Desjardins played strong role in NDP governments

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This article was published 08/02/2012 (5295 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Former cabinet minister Larry Desjardins, who played pivotal roles in the NDP administrations of Ed Schreyer and Howard Pawley, died Tuesday in Winnipeg. He was 88.

Both Schreyer and Pawley mourned Desjardins on Wednesday as a colleague who left gigantic footprints on Manitoba’s political and social landscape. And those feet were often clad in cleats or skates, as he was also a renowned athlete in baseball, hockey and football, playing with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Premier Greg Selinger conveyed the province’s condolences in an official statement, calling the former political titan “a true champion” for Manitoba.

“Very few people come into our lives who leave such a profound impact on our community, our province and, in many respects, our nation.” Selinger said. “Larry Desjardins was just such an individual.

Schreyer said Desjardins was one of five Manitobans with the biggest impact on shaping modern Manitoba.

“There’s a little book called ‘The Little Manitoba Book About Just About Everything’ and the publisher asked me to name the five Manitobans I most admired. Larry Desjardins was one of them,” Schreyer said.

Desjardins was the sitting dean of the legislature in his day, with a career that spanned nearly three decades, from his first election in 1959 to his final resignation in 1988.

“Every legislature has a dean, one person who has been there the longer than anyone else and he became that dean, in about 1980,” Schreyer told the Free Press.

The two formed a tight friendship that lasted 40 years and periodically got together for social events. The last time was about six months ago.

“I had lunch with Larry and Mel (his widow), Lily and I both had lunch with them last August or September and he seemed to be getting around quite well,” Schreyer said.

About a month ago, Desjardins had a bad fall, shattering a hip and was admitted to hospital. Doctors were talking to family about letting him finally return home when he took another bad fall.

He died shortly after that, Schreyer said.

His resignation from politics in 1988 coincided with the fall of the NDP government under Pawley.

Maverick MLA Jim Walding took advantage of the one-seat majority that Desjardins left behind him and voted with the Opposition. The Pawley government fell.

“I have no regrets about my decision to leave politics because I felt it was the right thing to do,” Desjardins said afterward in media accounts.

But he also admitted the government’s fall jarred him.

“When I made the decision to leave politics, I never thought about it in terms of putting the government in danger of falling,” he said at the time.

Former premier Howard Pawley said Desjardins will be remembered primarily as a man of principle.

“He must be remembered for the lengthy period of his service in the provincial legislature but he will be remembered for his principles. He had the courage of his convictions. He was also candid and honest in his views as a politician,” Pawley said in an interview from his home near Windsor, Ont.

Those convictions were fed by a staunch Roman Catholic faith and a fierce advocacy of francophone rights, Pawley said.

In fact, it was a Supreme Court of Canada ruling on abortion that proved to be the final straw in Desjardin’s political career, the former premier recalled.

Pawley said he’d almost talked Desjardins into staying on after he’d issued a public statement to say he planned to resign back in 1988.

Then Mortgentaler won a victory for abortion rights at the Supreme Court.

“We’d discussed him having a lighter load, as minister of sport,” Pawley recalled, “then Morgentaler happened and that increased the tension between Larry and many of his colleagues,” Pawley said.

Desjardins left the political arena for good.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca