Robert N. Thompson
| Robert N. Thompson | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament for Red Deer | |
|
In office 1962–1972 |
|
| Preceded by | Harris George Rogers |
| Succeeded by | Gordon Towers |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 17, 1914 Duluth, Minnesota, United States |
| Died | November 16, 1997 (aged 83) Fort Langley, British Columbia, Canada |
| Political party |
Social Credit (1935-1967) Progressive Conservative (1967-1972) |
| Occupation | Chiropractor, educator |
Robert Norman Thompson (May 17, 1914 – November 16, 1997) was a Canadian politician, chiropractor, and educator. He was born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Canadian parents and moved to Canada in 1918 with his family. Raised in Alberta, he graduated from the Palmer School of Chiropractic in 1939 and worked as a chiropractor and then as a teacher before serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.
Thompson supported the Social Credit Party of Alberta from its creation. His age prevented him from running as a candidate in the 1935 provincial election. Instead he became youth leader of the party.
In 1944, Thompson was sent to Ethiopia to serve as the founding commander of the Imperial Ethiopian Air Force and head up nation's air force academy. He became a confidante of Emperor Haile Selassie I and, after the war, became deputy minister of education and helped rebuild the nation's public school system.
Thompson returned to Canada in 1958 and resumed his activities with Social Credit. He soon became president of the national Social Credit Party of Canada, doing much to rebuild the party after it was shut out of Parliament in the massive Progressive Conservative landslide of 1958.
Alberta Premier Ernest Manning saw Thompson as the ideal person to succeed Solon Low as leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada and backed him in a hotly contested leadership vote against Réal Caouette, the movement's leader in Quebec, which was won by Thompson. Years later, Caouette claimed that he would have won, but Manning told him to tell the Quebec delegates to vote for Thompson because the West would never accept a Francophone Catholic as party leader.
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