Clarence Fines

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Clarence Melvin Fines (born August 16, 1905 in Darlington, Manitoba; died October 27, 1993 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) was provincial treasurer of Saskatchewan during the Tommy Douglas era, and also served as Deputy Premier.

Fines represented the riding of Regina City from 1944 to 1960.

Fines was educated at both the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Manitoba and received a BA. He became a teacher and principal in Regina, and would later serve three years as the President of the Regina Teachers' Association. He then served two years as the President of the Regina Branch of the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation.

Fines was involved with the Independent Labour Party and the Farmer-Labour Party, and in 1932 helped found the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (later the NDP).

Fines served as a Regina City Councillor from 1934 to 1939 and from 1942 to 1944. During this time he was the chair of the Regina General Hospital, director of the Regina Exhibition Board, and a member of the parks board.

Fines was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan in the Saskatchewan general election, 1944 which saw the CCF sweep the province, becoming Canada's first Social Democratic government.

Fines had a tremendous influence over the reforms made by the CCF government over the following years. As treasuer, Fines made sure that these reforms were made while producing balanced budgets. In 1944, Saskatchewan had a debt of $218 million, 38% of Saskatchewan's GDP. With successive balanced budgets, Fines brought this number down to $70 million by 1949. In 1953, Saskatchewan was debtless. For the next 16 years, all of Fines' budgets had surpluses.

In 1960, he retired and became a corporate financial advisor, eventually going to Grenada. In 1963 he moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where he lived the rest of his life.

During his tenure as an MLA, Fines also served as the minister responsible for the Bureau of Publications, Queen's Printer Office, Government Purchasing Agency, the Liquor Board, and Saskatchewan Government Insurance. He was the last surviving member of the first CCF cabinet.