John Brockelbank was born on October 24, 1897 in Grey County, Ontario. He received his early education there before moving with his parents to a farm near Rockhaven, Saskatchewan at the age of thirteen. He attended high school in Saskatoon, then enlisted and served with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in France and Belgium during the First World War. Following the war he attended the Saskatoon Normal School then accepted a teaching position at Bjorkdale before taking up farming in 1921. Brockelbank became active in the Progressive Movement, joined the Wheat Pool in 1923, and was active in many other farm organizations. He was a member of the Farmer-Labour Group and was elected as a CCF Member of the Legislative Assembly in 1938.
In 1941 he became the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly. Following the election of the CCF government in 1944 Brockelbank was appointed Minister of Municipal Affairs. He served in that capacity from 1944 to 1948 and subsequently served as Minister of Natural Resources and Industrial Development, 1948-1950, Minister of Natural Resources, 1950-1956, Minster of Mineral Resources, 1953-1962, and as Provincial Treasurer, 1962-1964. During the period 1944-1964 he served as director of a number of Crown corporations. Brockelbank retired from the Legislature in 1967 and lived in Regina until his death in 1977.
