It’s somehow fitting that the two men who dominated Nova Scotian political life in the 1970s and 1980s should pass on within weeks of each other.
Gerald Regan, 91, who served two terms as Liberal premier from 1970 to 1978, died on Tuesday at the age of 91. His Progressive Conservative rival, John Buchanan, died on Oct. 3 at 88.
A native of Windsor, Regan was born in 1928, graduated from Dalhousie law school and was admitted to the bar in 1954. He was big and gregarious, and in his years before politics worked in sports broadcasting, promoting the idea of an international hockey series between Canada and the Soviet Union long before it became a reality in the early 1970s.
He was a well-known labour lawyer before winning a seat in Parliament in 1963, joining Lester Pearson’s minority government. He won the province’s Liberal leadership in 1965, a job he held until 1980.
He was opposition leader during the Conservative government of G.I. Smith and toppled the Tories with a minority win in 1970. His Liberals won a majority in 1974.
His government nationalized the former Nova Scotia Light and Power electrical utility, creating the Nova Scotia Power Corporation. He also championed tidal power in the Bay of Fundy, laying the groundwork for the tidal power dam near Annapolis Royal.
He fostered industrial development and worked to develop offshore oil. He established the office of provincial ombudsman.
He and his wife Carole had six children. His son Geoff has served as Speaker of the House of Commons and his daughter Nancy was a TV news broadcaster.
After losing to Buchanan in 1978, Regan ran for the federal riding of Halifax for the Liberals, winning in 1980 and serving as labour minister and international trade minister in Pierre Trudeau’s final term. He was defeated when Brian Mulroney swept into power in 1984.
His long political career was overshadowed, though, by a lengthy criminal process in the 1990s, when he eventually faced trial on eight counts of sexual offences on allegations from decades earlier.
He was acquitted of all charges by a jury in December 1998. A Crown appeal won the right to a trial on other charges, a ruling upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2002. But the case was dropped later that year after the Crown conducted "an exhaustive review and consultation."
As Regan himself acknowledged in an interview before his trial in 1998, the allegations would damage his reputation forever, regardless of the result.
Premier Stephen McNeil, a fellow Liberal, said, Regan “governed with a true sense of liberal values — investing in people, creating economic development and ensuring fiscal responsibility.”
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