Blaize, Herbert

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Blaize, Herbert

February 26, 1918
December 19, 1989

The son of James and Mary Cecilia Blaize, Herbert Augustus Blaize was born on the island of Carriacou, Grenada. He attended primary school there and secondary school on the main island of Grenada from 1930 to 1936. A politician in later life, he eventually became chief minister, premier, and prime minister of an independent Grenada.

On graduation from secondary school, Blaize entered government service, working initially as a clerk in the Revenue Office in Sauteurs on the northern part of the island. As was then the case with many of his compatriots, he traveled to Aruba in 1944 to seek employment with the Lago Oil Company, which had then been recruiting workers from the British Caribbean islands. His superiors soon recognized his abilities and promoted him to a managerial position. But a near-fatal spinal injury he had suffered from a bicycle accident in 1939 resurfaced, prompting him to return to Carriacou in 1952.

Political Activities

Blaize became involved in politics when he joined the Grenada National Party (GNP), founded in 1955 by Dr. John Watts. The GNP was a relatively conservative, middle-of-the-road, urban-based party, organized chiefly to check the advances being made by Eric Gairy's more radical Grenada United Labour Party. Although Blaize was unsuccessful in his 1954 attempt to capture the Carriacou seat, he succeeded in 1957 as a member of the GNP. Except for the 1979 to 1984 revolutionary period when elections were nonexistent, Blaize retained this seat until his death in 1989.

The political landscape was changing when Blaize entered the Legislative Council. Through a new advisorycommittee system of government that came into effect in 1957, he was appointed to the Trade and Production Committee. Constitutional changes in 1959 provided for a ministerial form of government, with the administrator still effectively in charge. Blaize became the first chief minister that year. He won election again in 1962 and was appointed the first premier under the new constitution that took effect in early 1967 when Grenada, together with other Eastern Caribbean islands, became the Associated States of Great Britain. After the 1983 collapse of the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) that had ruled Grenada since 1979, Blaize's GNP merged with two smaller parties to form the New National Party (NNP) to contest successfully the 1984 elections. Most Grenadians believed that he was the most experienced leader who could be trusted to bring Grenada back into the democratic fold after the turbulent revolutionary years. He became prime minister in 1984, a position he held until his death.

Political Ideology

Fiscally conservative, Blaize was well known for his frugality in public service. He insisted on maintaining balanced budgets and was reluctant to borrow excessively, even at the cost of lower economic growth rate. As prime minister, he created a number of organizations to help with economic planning. In a way, this represented a reworking of some of the institutions that had been formed during the revolutionary period. Yet by neglecting to put in place immediately after becoming prime minister a bold and much-needed plan for the nation's economic development, he failed to create job opportunities to alleviate rising unemployment.

To Blaize lay the task of successfully restoring orderliness in the civil service on two occasions, the first after Gairy's 1962 misuse of his powers that resulted in financial improprieties being uncovered in a commission appointed by the governor. The commission's findings, called the "Squandermania Report," resulted in the suspension of the island's constitution. The second instance of stabilizing the civil service occurred after he returned to office in 1984 following the aborted people's revolution. Viewing accountability as essential to good government, he required all government ministers to follow his lead and deposit with the governor general a list of their assets. He left in place a country almost debt free, transparency in financial dealings, and structure in the civil service and in the conduct of public affairs.

Foreign Affairs

Blaize maintained a foreign policy of close cooperation with the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, with whom he forged close ties and received substantial financial support. Foreign policy, however, also proved to be the Achilles' heel of successive Blaize administrations. After the collapse of the West Indian Federation in 1962, he pursued an ill-advised policy of seeking unitary state-hood with Trinidad. By making this issue the central plank of his reelection platform, he inflamed passions locally and provided Gairy with an effective tool to use successfully against him in his campaigns. His strong anticommunist beliefs especially after 1984 precluded him from completing any initiative that the PRG had started with Cuba, even the highly successful adult education programs they had introduced.

Governmental and Party Defections

By 1986 his deteriorating health and the emerging strains in the political marriage that had created the NNP posed additional problems for Blaize. His old physical ailments resurfaced, limiting his mobility and forcing him to set up office at his official residence. In August two members of his cabinet resigned. In April 1987 three more followed. Soon they would leave the party also. Blaize's majority in parliament, which once stood at fourteen to one, quickly evaporated by 1998 into a minority of six to nine. Still garnering some support from a number of his former cabinet colleagues, he clung to power by failing to introduce into parliament any controversial measures.

By 1988 many people felt strongly that Blaize should resign and pave the way for fresh elections. Leadership of the NNP devolved in January 1989 to Keith Mitchell, a member of cabinet and general secretary of the party. Blaize eventually fired Mitchell from the cabinet on July 20. He then renamed his wing of the party, consisting of the core elements of the now defunct GNP, The National Party. Increasingly fearing a vote of no confidence in parliament, and buttressed by the governor general's advice, he had parliament suspended in August 1989. The special parliamentary session convened on December 8 had as its sole purpose approving financial measures to borrow money to pay recently striking workers.

Worn out by his ailments and the increasing strains of office, Blaize succumbed to an apparent stroke. He died at home in the presence of his wife and children.

Increasingly stubborn and somewhat authoritarian from about 1985, Blaize was nonetheless a firm believer in parliamentary democracy. Politically conservative, his greatest legacies to the nation were his honesty and the alternatives he provided to Gairy's more radical policies in the 1950s and 1960s. Grenada also benefited from the political stability he afforded it from 1984 to 1989.