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Former Nova Scotia premier John Hamm, the Pictou County physician who prescribed belt-tightening for the province’s books, has died at age 88.
Straitlaced and soft-spoken, he was first elected to the legislature in 1993 and served as Nova Scotia’s 25th premier from 1999 to 2006. He first led a majority government before being held to a minority four years later.
In a statement Monday, Premier Tim Houston said Hamm “made an indelible mark on the lives of thousands of Nova Scotians.”
“I will remember Premier Hamm for his strength, his quiet dignity and for his determination to improve the lives of the people he served,” said Houston.
“At this difficult time, I send my most sincere condolences to his wife Genesta and their children John, Jeffrey and Jennifer, their families and to all who loved Premier John Hamm.”
Longtime Progressive Conservative organizer Chris Lydon got his start volunteering on Hamm’s 1998 election campaign and went to work for him in the premier’s office after Hamm formed government.
“He was completely devoid of vice and distraction, he was exceedingly kind, his bedside manner was obviously well learned in his former profession and translated really well to the hustings,” said Lydon.
‘A true gentleman’
Getting to work and volunteer for Hamm was the chance to be around someone “truly, uniformly great,” said Lydon.
Hamm’s former chief of staff, Jamie Baillie, called him “a true gentleman.”
“I never saw him lose his temper. I never saw him say an unkind word about anybody — not his most vicious political opponent or anyone who had let him down. He saw the good in people, he had a unique ability to bring that out in people, he was in many ways a very unique leader.”
The upgrade to the province’s community college system during Hamm’s time in office was his greatest legacy, said Baillie.
“He was a big believer in the trades and what he loved about the Nova Scotia Community College was that it existed in so many small communities around Nova Scotia.”
A man who preferred milk
Away from ballot boxes and budget debates, Hamm’s personality was perhaps best captured by a single photo op: smiling politicians posing at Halifax’s Midtown Tavern back in 1996, glasses raised in a toast.
But unlike the rest, his beverage of choice was not beer.
“And lo and behold, what does John Hamm have to drink to connect with the good people and the blue-collar workers of Nova Scotia? A good solid glass of milk,” former Quebec premier Jean Charest recalled during a video tribute to him in 2006.
And as Nova Scotians would learn over his 13 years in politics, the milk was on brand — as was the sweater vest he almost always wore under his blazer.
Leaning on his traditional values, Hamm opposed Sunday shopping, believing the day belonged to families. While he initiated a 2004 plebiscite that the No side narrowly won, a court decision overturned the ban two years later, opening retail doors seven days a week.
He also ordered the removal of about a thousand video lottery terminals from bars and taverns, in an effort aimed at curbing gambling addiction. He resisted a total ban, arguing that would drive the industry underground where it could not be regulated.
As well, Hamm ended the province’s use of public-private partnership (P3) school construction, arguing the buy-now, pay-later model would burden future generations, and returned the province to the traditional model of publicly owned infrastructure.
The Pictou County physician was first elected to the legislature in 1993 and served as Nova Scotia’s 25th premier from 1999 to 2006. The CBC’s Amy Smith has the story.
In 1999, he ran on a campaign promise to open more hospital beds and end the heavy subsidies at Sydney Steel. Once in office, he moved to get the government out of the steel business. After a final attempt at a private sale failed, the plant was shuttered for good, ending nearly a century of steel-making in Cape Breton.
While health care was a major plank in his campaign, his government faced tense clashes with the sector.
In 2000, paramedics in a contract dispute parked their ambulances — lights flashing and sirens blaring — at the gates of Province House before walking off the job in an 18-hour strike.
A year later, the Hamm government tried to take away the right to strike for approximately 9,000 nurses and health-care workers with Bill 68. The legislation sparked mass protests at the legislature and threats of widespread resignations, eventually forcing a standoff that saw the province revoke the bill’s most contentious powers.
Voters reject minority government and hand John Hamm and the Tories a clear victory.
However, one of his biggest accomplishments came after a high-stakes battle with Ottawa over offshore oil and gas revenues.
The 2005 Atlantic Accord allowed Nova Scotia to keep 100 per cent of offshore resource revenues without a government clawback in transfer payments.
During negotiations, Hamm’s quiet, methodical style stood in sharp contrast to that of his provincial counterpart, Danny Williams, who removed Canadian flags from provincial buildings in Newfoundland and Labrador in protest.
True to his mantra of fiscal restraint, Hamm pledged every penny of the accord’s $830-million windfall would be used to pay down the province’s debt of $12 billion at the time.
It was a key part of his push to have Nova Scotia live within its means and return to balanced budgets after years of big spending.
He was a true fiscal Conservative who never veered from his prescription for his vision of a healthier province.
After politics, Hamm was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 2009, described as “a model of public service and leadership.”
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