With Prime Minister John Key running for re-election, he might be interested in knowing how Prairie farmers were once the making of Canadian politician John Bracken, the long-time premier of Manitoba (1922-43) and leader of the federal Conservative opposition (1943-8).

John Bracken, Premier of Manitoba 1922-1943
The Farmers Choice

The secret of his political success was that he started at the top. When he had to work his way up by his wits, he failed big time, according to a new biography of the farmer politician.

You have to remember that Canadian farmers dominated Western Canada for 100 years - until oil and potash were discovered.

Bracken’s political career began with a midnight phone call in 1922. On the other end of the line, a stranger asked the groggy principal of the Agricultural College if he would be willing to accept the premiership of Manitoba.

The caller was inquiring on behalf of the leaderless United Farmers of Manitoba (UMF) who had just won 24 of the 55 seats in the recent election and were faced with forming a minority government.

Bracken was a man who had just arrived at his new job after coming from Saskatchewan. He had no previous political experience, had not taken the slightest interest in Manitoba politics - in fact, he’d been too busy to vote in the general election, he said.

Still, he spent the next day in a church basement being interviewed by the UFM caucus, and got the job in part because the other two turned it down.

Overnight, Bracken bounded from zero to hero to become Premier of Manitoba.  He would hold the job for the next 20 years.

Eventually he became leader of the federal Conservative opposition in Ottawa.

My father, a wily political backroom boy  who refers to himself on occasion as a “political spear carrier”, picks up the tale of what happened when party loyaltists eventually tired of the Manitoba politician.

“I was around in the late 1940s when Harry Price, Harry Jackman, Henry Borden and Ed Bickle raised enough money to buy John Bracken a farm outside Ottawa. Why? Because as the federal Tory leader, he would only resign if they bought him a farm.

“How did he reach the pinnacle of provincial and national politics? It wasn`t easy.

“He started out his professional life as quite a famous agronomist in the West in the late 20s and 30s . The Progressives won in 1922 in Manitoba quite unexpectedly and had to form a government, but had no leader. They called and asked him if he`d like to be Premier of Manitoba.

“He knew nothing of politics and damn little of government but every farmer in the West knew him. He had never bothered to vote in his life nor had he ever set foot in the Manitoba Legislative building.

“However, he was made Premier of Manitoba and hung in for the next twenty years. The federal Tory party wooed him in 1942 and he agreed to move to Ottawa if they would change the party name to The Progressive Conservative Party. But by 1948, the love affair was over - and he retired happily to his new farm.

“Politics is less interesting today,” says my dad.