Allan Emrys Blakeney PC OC SOM QC FRSC (September 7, 1925 – April 16, 2011) was a Canadian politician who served as the tenth premier of Saskatchewan from 1971 to 1982. Originally from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Blakeney moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, and worked in the province's civil service before running for office with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) under Tommy Douglas. Blakeney became leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party (NDP) in 1970. Altogether, he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan from 1960 to 1988.

Before he was premier, Blakeney played a key role in the implementation of the first Canadian public health insurance program (Medicare) in 1962. As premier, Blakeney's government nationalized the potash industry, created a range of new crown corporations such PotashCorp and SaskOil, and fought with the federal government over resource rights and taxation. Blakeney's NDP reformed labour legislation and introduced the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission. Blakeney was also a key figure in the negotiations surrounding Patriation of the Canadian Constitution in the early 1980s, and in the development of the Constitution's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. After retiring from politics, Blakeney taught and wrote about constitutional law for more than two decades.

Blakeney was born in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia on September 7, 1925. He attended Dalhousie University in Halifax and earned a degree in history and political science, followed by a law degree from Dalhousie Law School, winning a gold medal. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and attended Queen's College, Oxford, where he played for the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club, making an appearance at the 1948 Spengler Cup tournament. At Oxford, he earned a bachelor's degree, second class, in politics, philosophy. and economics. Although he grew up in a conservative household—his father worked as an election scrutineer for the Conservatives in Nova Scotia—Blakeney's time in law school, the events of the Second World War, and his experience in postwar England, where Clement Atlee's Labour government was actively building the British welfare state, all inclined him towards government intervention in meeting the needs of citizens. His eventual embrace of the CCF is said to have caused a "mild scandal in Bridgewater."

After graduating from Oxford, Blakeney returned to Canada and passed the Nova Scotia bar exam in 1950. That same year he married and took a job with the Saskatchewan civil service, prompting a move to Regina. Blakeney was attracted to the province due to the innovation of Tommy Douglas' CCF administration, which in 1944 had become the first social democratic government elected in North America. Blakeney later stated that he initially intended to stay in Saskatchewan for only a couple of years, explaining that "Saskatchewan was the end of the Earth to me in 1950". However, he found the work engaging, and during the 1950s he became a senior civil servant. His first wife, Molly, with whom he had two children, died suddenly in 1957. He married his second wife, Anne, in 1959, and the couple would raise four children altogether.

By the end of the 1950s, Blakeney decided to enter politics himself. He first ran as a CCF candidate in the 1960 election at a time when electoral districts elected multiple members for the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). Blakeney was one of four MLAs elected for Regina City—he would go on to represent a Regina-based riding without interruption until his retirement in 1988, including Regina Elphinstone from 1975 onward.

Blakeney served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Douglas and—when Douglas resigned to become leader of the federal New Democratic Party—Woodrow Lloyd, until the government was defeated in the 1964 election. In cabinet, he served as minister of education, provincial treasurer, and most prominently as minister of health. In that role, he helped implement Medicare in the province, including helping to resolve the 1962 Saskatchewan doctors' strike.

In 1969, Blakeney was elected national president of the federal NDP, succeeding James Renwick. He held the position until 1971, when he was succeeded by Donald MacDonald.

In 1964, the party was defeated by Ross Thatcher's Liberals after five consecutive terms in government. The defeat, coming on the heels of the protracted Medicare battle, prompted a transition period for the party, now in Opposition. In 1967, the party fully adopted the NDP name. Around the same time, the party—both provincially and nationally—became gripped with a factional dispute with a growing left-wing movement called "The Waffle". The Waffle advocated for a return to the party's socialist roots, including through the nationalization of key industries. The movement had a strong base in Saskatchewan, the historic NDP stronghold. However, it was divisive. While its Manifesto for an Independent Socialist Canada was defeated in a vote at the 1969 federal NDP convention, Woodrow Lloyd voted in support of it, believing in the manifesto's potential to revitalize debate in the party. That episode, and resistance to Lloyd's willingness to open the party to debate, contributed to Lloyd's decision to resign as leader in 1970. Blakeney decided to run in the 1970 leadership election to succeed Lloyd.