Bracken Highway ‘a great, great thing’

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This article was published 19/07/2016 (3609 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Fifty bright yellow signs will soon dot a large stretch of Manitoba Highway 10, redesignating it as the John Bracken Highway — honouring a farmer who became the province’s longest-serving premier after an election he forgot to vote in.

Michael Bracken, John’s grandson, spoke to a crowd that included local dignitaries and more than 50 extended family members from Winnipeg, Kelowna, Manotick, Ont., Seattle and Cincinnati, Ohio, who spent Monday in the Wheat City celebrating the new moniker.

“I think it’s a great, great thing to have grandpa remembered this way … anybody going by will see it and I know where it is and I think that’s a great deal for grandpa,” he said on the lawn at the Riverbank Discovery Centre, with the portion of John Bracken Highway that cuts through Brandon in the background.

About 195 kilometres of Highway 10, starting at the American border and running north through Brandon to Riding Mountain National Park, will now be named after the province’s 11th premier.

Michael spoke on behalf of the family to the gathering, joking the highway ought to have been called the John and Alice Highway for the role Bracken’s wife played in his career.

“Honest” John Bracken came into power in July 1922, when he was asked to lead the United Farmers of Manitoba, who had unexpectedly taken office without a leader. After some reluctance, the 39-year-old agronomist and president of the Manitoba Agricultural College agreed to come on board and was elected to represent The Pas.

With a plainspoken style, Bracken began a 21-year term spanning both the Great Depression and the Second World War.

Bracken’s government knocked down provincial debt, invested in the provincial school system and pushed the Government Liquor Commission to administer and sell alcohol. In subsequent terms, Bracken pushed to expand the railway north and went toe-to-toe with the federal government for better economic compensation for Manitoba.

Through his premiership, Bracken was known for building coalitions: uniting the Manitoba Liberal and Progressive parties against the federal Liberals during the Great Depression and bringing together three parties during wartime, when he offered to replace members of his cabinet with opposition members.

In 1942, Bracken was asked to take over leadership of the federal Conservative party — brokering its change of name to the Progressive Conservatives. He held the position until 1948 when he retired from political life.

In the 1950s, Bracken led two commissions, one studying the Liquor Control Act and one on the distribution of railway cars. He and his wife Alice, received the Manitoba Order of the Buffalo Hunt, an honorary degree from the University of Manitoba and a spot in the Manitoba Agriculture Hall of Fame.

A small Saskatchewan village, noted as having 25 people in the 2006 census, is also named after Bracken.

“A lot of Manitobans won’t recognize the name and they for sure won’t recognize that he was premier for 21 years, which is just a tremendous accomplishment. Obviously, Manitobans had a great deal of faith in him and they believed in what he was doing to re-elect him that many times,” said Growth, Enterprise and Trade Minister Cliff Cullen, who also spoke at the event.

The Progressive Conservative MLA for Spruce Woods said that efforts to recognize Bracken were started by the province before the spring election, but that it was Pallister and his government that settled on the southern stretch of Highway 10.

Cullen figures the project will cost about $10,000, and the signs should hopefully be up by the end of the summer.

“(Bracken) was a rural person, he studied agriculture, believed strongly in agriculture and did a lot of work in the industry. I think it’s fitting that we take a rural piece of highway like No. 10 that now has his name attached to it,” Cullen said.

Another grandson, John Bracken of Winnipeg, said that he didn’t know his grandfather well, but from the people he’s talked to, Bracken “would probably be quite uncomfortable with the back-and-forth or insults that go on in politics these days.”

“He was a very honest man and I’m not sure that works in politics anymore,” he said.

Michael, also from Winnipeg, agreed, suggesting their grandfather’s enduring characteristic will be his honesty.

“I can’t imagine him doing anything untoward. He did a great job for Manitoba, and pulling it out of debt and things like that.”

That’s a message Cullen said he and his legislative colleagues can take to heart.

“The more people, and politicians in particular, came work together — the more we can accomplish,” he said.

After going north through Riding Mountain National Park, Highway 10 is already named as part of the Northern Woods and Water Route, which travels through Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta to Dawson Creek, B.C.

Dwight MacAulay, Manitoba’s chief of protocol, had been working with the Bracken family for years on finding a way to memorialize “Honest” John. It turns out a stretch of provincial highway is distinct honour.

To his recollection, the only other provincial roadway bearing the name of a Manitoba premier is Winnipeg’s Sterling Lyon Parkway.

“This is relatively unique, absolutely,” MacAulay said.

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