Bennett, William Andrew Cecil "W.A.C."

BENNETT, William Andrew Cecil "W.A.C.", merchant, politician, premier 1 Aug 1952–15 Sept 1972 (b 6 Sept 1900, Hastings, NB; d 23 Feb 1979, Kelowna). Born on a small farm in New Brunswick, he emerged from poverty to become a successful hardware merchant. He moved in 1919 to Alberta and in 1930 to BC, where he bought a hardware business in KELOWNA. During the Depression he was active in the provincial CONSERVATIVE PARTY and won election to the legislature in 1941. In 1946 he failed in his bid to win the Conservative leadership. Bennett temporarily abandoned provincial politics to run in a federal by-election in 1948. He lost and returned to the legislature in 1949, a member of the anti-socialist COALITION GOVERNMENT, which had formed during the war. In 1950 Bennett failed in his second attempt to win the Conservative leadership. He crossed the floor to sit as an independent early in 1951, by which time his career seemed to be stalled. But later that year he joined the SOCIAL CREDIT PARTY, and when the Socreds won a surprise victory in the 1952 election they chose him leader of their minority government. Bennett became the longest-serving PREMIER in BC history. His 20-year term was marked by rapid economic growth based on resource development, much of it financed by out-of-province investment, and his government initiated the building of highways, power dams and railways at an energetic pace. While all of this activity took place, Bennett claimed to be eliminating the provincial debt; in 1959 he celebrated this feat with a huge bonfire of cancelled bonds on a barge in OKANAGAN LK. A fervid supporter of free enterprise, he nevertheless nationalized the ferry system, expanded post-secondary education and created BC HYDRO, a CROWN CORPORATION, in 1961. At the same time, Bennett held social spending and labour unions in check. A volatile campaigner (one journalist described "the fixed neon smile, the bustling salesman's assurance, the ceaseless torrent of speech"), Bennett retained power with fierce attacks on the "socialism" of the CCF-NDP. He won re-election 6 times, but finally lost to his NDP arch-foes, led by Dave BARRETT, in 1972. He resigned the next year and his son Bill BENNETT took over as leader of the Social Credit Party.
Reading: David Mitchell, W.A.C. Bennett and the Rise of British Columbia, 1983.