Bastedo, Frank Lindsay (1886–1973)

Born in Bracebridge, Ontario in 1886, Frank Bastedo received his law degree from the University of Toronto in 1909. In 1911 he joined a Regina law firm. He was appointed King’s Counsel in 1927 and argued cases before the Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. He served as president of the Regina federal Conservative Association from 1921 to 1924 but declined to stand for nomination.

Frank Bastedo was appointed eleventh Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan in 1958 by the federal government of John Diefenbaker. He placed great emphasis on the dignity of the office, going against the trend of reduced formality since the closure of Government House in 1945. On April 8, 1961, during the CCF administration of Woodrow Lloyd, Frank Bastedo made history by reserving royal assent for the Governor-General on Bill 56, The Alteration of Certain Mineral Contracts, because he had doubts about its validity and whether it was in the public interest—the first case of reservation in Canada since 1937, the only example in the history of the province, and the last in the country. Mr. Bastedo had not consulted the federal government, and the Diefenbaker government passed an Order-in-Council giving the legislation royal assent.

Michael Jackson

Print Entry

Further Reading

Eager, Evelyn. 1980. Saskatchewan Government: Politics and Pragmatism. Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books; Hryniuk, Margaret and Garth Pugh. 1991. A Tower of Attraction: An Illustrated History of Government House, Regina, Saskatchewan. Regina: Government House Historical Society/Canadian Plains Research Center; Leeson, Howard A. (ed.) 2001. Saskatchewan Politics: Into the Twenty-first Century. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center.