“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."

\"Bill Blaikie, is easily one of the three or four finest Parliamentarians that we've got from any party and a guy who will make most of the opposition party leaders look bad, at least in terms Parliamentary performance, if not in terms of his behaviour across the rest of the country which we haven't seen yet.\"

“MP Bill Blaikie spoke for many is saying he was sick of being told the NDP was too mainstream. Most party members feel they’re branded in their own communities as radical enough already. Another irony is that the NPI may have been defeated by its own anarchist tendencies. There was no evidence of organization on their floor fight. MP Svend Robinson led off saying the NDP has drifted to the mushy middle, which had the effect of sending Blaikie – longtime champion of unpopular causes such as disarmament – rushing to the mike with his blistering – and popular – response.”

“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.”

"Bill Blaikie, is easily one of the three or four finest Parliamentarians that we've got from any party and a guy who will make most of the opposition party leaders look bad, at least in terms Parliamentary performance, if not in terms of his behaviour across the rest of the country which we haven't seen yet." July 7, 2002 Sunday Report - Challenges and Choices facing the NDP - Paul Wells

“MP Bill Blaikie spoke for many is saying he was sick of being told the NDP was too mainstream. Most party members feel they’re branded in their own communities as radical enough already. Another irony is that the NPI may have been defeated by its own anarchist tendencies. There was no evidence of organization on their floor fight. MP Svend Robinson led off saying the NDP has drifted to the mushy middle, which had the effect of sending Blaikie – longtime champion of unpopular causes such as disarmament – rushing to the mike with his blistering – and popular – response.”