The recent passing of former B.C. premier Bill Bennett was a reminder that of the many people who have held elected office in this province, only a handful can truly be said to have left a major, lasting imprint on the society they served.
That is not to denigrate the achievements and sacrifices of those who win elected office, but it is to show how difficult it can be for any particular politician to stand head and shoulders above the crowd.
And Bennett - for both good and bad reasons - certainly stood out.
I covered him only briefly, at the tail end of his time at the helm of the province. Since then, I have covered seven different premiers, and none of them can match his record, either in terms of achievements or longevity in office.
Bennett was both a visionary builder and a polarizing figure who added a large element of "class warfare" to his approach in government.
He certainly built things, many of which continue to be used by millions of British Columbians every year: B.C. Place stadium, SkyTrain, Canada Place, the Coquihalla Highway and the Alex Fraser Bridge, to name a few. Even the massive development of lands surrounding False Creek can be traced to his bringing Expo 86 to Vancouver.
While his legendary father, W.A.C. Bennett, opened up the province's Interior and North with his policies in his 20 years as premier, Bennett the Younger left his mark more on the Metro Vancouver region with his building of infrastructure projects.
But for many other British Columbians, their lasting memories may be tied to some of the more controversial aspects of his time in power. His restraint program, aimed squarely at reducing public services and the number of people employed in the public sector, left a lingering bad taste in the mouths of many.
That restraint program, ramped up after he won the 1983 election, plunged B.C. into arguably the most turbulent time of its history, pitting one side of the province against the other. It seemed the province would grind to a halt with some kind of general strike.
In the end, the protest leaders realized Bennett could not be beaten and folded their hand. Always the tough politician, Bennett had won his most pivotal battle, but the cost was a bitterly divided, polarized electorate.
That toughness was his trademark, which people seemed to relate to. Of course, Bennett's style of governing would seem out of place these days. Never one to warm up to the media, he would be lost in the modern era of quick sound bites and the whirlwind world of social media, where things happen and change almost instantly.
One of Bennett's biggest political accomplishments came before he actually became premier, and it has to considered an important and lasting part of his legacy.
He was able to woo into his Social Credit party fold several MLAs from the B.C. Liberal party, thus uniting the centre-right on B.C.'s political spectrum and making it almost impossible for his party's chief rival, the NDP, of ever gaining power on his watch.
He easily won the 1975 election, ousting the government of the NDP's Dave Barrett, and then won two more close election battles in 1979 and again in 1983.
But while he honed the polarization of the B.C. electorate, the people of B.C. passed the ultimate judgment on his performance: they re-elected him twice, which is a critical point.
Winning a first election is one thing, but being re-elected is an endorsement a politician's time in office.
Since Bennett, only one premier has received that kind of endorsement: Gordon Campbell, who was also re-elected twice. Campbell, of course, remolded the B.C. Liberal party into a modern version of Bennett's Social Credit party, and the dynasty continues in that form to this day.
And so there is little doubt that Bill Bennett will go down in the history books as one of B.C.'s greatest premiers. His political enemies may hate to admit that, but the people of B.C. are the ones who made that call.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.
