Early Life and Career
Blaikie was born to a working-class family in Winnipeg, Manitoba. His father was employed by Canadian National for over forty years, at first as a machinist and later in management. Blaikie served in The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada from 1967 to 1972, and was a labourer on and off with the Canadian National Railway from 1969 to 1974 while attending University. He was a member of the Young Progressive Conservatives in high school, and joined the NDP in 1971.
Blaikie has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Religious Studies from the University of Winnipeg (1973), and a Master of Divinity from Emmanuel College, Toronto School of Theology (1977). He was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Canada on June 4, 1978, and subsequently became a politician in the social gospel tradition of such figures as J.S. Woodsworth, Tommy Douglas and Stanley Knowles. From 1977 to 1979, he worked for the United Church's inner-city Stella Project in north-end Winnipeg.
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