It was the spring of 1974 when I received a call from MP Barney Danson of York North, Toronto to meet him for lunch at the Donalda Golf and Country Club. Over lunch, we composed a letter to Prime Minister Trudeau proposing the creation of a Minister of State for Small Business. Barney Danson made the point that as the only business person of any experience in the Liberal Caucus, he was sure to be appointed as the new Minister.
Well to our surprise, Mr. Danson did make it into Cabinet in 1974, but as the Minister of State for Urban Affairs. We kept in touch over the years when he became the Minister of Defense. He was a featured speaker 22 years later at CFIB's 25-year celebrations.
The idea of a Small Business Minister was studied carefully in the Prime Minister's Office, and in 1976, Len Marchand, an MP from Kamloops, B.C. and a first nations representative, became the Minister of State for Small Business. Of course the photo is with Len Marchand.
What made him effective is that he told me outright that his background was in “range management” and that he knew nothing about small business. I told him that although I knew a lot about small business, my personal knowledge was not what we were about. Instead, I showed him how our Mandate and process worked and gave him the views of small business on all the major issues of the time.
I went out of my way to help him. The first problem was his department and the Director of Small Business. The Director said that if he was not elevated to Director-General, he would always be excluded from important Industry department meetings. Bloody bureaucracy. We got that fixed in short order.
We wrote special position papers on the important small business issues so he could argue in Cabinet with authority. Then we made sure that at every important meeting with other Ministers, particularly the Minister of Finance, Len Marchand was invited.
He was respected in Cabinet by the Prime Minister and a year later was promoted to a larger portfolio. When he left politics, he was appointed to the Senate.
I used to think that governments appoint the most experienced people for their various Cabinet positions. Unfortunately, that is seldom possible. At CFIB we help elected officials appreciate what they did not know about small business, so they can work more effectively with their officials. We became a respected source of advice.