Accueil Paysage Social Robert N. Thompson and Political Realignment

Robert N. Thompson and Political Realignment¹

par Geoffrey Olson

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As a result of this move, Gordon Towers and Daniel A. Lawrence quickly announced they would oppose Thompson. By the time of the nomination meeting one other candidate had joined the race, Warren Mabb. On May 8, 1988, one of the largest nomination meetings of election took place in Red Deer. At the Red Deer Arena, a building designed to hold 2,700 people, 3,300 showed up at one of the great political battles in Red Deer constituency. Of those, 2,500 would cast ballots. Thompson was not only attempting to win the PC nomination, but also defeat Gordon Towers on his own ground. These two men had faced off in the previous two elections as candidates for opposing parties. Now they faced each other within one party.

Instead of a long, drawn-out meeting, Thompson garnered 55.5 per cent of the vote on the first ballot, a decisive victory. While Thompson's win was a stunning set back for the local PC association, it was a success in terms of Ernest Manning's long-term goals. Manning now had his federal general entrenched in the Conservative party. Conservatives were not the only ones aghast at the turn of events: at the Liberal nomination meeting held the following night, Lionel Litze stated that:

A great party was injured last night when it was invaded by instant Conservatives. Usually the captain (Thompson) is expected to go down with his ship (the national Social Credit Party); this time he took the first lifeboat.

The hard feelings about Thompson's nomination were felt throughout the local PC association. Long time Conservative organizer W.G. Brown resigned from the party in a letter to Robert Stanfield. Brown had organized many important campaigns for people such as former provincial leader W.J.C. Kirby, as well as for former Red Deer MPs Harris Rogers and Gordon Towers. Brown indicated he was supporting the local Liberal candidate in the 1968 election. Perhaps most startling of all is Brown's claim that the national party directed the local association to nominate Thompson, "or else." Brown was not the only high profile Conservative to go public with his opposition to Thompson. Gordon Towers announced during the campaign that "I have been a Conservative for a long time but I don't mind telling you that in this election, I am voting Liberal."

Thompson went on to win the election, but the metamorphosis of the national political scene did not occur. Ernest Manning recognized that the ascension of Robert Stanfield as Conservative leader prevented the amalgamation of the two parties. Ernest Manning's goal of a single, national, conservative party had to wait until his son could try again in the 1990s. Preston Manning would draw on his father's philosophies and goals in attempting to build a viable conservative option on a national scale.

Thompson's role in the development of a viable national conservative party showed that the Social Credit party could not amalgamate into the broader Progressive Conservative party and lead an ideological movement from within. Thompson did, however, become a nationally recognized political leader. He attempted symbolically to reconcile two national political parties, and spent the greatest part of his adult life, as a member of the Social Credit party of Alberta, attempting to promote and articulate the conservative concerns on the minds of many Albertans. Thompson retired from politics in 1972 for family health reasons, and moved to British Columbia.

Robert N. Thompson died on November 16th, 1997 at Fort Langley, B.C. His contributions to Canadian political life was marked by his tributes and speeches made in the House of Commons on that day.

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D'Aspenland 1988 — Local Knowledge and Sense of Place
Edited by: David J. Goa and David Ridley
Published by: The Central Alberta Regional Museums Network (CARMN) with the assistance of the Provincial Museum of Alberta and the Red Deer and District Museum.