Tributes
Bud Drury: Memories of a Master Politician
West-Quebec Life, November 25, 1987
The Honourable Charles Mills Drury, P.C., O.C., O.B.E., D.S.O., Q.C., is known to his friends as "Bud". Perhaps to have such a moniker says something of this truly great Canadian.
Bud Drury has served Canada in so many ways. He was the youngest Brigadier, at 27, to serve in the Canadian Army during World War II. He worked for the United Nations in Poland from 1945 to 1947, settling refugees. He returned to Canada to join the Department of External Affairs, in its economic division. He eventually became the Deputy Minister of National Defence, a post he held for six years. In 1955 Bud returned to his family business in Montreal, where he was active in the construction, transportation and electronics industries.
In 1960 Bud was bitterly opposed to the policies of the then Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. He complained so much that a friend told him to, "Put up or shut up." He ran for Parliament. The rest is history!
Bud Drury was elected to the House of Commons for the constituency of St-Antoine Westmount, which later became just Westmount. He served in the House of Commons for 14 years, holding major cabinet portfolios under prime ministers Lester Pearson and Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
After his retirement from Parliament, he was appointed Chairman of the National Capital Commission where he served for six years. He resigned in 1984, after suffering a stroke that has now left him less mobile than he would like, but with a still keen and perceptive mind.
He recently shared some of his memories and his thoughts on the future of Canada with The West-Quebec Post over cups of coffee in his home, near Wakefield. This was the week that Rene Levesque was buried, so it was only natural that my first question concerned the PQ leader and how he was regarded by other politicians. Bud replied that in his view, Levesque had great personal magnetism, that he was indeed really a moderate, not at all ruthless, and that he was the first to recognize that separatism would not work now.
In the same breath Bud noted that he wasn't too happy with the Mulroney government. He said, "They (the Conservatives) have failed to inspire trust, which is a major necessity for any successful government. Trudeau was trusted, but his trouble was that he wasn't liked."
However, Bud Drury likes Trudeau, and odds are that the "Great One" liked Bud too, as he was a key member of his cabinet for many years, including holding the purse strings of the government as President of the Treasury Board for six years. He was also Minister of Trade and Commerce, and at one time held the dual roles of Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Science and Technology. He was also responsible for the National Research Council. Bud said that he was tremendously impressed by Trudeau's intellectual capacity. "He knew what was going on in the world better than the experts," he said.
Bud also noted that Trudeau did not lose patience with him, as he often did with his less senior ministers. He said, "One principle that I always followed was never to promise anything that I was not pretty sure of delivering."
This perhaps was not surprising, as Bud Drury had already made some pretty impressive achievements when he was the Minister of Defence Production, such as defence-sharing agreements with the U.S. that gave Canada wider markets for equipment. One of these was the RCA airborne navigation system. When he was Minister of Industry, Bud rates his single greatest achievement as the Auto Pact, signed in 1965. Incidentally, his Deputy Minister at Industry was none other than Simon Reisman, of current Free Trade fame. "I got on very well with him," said Bud.
While on the subject of Free Trade, I could not help but solicit a comment, bearing in mind that Bud Drury lacks some faith in our present government. I was surprised when he said, "Free Trade is a challenge which I think we can and should meet; if we don't, we aren't worth our salt." The horror stories about the dislocation of Canadian manufacturers, and even whole sectors of the economy didn't seem to bother him too much. Bud said, "The temporary dislocation of our industries is not as important as the long-run gain."
He enjoyed being a cabinet minister, but Bud did not like having to get elected. "I hated the business of getting up on a platform and telling people how good you are. I found this offensive."
Bud Drury had some interesting observations to make on what Prime Ministers Pearson and Trudeau required of their cabinet ministers. For example he said, "Mike Pearson defined a good cabinet minister as one who did not get anybody in trouble. Trudeau wanted performance." He continued, "Pearson knew where he wanted to go and would proceed in that direction, very resolutely. Pierre was a bit of a push-over for a one-toone sob story. One thing that struck me about the Canadian perception that Pearson has been publicly characterized as being influenced by the last person he spoke to, whereas Trudeau was the reverse. Except, of course, in Cabinet where he was frequently one against many. This is where he was tough!"
When it came to discussing John Diefenbaker, his mood was somewhat different, as Bud was not what you might say, very fond of the Chief! Perhaps readers will recall earlier in this story that the main reason Bud got into politics in the first place was to do something about Diefenbaker! He referred to Diefenbaker as "something we couldn't afford" and suggested that "he had a paranoiac intent to have his own way; he scorned advice and relied on his own ideas and intuition entirely," Bud said. "He demanded that his cabinet ministers give him their blind personal loyalty and not their intelligence or their constituency backing. Some of his ministers were great on loyalty, but short on competence." Bud went on to say that Diefenbaker set out to destroy or neutralize people who disagreed with him, or with whom he disagreed.
"On the other hand, Brian Mulroney is all for making friends with everybody," he said. It seemed that this was a good opportunity to ask Bud about some of the other prime ministers that he had known. This is what he told me: "Louis St. Laurent was the quintessential gentleman. Mrs. St. Laurent was much like my paternal grandmother, who outraged my grandfather by encouraging the young officers of the Halifax Garrison to play poker. He thought that this was subversion of military discipline."
Bud noted that Mackenzie King was very clever, and a great politician, "but he was unlikable," he said. "But since my father was the treasurer for R. B. Bennett it was unlikely that I would have much to do with Willie King." He continued, "Bennett as a person was pompous, but he was friendly to me, although you could hardly call him warm. He was rather sad during his days in England as Viscount Bennett." Then, much as an afterthought, Bud said, "To be a Prime Minister you have to be alone."
Getting back to his own career in government, I asked Bud about his years as the chairman of the National Capital Commission (NCC) from 1978 to 1984. He is rather proud of the fact that Winterlude was inaugurated under his stewardship at the Commission. He said that he saw his NCC role as that of a peacemaker between Ottawa, Hull and the Regional Municipality. "It was a time when the big capital expenditures for parkways and so on, were over. Instead of ruling I was trying more to reign," he said.
This, of course, was after the Fullerton Report that had recommended Ottawa become part of a National Capital, upsetting the local politicians who felt that they would have some of their influence diminished. Incidentally, Bud doesn't think much of this idea of having a Capital Region, in the Washington D. C. style. He commented, "I don't think it's a good idea. You would end up with a whole series of Cantleys. Could you imagine that gal over in Aylmer trying to operate in a centralized system?"
In his retirement years he told me that he enjoyed using a computer to keep the accounts for his daughter's restaurant, but Bud had no plans to use it to write his memoirs. "I usually duck this issue by saying that I am more interested in looking to the future than to the past."
And quite a past it has been, indeed. He said, "I have lived an interesting life and would not make any great changes."
He noted almost wistfully, "Not many people ask me for advice these days."