Bill Blaikie
Bill Blaikie served for 29 years as a New Democrat MP, being first elected in 1979. He was elected to the Manitoba Legislature in 2009 and announced his retirement earlier this year. An ordained United Church minister, he has been adjunct professor of theology and politics at the University of Winnipeg since 2007.
Bio last updated December 24th, 2019.
Articles by Bill Blaikie
On the Table: Ambushing the messenger
By Bill Blaikie
March 1, 2012
No one can ever accuse Father Raymond J. de Souza of being a member of any Jack Layton fan club. From his remarkably harsh column in the National Post on Layton's funeral to his comments on Layton in the first issue of Convivium (October 2011), there is a definite lack of ambiguity in the arguably hostile caricaturing of Layton's life and death.
My primary counterpoint is directed toward the claim, made in both the National Post column and in Convivium, that by defeating me for the leadership of the NDP in 2003, Layton defeated not only Bill Blaikie "but the social gospel roots the ordained minister represented," a tradition "that Layton did much to vanquish
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The God Squad has a Left Wing, Too
Bill Blaikie
October 18, 2011
"I hope those of us on the religious left might be forgiven if we look back somewhat nostalgically on a time when genuine controversy could erupt over an ecclesiastical declaration, especially a statement such as the CCCB's proclamation that the needs of the poor have priority over the wants of the rich."
The need to better articulate the spiritual vision that underlies the activism of so many on the political left in Canada was one of the reasons that, several years ago, a number of NDP MPs started a faith and justice caucus that met regularly to discuss the relationship between our faith and our po...