“Bill Blaikie is a big man who likes to watch out for the little guy. Global trade deals. Corporate profits at the expense of jobs. The sell off of Canadian institutions like the CNR. All have incurred the wrath of the burly, bearded House Leader of the NDP.”
May 24, 1998 Winnipeg Free Press -NDP hopes to cash in on merger backlash - Paul Samyn

“He’s my MP, we worked together on campaigns before. He’s got electoral success, he’s won through thick and thin since 1979 and I think he is uniquely qualified because he is an individual who goes to the plant gate, to the coffee shops and he represents a community of working people.” Gary Doer, Premier of Manitoba
June 18, 2002 Globe and Mail - NDP Leadership Candidate aims to heal party wounds - Krista Foss

“Bill is the widely respected New Democrat MP who has long represented a working-class Winnipeg neighbourhood “One of my goals is to persuade people who protest that real change also comes from the long, hard work of the political process,\" the lunch-bucket leftie says from his office at the House of Commons. \"When you are out there with people, one on one, talking on their doorsteps, there is no teargas, there are no dogs. There are only citizens interacting”
June 23, 2002 Calgary Sun - Left behind MP knows marchers’ message - Rick Bell

\"It’s at the United Church where he used to preach and fight for Winnipeg’s downtrodden that Bill Blaikie chose to announce his next mission in life, to run for the NDP’s top job and make the federal party and electable force.\"
June 17, 2002 The National - NDP leadership officially got underway today - Christina Lawand.

“Blaikie, a lunch bucket social democrat from a working class Winnipeg riding.”
One Hundred Monkeys Page 58– The Triumph of Popular Wisdom in Canadian Politics, By Robert Mason Lee.