When Raj Pannu first won Edmonton-Strathcona riding for the Alberta NDP in 1997, he took the riding by 58 votes.
In those days, Edmonton-Strathcona was not the NDP bastion it is today. It could as easily have fallen to the Alberta Liberals, whose candidate had 4,214 votes to Pannu’s 4,272, or the Progressive Conservatives, whose standard-bearer tallied 4,096.
Known to all as Raj, Rajinder Singh Pannu, the gentlemanly University of Alberta Education professor emeritus born in Punjab on Jan. 12, 1934, has died at 91.
After his 1997 election, Pannu immediately set about creating the conditions for bigger victories in the riding, where he was re-elected in 2001 with more than 50 per cent of the vote, and again in 2004, with more than 60 per cent. That work also helped set the stage for the NDP’s majority government under Rachel Notley in 2015.
Pannu’s 1997 victory gave the NDP a second seat in the Alberta Legislature, beside leader Pam Barrett. When Barrett had what she described as a near-death experience in a dental chair in 2000 and quit politics for more spiritual pursuits, Mr. Pannu took up the reins as party leader.
When he won the seat again in 2001 – a year the Alberta Liberals had persuaded themselves and some in the media that they were about to form government, only to be crushed by Ralph Klein’s PCs – there was relief and even rejoicing among the NDP’s supporters, despite the fact Pannu and Brian Mason (representing Barrett’s old Edmonton-Highlands riding) were the only New Democrats in the Legislature.
But what the heck! They’d held on to the party’s popular vote, and even with only two seats compared to the Liberals’ seven, the Dippers’ raucous celebration at a downtown Edmonton hotel on the night of March 12 was a delightful contrast to the gloomy Liberal wake in the ballroom of a suburban hostelry across town.
The Liberals, in despair, drifted away in minutes. The New Democrats partied into the wee hours chanting “Raj Against the Machine!” until they were hoarse and dreaming big dreams – the biggest of which would come true in 2015.
Indeed, after Pannu’s retirement as MLA when the Legislature was dissolved in 2008 (he was replaced as leader by Mason until 2014) it was soon obvious his work in the riding would contribute to Notley’s victories as Edmonton-Strathcona MLA in the next five general elections. His reputation as a hard-working leader undoubtedly helped set the stage for her majority government in 2015 as well.
Many tributes to Pannu were published on social media yesterday, but the one I liked the best was penned by NDP activist Lou Arab, Notley’s husband, who went to work for the NDP Caucus in 2002.
“He wasn’t young then (70+), he had a thick accent, and an academic’s tendency to want to explain everything when a short quip was better suited for the moment,” Mr. Arab wrote on Facebook. “But behind the quiet, friendly gentleman (which was 100% real) Raj had killer instincts.
“We ruthlessly attacked the Tory government of the day, we got headlines and press a tiny band of lefties might not expect in monolithic, conservative Alberta. … CBC did a feature on our caucus, and how two MLAs made the massive government run in circles. The Liberals hated us.
“Raj was game for all of it … and managed to do it all with dignity, kindness and thoughtfulness.”
After earning his undergraduate degree in India, Pannu immigrated to Canada in 1962. He settled first in Whitecourt, 177 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, where he worked as a high school teacher until 1964. That year, he moved to Edmonton to complete a PhD in sociology. Despite his academic credentials, though, I can never recall hearing anyone call him Dr. Pannu. It might be Pannu, but it was usually Raj. He taught at the U of A for 27 years.
“Raj was an important part of how the ANDP got from where we were – wiped out of all seats in 1993 – to two, to four, to government,” wrote former NDP environment minister Shannon Phillips in her online tribute. “He was one of the bravest, smartest Albertans and a truly good man.”
“With his distinctive ‘Raj against the Machine’ campaign T-shirt, he captured our hearts and propelled our movement forward,” NDP leader Naheed Nenshi said in a party statement yesterday – although I can’t say I ever saw Pannu in one of those T-shirts, and rarely without a neat jacket and necktie.
In 2023, looking frail but still enthusiastic, Pannu was still ready to come out and campaign for his NDP. His loss will be deeply felt.
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