Clay Serby: Reflections on life in politics

Clay Serby was first elected as the New Democrat member of the Saskatchewan Legislature for Yorkton in 1991.  While he and Premier Roy Romanow had their differences initially, they became close friends, and Clay subsequently served in cabinet in high-profile portfolios – Health, Education, Highways, Municipal Affairs and Agriculture.

 It was under Romanow’s successor, Lorne Calvert, that Clay reached the highest level of any Yorkton MLA, deputy premier. He also continued in the Agriculture portfolio, and dealt with economic development and rural development specifically.

It’s now just over 16 years since Clay left provincial politics, and government, in November of 2007 in order to devote his time to dealing with health issues – cancer – for which he had been under treatment for the previous three years. We talked about life in politics, and in government, which he viewed from a side few of us get to see.