COLUMN: Think Again – Change is a constant in politics

I recently finished reading Robert N. Thompson’s memoir, A House of Minorities, which was originally published in 1990.

At this point, you are probably wondering who Robert N. Thompson was. The answer is that he was a former Member of Parliament who served as leader of the Social Credit party from 1961 to 1967.

However, that probably doesn’t help most of you. Few people today remember the Social Credit party. And yet, Social Credit used to be a force to be reckoned with in Canadian politics.

Social Credit began as a provincial party in Alberta during the Great Depression. Originally led by William Aberhart, a radio preacher who later became premier, he was succeeded by Ernest Manning, the father of future Reform Party leader Preston Manning.

People in other provinces soon took notice of this new party. In 1952, W.A.C. Bennett led his Social Credit party to victory in British Columbia and served as premier for the next 20 years. While Social Credit never formed government in any other province, they did succeed in electing some provincial MLAs, including right here in Manitoba.

Thompson came to prominence when he became leader of the federal Social Credit party in 1961 and was elected to Parliament in 1962. This gave Thompson a front row seat to one of the most notorious political rivalries of all time—Progressive Conservative leader John Diefenbaker vs. Liberal leader Lester Pearson.

In the 1962 election, Diefenbaker’s massive electoral majority was reduced to a thin minority of only 116 out of 265 seats. Since Thompson’s Social Credit party had 30 seats, this effectively gave Social Credit the balance of power.

Unfortunately, Diefenbaker had little interest in working with Thompson, even though they both shared similar small-c conservative values. According to Thompson, Diefenbaker blamed him for splitting the vote and costing him his majority.

Diefenbaker’s minority government didn’t last long. On February 6, 1963, Thompson voted with the rest of the opposition parties for a non-confidence motion and brought down the government. In the subsequent election, Pearson won a minority government with 128 seats while Social Credit won 24 seats.

However, Thompson faced strife within his own party. While Thompson had long abandoned the original social credit theory of the 1930s, his Quebec wing had different ideas. Since most Social Credit MPs came from Quebec, this put Thompson in an untenable position. In 1963, the party split, with most Quebec MPs forming the Raillement des créditistes under the leadership of Réal Couette.

Interestingly, Thompson’s political career was not finished yet. He tried to merge his party with the Progressive Conservatives. When this attempt failed, he crossed the floor and joined the Progressive Conservatives in 1967, which were then led by new leader Robert Stanfield.

Thompson was re-elected in his Red Deer riding in 1968, where he served until his retirement from politics in 1972. It is ironic that for four years, Thompson served in the same caucus as his former rival, John Diefenbaker. It’s too bad that they didn’t get along better, since they had many things in common.

What stood out to me from Thompson’s book is how much things have changed in politics since his time. The Social Credit party is no more. Thompson also described Saskatchewan as a stronghold for the NDP. Of course, that has changed dramatically, since Saskatchewan hasn’t elected a single federal NDP MP since 2015 and hasn’t had a provincial NDP government since 2007.

Thompson died in 1997 and few people remember him today. That is unfortunate as there is much we can learn from our former political leaders. Whether we like it or not, change is a constant in politics.

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and a Steinbach city councillor. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.