TORONTO -- The period between 1975 and 1992 saw great change in Canada's political landscape. There were more federal elections than most people cared to think about, and a revolving door of political figures that set the minds of voters spinning. Yet during this period of turbulent transition, Arthur Kroeger remained a key player in the Ottawa bureaucracy, a testament to his trustworthiness and his uncanny ability to be parachuted into any ministry and set it to rights.
Known as the "dean of deputy ministers," Mr. Kroeger set the standard for public servants during his 34 years working for the federal government, one of his greatest legacies being a reformed Crow's Nest Pass freight rate that allowed Canada's railways to survive.
For all that, Mr. Kroeger never gave thought to running for public office himself, in part because he was a very private person. In a speech entitled "In Praise of the Politician," which he gave in 1990 to the Empire Club of Canada, he spoke of the public scrutiny of politicians and their private lives. He complained that "public bitchiness" about those in public life "has gone well beyond any bounds of reasonableness in recent years, to the point where the good governance of the country stands to be affected."
He admired most of the politicians he met and for whom he worked, praising them for their long hours and for their sacrifices. The public impression that politicians are simply freeloaders on the public purse and that their sole interest is ego gratification is an erroneous one, he said.
Mr. Kroeger was happy to carve out his own niche, one in which he best served the Canadian public by helping to shape the policies that elected officials would enact as legislation. His role, he maintained, was to offer choices to the politicians whose job it was to choose. He was never a "Yes, Minister" type of civil servant unless he truly agreed with his bosses, said Ned Franks, Professor Emeritus of political studies at Queen's University. "He would not have been a good politician but he was a great public servant," Mr. Franks said.
Born east of Drumheller, Alta., near the Saskatchewan border, Arthur Kroeger was the youngest of seven children of Heinrich and Helen Kroeger, a Mennonite couple who immigrated from what is now Ukraine in 1926. The Kroegers were among 20,000 Mennonites who fled to Canada during the 1920s from the Soviet Union to avoid persecution by the Communists. The Kroeger family arrived with little to their name except for a set of carpentry tools, a wooden box full of family diaries and documents, and the family clock. They settled in the southeastern Alberta community of Naco on arid land others had abandoned as untenable. So, too, did the Kroegers. They left what is now a ghost town to try their luck in what is known as Palliser's Triangle, an area of low rainfall that straddles three Prairie provinces.
Those early days were difficult for the Kroegers and often there was little to eat. Meals were boiled wheat, beet peelings or lard sandwiches. Mr. Kroeger frequently went hungry as a child, said his daughter, Alix Kroeger. Helen Kroeger supplemented the family's finances by taking in washing. All the children helped out with the chores, with the milking of the cows falling to the youngest child. Often, as he went about his task, a barn cat arrived in hopes of a handout. As a young boy, Mr. Kroeger loved cats and would squirt milk directly into the cat's mouth, his daughter said.
The Kroegers spoke Low German and Mr. Kroeger did not learn English until he started school. That deficiency never held him back. Upon graduating from Consort High School, he obtained a degree in English Literature from the University of Alberta in 1955. However, he had not arrived at university with a distinguished academic record. In 2004, he admitted as such in a convocation speech to graduates of the university. "I had shot pool, played hockey and hung around with my friends," he recounted. As a result, he ended Grade 12 two courses short and had to make good in summer school.
After graduation, he spent a year teaching, only to discover that he did not enjoy the job and junked the idea. A former professor urged him to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship. He was successful, and soon he set off for Pembroke College at Oxford University to pursue studies in English literature. Two weeks into the term he switched to politics, philosophy and economics. He received his master's in 1958 and always remained grateful to his old professor. Mr. Kroeger framed the professor's note and hung it on the wall of his study.
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