Not To Be Trusted With Knives

So, here I am blogging about yet another boring Premier of the Province of British Columbia.  But never fear, the next guy on the list is W.A.C. Bennett!  Ole’ Wacky himself!  So just get through this one and next week I’ll have something less yawn-inducing for you to read about.

	Name	Byron Ingemar Johnson
	Born:	December 10, 1890 in Victoria, BC
	Died:	January 12, 1964 in Victoria, BC
	Party:	coaltion of the Conservatives and the Liberals
	Held Office:	December 29, 1947 – August 1, 1952

• born Björn Ingemar “Bjossi” Jönsson
• known as “Boss,” which apparently was just coincidentally to him being the boss of the province – it was an anglicization of “Bjossi,” which is a diminutive of Björn
• served in WWI
• was a Mason
• 1933: elected as a Liberal MLA in Victoria City
• 1937: lost his seat, returned to the building supply business he shared with his brother (or, he quit in 1934, returned to politics in 1937 but wasn’t elected (not sure how you “return” to politics if you aren’t elected), depending on which source you believe)
• WWII: put in charge of building Royal Canadian Air Force facilities in BC
• 1945: elected as an MLA in New Westminster, served as a cabinet minister in the Liberal-Conservative coalition government under Hart
• 1947: when Hart resigned, Johnson took over as leader and thus became the premier
• as premier he did a bunch of stuff (e.g., introduced compulsory health care and a 3% sales tax to pay for it, appointing the first female speaker in the British Commonwealth, Nancy Hodges)
• 1949: stayed premier as the Liberal-Conservative coalition won the largest popular vote in BC history
• 1951: the Conservatives pull out of the coalition, collapsing Johnson’s government
• 1952: defeated by the Social Credit Party (the predecessor to the current day BC So-Called Liberal Party) (and lost his own seat to the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the predecessor party to the New Democratic Party (NDP)). This marked the end of the Liberal-Conservative coalition and the beginning of the two-party system we have to this day

In summary, we can thank Boss Johnson for our provincial health care, but blame him for two-party system.

Image credits: Accessed from Wikipedia. In the public domain. w00t!

References:

• Wikipedia, the reference of champions
• Grand Lodge of BC & Yukon

Tags: BC, BC Premier, British Columbia, politics

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