John Savage (Nova Scotia politician)

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John Savage
OC ONS
23rd Premier of Nova Scotia
In office
June 11, 1993 – July 18, 1997
MonarchElizabeth II
Lieutenant GovernorLloyd Crouse
James Kinley
Preceded byDon W. Cameron
Succeeded byRussell MacLellan
MLA for Dartmouth South
In office
May 25, 1993 – March 24, 1998
Preceded byRoland J. Thornhill
Succeeded byDon Chard
Leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party
In office
June 20, 1992 – March 20, 1997
Preceded byVince MacLean
Succeeded byRussell MacLellan
Personal details
Born
John Patrick Savage

May 28, 1932
Newport, Wales
DiedMay 13, 2003(2003-05-13) (aged 70)
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Political partyLiberal
SpouseMargaret Mary McCartan
Children7, including Mike Savage
Alma materQueen's University Belfast
OccupationPhysician

John Patrick Savage OC ONS (May 28, 1932 – May 13, 2003) was a Welsh-born Canadian physician and politician. Savage was the 23rd premier of Nova Scotia between 1993 and 1997. He was born in Wales, and educated in both the United Kingdom and Ireland. He immigrated to Canada in 1967 and was a noted family physician in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He became the mayor of Dartmouth in 1985, and won re-election twice. He then became the leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party in 1992 and stepped down as mayor. In 1993, he defeated the incumbent provincial government and became premier. Savage was a controversial premier, bringing in many reforms in taxation, regional government, and government hiring practices. He resigned as premier in 1997 due to his low approval ratings in public polls. He died of cancer at the age of 70 in 2003. He was the father of Mike Savage, current mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality.

Early life[edit]

Born in Newport, Wales, he was the son of an Irish Roman Catholic doctor father and a Welsh Baptist housewife mother.[1] He attended school at Prior Park College, Bath, before attending Queen's University of Belfast to become a physician.[1]

Nova Scotia[edit]

He was generally unhappy with the United Kingdom's government-run healthcare system known as the National Health Service.[1] When he saw an advertisement for doctors in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, Savage decided to pack up his family and move across the ocean to continue his medical practice in 1967.[1][2] He made a name for himself as the "hippie doctor" in the 1970s, due to his beard and progressive health stances.[1] By setting up a detox centre — and a free clinic in the economically disadvantaged and mostly black community of North Preston — he assured his reputation as a left-winger.[1]

He started his political life running for federal office in the Halifax area in the 1970s. He was defeated twice as a federal Liberal Party candidate. In 1985, he ran successfully to become the mayor of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where he lived.[3] He was re-elected as mayor in both 1988 and 1991.[3]

Premier of Nova Scotia[edit]

The Nova Scotia Liberal Party had its annual general meeting in Dartmouth on February 29, 1992. Savage attended a session of the meeting to bring greetings from the City of Dartmouth, in his capacity as its mayor, but didn't realize that the party's rank and file were about to oust their long-time leader, Vince McLean. He was approached to run for the Liberal leadership and took a leave of absence from his mayoral duties. The election was held by computerized telephone balloting, and he won on the second ballot in June 1992.[2]

On May 25, 1993, Savage defeated sitting Premier Donald Cameron and the governing Progressive Conservatives in the 1993 provincial election, winning 40 of the legislature's 52 seats.[4]

During his term as premier, and saddled with huge operating debts left by the previous government and declining equalization payments from the federal government of Jean Chrétien, he became a tough fiscal conservative, balancing the provincial budget in 1996 for the first time since 1978.

In doing so, he imposed 4 day layoff of thousands of civil servants. Other programs, such as constructing a toll highway, municipal amalgamations by creating the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and the Halifax Regional Municipality, and the implementation of the Harmonized Sales Tax were initiated under his watch.[5]

His government also led the country in the creation of tougher anti-smoking legislation, consolidation of school boards and local health authorities, creation of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre, the establishment of one of the most modern emergency health services in North America along with province-wide emergency field communications systems, modernizing its vocational schools to form an independent NSCC, and he waged a tough and ultimately successful fight against an entrenched patronage system in the provincial Department of Transportation and Public Works, as well as within his own political party.

Savage's detractors labelled him as inexperienced and stubborn.[5] Faced with increasing discontent from within his own party over some of his anti-patronage policies, and after surviving a July 1995 leadership review vote,[6] he resigned as premier in 1997.[7] In its editorial page on March 22, 1997, The Globe and Mail, after citing his list of reforms, called him "the best premier in a generation," and berated both Liberal party members and the public for forcing him to resign.[8]

Later life and death[edit]

After Savage resigned, he and his wife Margaret traveled to Africa to perform missionary work. They worked in The Gambia, providing HIV/AIDS education to youth.[9]

In 2001, he acknowledged he had stomach cancer,[9] which had metastasized. He died on May 13, 2003. Just three days before his death, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada.[10] He died in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, about six weeks after his wife's death, from bowel cancer.[11][12]

Savage and his wife had seven children, with their son Mike Savage following in his father's footsteps and becoming the mayor of the Halifax Regional Municipality in 2012.[13]

Electoral history[edit]

1993 Nova Scotia general election: Dartmouth South
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal John Savage 4,346 44.25% 12.47%
Progressive Conservative Colin May 3,091 31.47% -15.86%
New Democratic Don Chard 2,221 22.61% 1.73%
Natural Law Alexander J. Gillis 163 1.66% –
Total 9,821 –
Source(s)
Source: Nova Scotia Legislature (2021). "Electoral History for Dartmouth South" (PDF). nslegislature.ca.
Nova Scotia. Chief Electoral Officer (1993). Returns of the General Election for the House of Assembly, Thirty-Third General Election (PDF). Queen's Printer.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Staff (23 May 2003). "John Savage". The Telegraph. London, UK. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b Cox, Kevin (27 May 1993). "N.S. assets not for sale, premier-elect declares". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. p. A10.
  3. ^ a b McIlory, Anne; Greenspon, Edward (21 March 1997). "Savage quits as N.S. premier". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. pp. A1–A4.
  4. ^ Cox, Kevin (26 May 1993). "Nova Scotia Liberals romp into power". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. pp. A1, A4.
  5. ^ a b Chew, Patricia (17 January 2012). "Nova Scotia Elections: A Savage sweep". CBC Digital Archives. Toronto. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
  6. ^ Canadian Press (8 July 1995). "Savage survives vote of Nova Scotia Liberals". The Toronto Star. Toronto. p. A8.
  7. ^ Harper, Tim (21 March 1997). "Liberal premier of Nova Scotia resigns amid party grumbling". The Toronto Star. Toronto. p. A14.
  8. ^ Editorial (22 March 1997). "Nice going, Nova Scotia". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. p. D6.
  9. ^ a b "Former Nova Scotia premier has cancer". CBC News. Halifax, Nova Scotia. 16 July 2001. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  10. ^ "Savage receives Order of Canada". The Chronicle Herald. 11 May 2003. Archived from the original on 5 October 2003. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
  11. ^ "Former N.S. premier Savage dead at 70". CBC News. Halifax, Nova Scotia. 13 May 2003. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  12. ^ "Hundreds attend Savage memorial". CBC News. Halifax, Nova Scotia. 16 May 2003. Retrieved 4 February 2014.
  13. ^ Canadian Press (20 October 2012). "Mike Savage Becomes Halifax Mayor: Former Liberal MP Continues Family Dynasty In Atlantic Canada's Largest City". The Huffington Post Canada. Toronto. Retrieved 7 September 2013.

Bibliography[edit]

  • Clancy, Peter; Bickerton, James; Haddow, Rodney and Stewart, Ian. (2000) The Savage Years: The Perils of Reinventing Government in Nova Scotia. Halifax: Formac Publishing Company Limited. ISBN 9780887805097

External links[edit]

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