Henri Burton

Henri Burton was the first socialist governor of Seven and the first of non-European ancestry.

Birth and early life
Burton was born in Honolulu as Henri Keahi to a Hawaiian noble family. After the American occupation, when Henri was sixteen, however, the family fled to Lovia, where they settled in Noble City. Henri began studying classics at Nobel University, where (as Hawaiian names do not traditionally include a surname) he adopted the surname Burton, apparently after the man who had assisted him to get to Lovia.

Entry into politics
After the completion of his studies in 1897, Burton began to work as a tutor for young students, which he continued for six years. In 1904, however, he was invited to start a school in the new settlement of Kinley and moved north, where he was to remain for almost forty years. At first his school only contained around eight students, but gradually increased to about fifteen. Nevertheless, this was only a tiny fraction of the population and as he was obliged to charge for his services, many parents were unwilling to pay. Burton was an intelligent man who believed education was vital and petitioned the then-governor Harrison Flint for government funding. Flint, however, did not respond, despite the fact his grandsons attended Burton's school. In frustration, Burton decided to enter politics, becoming in 1912 the ninth member of the new opposition, the Unionist Party.

He quickly gained a reputation as one of the most eloquent and ideological members. Economically, he was firmly to the left of the party, in contrast to some of the other important members such as Samuel Sawyer and Erick Simon, arguing powerfully for the necessity of government intervention. After Sawyer was defeated as Governor in the 1921 election, Burton become party leader, being seen as the man most likely to be able to combat the charisma of the far-right leader James Nelson.

Founding of the Socialist Party
Nevertheless, Burton was undermined by a conflict in the party between the socialist and liberal wings, in which he was opposed by Erick Simon. Burton's inability to fight both Nelson and Simon politically led to the decision, after a dismal defeat in the 1923 elections, to split off and found the Socialist Party of Seven. But he found that the very public dispute between the two leaders had damaged his reputation, besides the fact that some in Seven were unwilling to vote for a non-white man, and the young party struggled. Not until six years later, after a suspicious incident in which independent Governor Horatius Domingo was found dead in suspicious circumstances and Nelson once again seized power, did Simon agree to endorse Burton in the 1929 election.

Period as governor
Burton won the race by the slimmest of majorities and became governor. Once in power, however, his friendly attitude, decisive actions and socialist policies made him extremely popular among the electorate. He presided over a period in which the state government became a major owner of land and organized a program of mechanization to make agriculture as efficient as possible. The state was successful in bouncing back fast from the Great Recession and Burton's approval ratings were consistently around 80%.

After easily defeating Unionist leaders in four elections running, and thereby becoming Seven's longest ever governor, he began to contemplate whether it was possible to achieve a highly symbolic goal that would show that despite his foreign origin and skin color he was a true Sevener. This was to stay in office for seven terms, 'one,' as he said, 'for every island of this state.'

Voter fatigue began to kick in. Burton's popularity began to drop, as wealth increased and farmers demanded to buy their land back from the state. Still, the core vote remained and he won the next two elections. It was clear that times were changing in Seven and Burton's politics now longer retained support. Nevertheless, he remained a highly popular governor, and this was what he relied on, together with public sympathy for his dream, that enabled him to win the seventh election by a majority even tinier than the first. He left office at the age of 66, and retired for good.

Old age
During his retirement, Burton attempted to found a higher education institute, due to his belief that the north of Lovia was disadvantaged by lack of an education centre. The name was Aquinas College, but it was never successful and in 1965, four years after Burton's death, it closed down. In 2012, however, when the International College of Lovia was reorganized into the Schuster Wikinational University, its Seven campus was named Aquinas College in honor of Burton's original dream.

Burton in 1947 travelled back to Hawaii, his place of birth, at the age of 70. He found, however, that he disliked the state, and could only speak Hawaiian haltingly. As he said, 'I was was always trying to prove to myself that I was a Lovian - but what was clearly apparent to others I did not see until after I had finished my public service to the state. It was not, ironically, until I returned to my homeland, and realized, with a shock, that it was not my homeland.'

Burton died in 1961. The Henri Burton Elementary is named after him.