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The creation of the Meewasin Valley Authority proved so controversial that former Saskatchewan premier Roy Romanow thinks he may have paid the ultimate political price for his role in its conception.

Romanow reflected on the contentious beginning of the South Saskatchewan River valley conservation agency in an interview this month.

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The former premier, now 80, will be speaking at a gala to mark Meewasin’s 40th anniversary on Tuesday.

“It’s a great job done by a great group of committed citizens,” Romanow said of Meewasin’s legacy. “And it’s been tough work given the history.”

Nobody knows how tough more than Romanow, who thinks his role in Meewasin’s formation was a large part of why he lost his safe Saskatoon-Riversdale seat in 1982 when Grant Devine’s Progressive Conservatives came to power.

Romanow recalls serving as attorney general and deputy premier in Allan Blakeney’s NDP government when the idea of an agency to protect the river valley was conceived in the 1970s.