Dalton Camp

Dalton Kingsley Camp, PC, OC (September 11, 1920 – March 18, 2002) was a Canadian journalist, politician, political strategist and commentator and supporter of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. Despite having never been elected to a seat in the House of Commons, he was a prominent and influential politician and a popular commentator for decades. He is a central figure in Red Toryism.

Camp was born in . His father was a Baptist minister whose work took his family to Connecticut and later California. Upon his father's death in 1937, Camp's mother and her children returned to their hometown of Woodstock. Camp soon enrolled in undergraduate studies at Acadia University; however, his time there was interrupted by enlistment in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. Following the war, Camp finished his undergraduate studies in the liberal arts at the University of New Brunswick, followed by graduate studies in journalism at Columbia University and political science at the London School of Economics.

While involved in studies at the University of New Brunswick, Camp worked briefly for the Liberal Party of Canada and its provincial wing, the New Brunswick Liberal Association. Later, Camp was heavily influenced by his studies at the London School of Economics and upon his return to Canada, he sought to distance himself from what he now felt was the arrogance of "Canada's Ruling Party" (the Liberals). Camp had some socialist beliefs which attracted him to the Liberal Party, but he was also attracted to the traditions of Canadian conservatism; thus he ultimately found a political home within the Red Tory wing of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC). Now living in Toronto, Ontario in the 1950s, Camp worked with several public relations firms and through his speaking, organizational, and political abilities was influential during several provincial elections in Canada which saw PC governments elected for the first time in more than a generation. Camp was also instrumental in helping John Diefenbaker, leader of the federal Progressive Conservative party win elections in 1957 and 1958; however, he personally mistrusted Diefenbaker. Following the PC defeat to Lester Pearson's Liberals in 1963, Camp sought to reorganize the Tories and subsequently became president of the national party the following year.

...
Wikipedia