Blair Redlin Interview: Public Service and the Labour Movement
In this interview Blair Redlin recounts his extensive experience in the labour movement and public service.
He was raised in Calgary and attended the University of Calgary in the late 1970s. He studied political science and was involved in student activism, campaigning against tuition increases. He served in student government, including being elected as the president of the Federation of Alberta Students.
This interview was conducted by Ken Novakowski on April 10, 2025, in Burnaby, BC. It is part of our Oral History Collection.
Blair worked as a legislative intern in NDP leader Grant Notley’s office, and as a researcher and organizer for the Alberta NDP. In 1987, he moved to British Columbia where he worked for the opposition NDP caucus. He was involved in opposing the Social Credit government’s anti-labour Bills 19 and 20.
Blair went on to work for the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) as a research representative in British Columbia, Alberta, and at the national office in Ottawa. He worked on many issues including in coalitions and on campaigns against free trade with the U.S., public-private partnerships, water privatization, and the Canada-EU trade agreement.
In the early nineties, he served as an assistant deputy minister of policy under Glen Clark in the Harcourt NDP government, working on a job strategy and the creation of the Columbia Basin Trust. He was the provincial government’s negotiator for the Columbia Basin Treaty Committee.
Blair also served as deputy minister of transportation and highways and president of the BC Transportation Financing Authority during the Glen Clark NDP government, where he administered a project collective agreement for the Vancouver Island Highway Project that prioritized local hiring, employment equity, and training. In an email after the interview, Blair emphasized that “our work on the Island Highway project agreement & the Columbia Basin Trust (and more) wouldn’t have been possible without [Glen’s] vision and hard work.”
After the BC Liberals were elected in 2001, Blair returned to work for CUPE, serving as acting director of research in Ottawa and then as a research representative in British Columbia for over a decade before retiring in 2012.
Blair emphasized the importance of unions working in coalition with community partners and the value of democratic processes within the labour movement.
In retirement, Blair has remained active, serving on the board of BC Transit and the BC Labour Heritage Centre.