John Burton, former Humboldt resident and MP for Regina East, launched his new book Potash: An Inside Account of Saskatchewan’s Pink Gold, to a small audience at the Reid-Thompson Public Library in Humboldt on Nov. 21.
During his talk, Burton went a bit into the history of potash in Saskatchewan, including the high points and the pitfalls. And he should know-- in the 1950s he worked for the Industrial Development Office in Regina, obtaining facts and figures on potash. In the 1970s after he was defeated as an MP, Allan Blakeny, then-Premier of Saskatchewan, asked him to work for the government and give special attention to resource development, with potash in particular.
“(Allan Blakeny) felt keenly that the province was not getting the kind of return on the potash resource … and he wanted to see some way of ensuring that the province got a good return for the resource,” Burton said. “He understood that the industry was then playing an important role in the province and therefore how it was managed and some of the things that were done were important to the well-being of the province and the future of the province.”
He then used this special knowledge to work on the book at the behest of others.
“Several people urged me to write the book because there had not been anything written or produced up to the present time that outlined the development of the industry,” he said. “I was able to tell about things that nobody else know about. That gave me cause to write the book.”
He wrote the book and then shopped around for publishers. He found a few in Saskatchewan, but the book didn’t fit with what they had been doing.
“They probably wouldn’t have been able to handle it,” Burton said.
He was then in talks with some publishers from Toronto, but they didn’t understand the purpose of the book and kept wanting to change it.
“They were kind of difficult to deal with and had different ideas about what should go in the book,” he said.
Then, like Goldilocks, he found the perfect fit: the relatively new University of Regina Press; Burton felt they understood the importance of potash. In fact, the book about potash was published at around the same time as a different book about another Saskatchewan staple: wheat.
Burton hopes that with the publication of this book, people will get a better understanding of what goes on in the industry centred on the production of what is arguably Saskatchewan’s most famous resource.
“I wanted them to understand the development of the history and the complex process that took place and all the factors that went into the development of affairs,” he said. “My emphasis on the last chapter of the book is, I would like people to think about what we should do in the future. What kind of set up or what kind of regime should we work for in the future? And the people need to think about that, because potash is such an important factor in Saskatchewan’s well-being now.”
Burton began work on the book in 2006, but it’s been a long road to publication as the result of various health problems that slowed him down – as he pointed out, he’s almost 87. Therefore, the publication of the book was a big deal for him.
“That was quite a feeling of satisfaction I had, that I had that product there and it was there for people to see,” he said. “Some people will agree with the ideas I’ve put forward, and other people will disagree, and that’s fine.”
