John Parker: the man in the middle
Former engineer worked for the feds, pulled for the North
Bruce Valpy
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 31, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
It's a well-established story line, if not an epic David and Goliath scenario, that when it came to power and authority in the North in the 60s and 70s, Ottawa had it all and Northerner's fought for the crumbs.
Former NWT commissioner John Parker ruffled feathers in Ottawa with his attempts to devolve power to MLAs in the legislative assembly. - NNSL archive file photo |
John Parker, as loyal deputy to the illustrious, so-called benevolent dictator Commissioner Stu Hodgson, was in the middle of the political fray.
A mining engineer brought North by Norm Byrne in 1954, and a former Yellowknife town councilor and mayor, Parker knew the personalities on both sides, understood the issues, and presented himself as the perfect servant of the federal government.
"I was the fence," Parker said, describing his role as commissioner.
When he took over from Hodgson in 1979, Parker's goal was to bring responsible government to the North as fast as the feds would let it happen, and as soon as the Northern leaders and administration could handle it.
Where did that mandate come from? Parker was briefly at a loss to answer that before admitting he hadn't really been given that specific mandate.
As a career civil servant at a high level, one should be taking direction on goals from somewhere higher up. In the absence of such orders, Parker was obviously following his own course as a long-time Northerner interested in what all his fellow Northerners were interested in - self-government.
The word 'devolution' wasn't really used, Parker said. Instead it was called a 'transfer of powers' and it involved Parker moving his commissioner's chair around, administratively, politically and literally, with each move shedding powers to be taken up by elected MLAs
One significant, symbolic change came in 1979 when Parker moved deputy-commissioner Bob Pilot out of the 'house'. Parker himself no longer sat in formal sessions when the speaker was present, although he sat in on the committee-of-the-whole to discuss legislation.
In 1983, he removed himself to the other side of the velvet ropes in the legislative assembly. "People wanted to know why I was sitting there, " Parker said. "I'm not a member anymore, I told them."
Parker's Northern bias didn't go unnoticed as he loosened his grip on the reins until the government leader became the leader of the executive council.
"One minister saw it as moving too quickly," Parker said. "The privy council stalled my salary. Didn't get a change for two years."
He declined to identify the minister (John Munro was Indian and Northern Affairs Minister from 1980-1983) but after this interview with News/North, he emailed names of ministers sympathetic to the Northern political cause.
"Art Laing led the way by naming Yellowknife as capital and authorizing the move of government North," Parker wrote from his retirement home in BC. "In response from pressure from the Council, Judd Buchanan authorized two elected members to sit on the Executive Committee. Jake Epp was a strong supporter of elected government, as was Bill McKnight, and many steps ahead were taken in their times. Tom Siddon saw the need for division and reacted appropriately. There were others, whom I shall not name, who resisted rapid development of the elected government."
Parker has put together a book of essays chronicling his time and what he knows of the history behind political development in the NWT. Titled Arctic Power, he has an interesting passage written in reference to the famous Judge J.H. Sissons.
"Northern history has been marked by individuals who pressed forward, ahead of 'bureaucratic' planning" he wrote.
Without knowing it, Parker could have been talking about himself.
