script but also new players. By amicable agreement, Fulton bowed out as Stanfield’s policy committee chair. There really had not been much of a committee to chair. Nor still much policy, either. Toronto Star Ottawa editor Anthony Westell had it right: “During the barren Diefenbaker years, the party was shut out of the academic world.”2 Stanfield now wanted a bona fide member of the academic community—somebody likely outside the traditional ranks of the Tory Party—for this pivotal policy role. He sought an individual of unimpeachable stature and with broad contacts who could reach out beyond the PC Party to knowledgeable people in diverse fields. He felt he needed policy experts capable of helping him and the party both devise a new policy direction and develop substantive policies on particular issues. With these policies, he hoped to equip himself and his parliamentary caucus for a wide variety of purposes. That included, following the 1968 election, his own renewed mandate as Leader of ROBERT L. STANFIELD AND TOM SYMONS 119 Her Majesty’s Official Opposition, to which he intended to devote much time and energy in the immediate period. What Stanfield sought, as well, was a person with whom he himself would be personally comfortable and who would, in turn, be at ease with him. He contemplated their spending a great deal of time with each other. The new chair needed to be modern enough in his thinking to help lead the party on a new policy course. And yet, he had to be sufficiently sensitive to the party’s rich history and heritage and...