John Buchanan
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- This is an article about the Canadian Premier. See John Buchanan (disambiguation) for other people called John Buchanan.
John MacLennan Buchanan, PC , QC , D.Eng , DCL , LL.D , D.P.Sc. (born April 22, 1931) is a Canadian lawyer and politician.
Buchanan graduated from Mount Allison University in 1954 with a Bachelor of Science Degree and an Engineering Certificate. He then went on to study at Dalhousie Law School and after graduating in 1958 entered the practise of law where he was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1972.
He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia in 1967. He became leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia in 1971, and became Premier of Nova Scotia in 1978. He campaigned as "Honest John".
His tenure as Premier would see scandal and economic crisis:
Two of his MLA's were prosecuted for falsifying expense claims. There were scandals involving Government real estate deals given on favourable terms to personal friends and political supporters of the Premier, including his ex law partner. There was a secret Conservative Party trust fund that bailed out Buchanan's significant personnel debts while in office.
In 1990, a former Government Deputy Minister, Michael Zareski, testified before the Nova Scotia Government's Public Accounts Committee and provided details surrounding many known and previously unknown Government deals that cast the Premier in an unfavourable light.
By the time he retired, $8 billion had been added to the Provincial debt (Including a one year defecit of over $600 million). Buchanan played a large part in the constitution patriation as a member of the "Gang of Eight," and would play an even larger part as one of Brian Mulroney's top allies during the Meech Lake Accord negotiations. Controversy ensued when he said that if Meech Lake failed, that Nova Scotia should consider joining the United States. He would backtrack on his comments the next day after considerable outcry.
In 1990, he left provincial politics and was appointed to the Canadian Senate by Mulroney. This was highly unpopular in most of the country, as Buchanan was under investiagtion for corruption charges, the appointment was part of a large influx of appointments for the upcoming Goods and Services Tax vote. The Ottawa Citizen called the appointment, "the Mulroney government's most contemptuous and appalling act of patronage." Buchanan had offered some of Nova Scotia's Senate seats to the Western provinces during Meech Lake negotiations, and if his offer had been accepted, there would not have been a seat for him.
Buchanan sat as a Progressive Conservative senator until 2004 when the party merged with the Canadian Alliance. He sat as a member of the Conservative Party of Canada from 2004 until his retirement at age 75 on April 22, 2006.
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| Preceded by: Gerald A. Regan |
Premier of Nova Scotia 1978-1990 |
Succeeded by: Roger Bacon |
| Premiers of Nova Scotia |  |
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|---|---|---|
| Colonial: Uniacke | Young | Johnston | Young | Howe | Johnston | Tupper
Provincial: | Tupper | Blanchard | Annand | Hill | Holmes | Thompson | Pipes | Fielding | Murray | Armstrong | Rhodes | Harrington | Macdonald | MacMillan | Macdonald | Connolly | Hicks | Stanfield | Smith | Regan | Buchanan | Bacon | Cameron | Savage | MacLellan | Hamm | MacDonald |
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Categories: 1931 births | Canadian lawyers | Canadian senators | Nova Scotia premiers | Dalhousie Law School graduates | Members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada | Members of the United Church of Canada | People from the Cape Breton Regional Municipality | Scottish Canadians | Living people | Canadian politician stubs | Mount Allison University alumni
