Roy J. Romanow

Roy Romanow was born, raised, and educated in Saskatoon. He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan where he earned his Arts and Law Degrees. He was first elected to the Saskatchewan Legislature in 1967. Between 1971 and 1982, Roy Romanow served as Deputy Premier of Saskatchewan. In 1979, Mr. Romanow was appointed Saskatchewan's first Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. On November 7, 1987 Mr. Romanow was acclaimed Leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic party to succeed Allan Blakeney. On October 21, 1991 Mr. Romanow won a 55 seat majority government, and assumed the duties of Premier on November 1, 1991. Mr. Romanow retired from politics in February 2001, and shortly thereafter was appointed head of the Royal Commission on the Future of Healthcare in Canada, which issued its final report in November of 2002. Currently, Mr. Romanow holds the title of Senior Fellow in Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Regina, and is also a visiting Fellow in the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University. In 2003, Mr. Romanow was awarded honorary doctorates from Brock University and the University of Ottawa. He was recently recognized by the Pan American Health Organization - a regional body of the UN - for his work on the national Health Commission and for initializing the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, and was appointed to the Canadian Privy Council and the Security Intelligence Review Committee by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in late 2003.