The 1967 Progressive Conservative leadership election was held to choose a leader for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, after the party membership voted that incumbent party leader and former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker should be forced to re-run for his position. The convention was held at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 4 and 9, 1967. Premier of Nova Scotia Robert Stanfield was elected the new leader.
Of the eleven entrants to the contest, seven including Diefenbaker himself had at some point been cabinet members in his government between 1957 and 1963. However, in every round of voting the top two candidates were Stanfield and Premier of Manitoba Dufferin Roblin, reflecting the party membership's desire for a clean break from the Diefenbaker era. Two minor candidates, John MacLean and Mary Walker-Sawka entered the contest, with both dropping out following the first round after earning a minimal number of votes, though Walker-Sawka's candidacy marked the first time that a woman had run for the leadership of a major Canadian political party.
Background
The leader was elected by the approximately 2,200 delegates to the convention who voted. Most of the delegates were elected from the party's associations in each riding (electoral district), as well as from the party's women's and youth associations.
However, many delegates were ex officio delegates, i.e., they received delegate status as a result of their positions on the national executive committee of the party, the executives of its affiliated provincial parties, and the party's national women's and youth organizations. Former and current Progressive Conservative (PC) Members of Parliament and Senators were also ex officio delegates.
Traditionally, once elected, leaders of the party remained in the position until they resigned or died. In this case, however, the convention was called after the party membership passed a resolution to force a leadership convention even though party leader John Diefenbaker was unwilling to resign. Many in the party believed that his mercurial leadership when the party was in government from 1957 to 1963, and his failure to win the support of Canadian voters the 1963 and 1965 federal elections meant that he would be unable to lead the party back to government. Party president Dalton Camp organized the successful campaign within the party to force a leadership convention.
Issues
The campaign for the leadership hinged on two main issues: where the candidates stood on the question of Diefenbaker's leadership, and where the candidates stood on the controversial Deux Nations policy.
Diefenbaker had engendered considerable loyalty amongst Conservatives during his time as leader because of his passionate speaking style, and his fierce commitment to Canada. Diefenbaker had led the party to the biggest victory in a Canadian federal election (to that time) in the 1958 election, winning 208 of the 265 seats available in the House of Commons. On the other hand, divisions and infighting in his Cabinet had led to the party's defeat in the 1963 election, with the following election two years later failing to improve the party's position.
The controversial Deux Nations policy had been proposed by the party's "Thinkers’ Conference", held in August 1967 at Montmorency Falls, Quebec, as a way of reconciling the role of the Province of Quebec within Canadian confederation. The Thinkers’ Conference described the policy as a statement that "English Canadians and French Canadians form two distinct societies with differing backgrounds, personalities and aspirations." The phrase "distinct society" returned in the 1980s to be a key component of proposals to amend the Canadian constitution during the debate over the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord.
The policy proposal was endorsed at the convention by the party's Policy Committee by a vote of approximately 150 to 12.
Opponents of the policy were concerned that the French deux nations would be interpreted in English as "two nations", i.e., the end of a united Canada. The proponents argued that deux nations meant "two founding peoples".
In their final speeches to the convention, all of the candidates addressed the issue, but the issue did not "ignite" the delegates:
Stanfield tried to distance himself from the issue by arguing that the Policy Committee resolution was not clear enough, and the French Canadians wanted more than just the right to enjoy linguistic distinctiveness. Roblin supported deux nations, explaining that two European cultures had decided to live as one nation. Fulton also tried to avoid the argument saying that it was about semantics, and that the real point was that Canada was founded by "two races, two cultures, two peoples". Fleming tried to straddle the fence, saying that the meaning was unclear, and would oppose it if Diefenbaker's "two nations" interpretation were correct, but accepted that it meant "two founding peoples". Hees supported the resolution as meaning "two founding peoples". McCutcheon said that he was "not afraid to say" deux nations because it meant "two cultures", not "two sovereign entities". Starr argued that the policies would be unfair to other cultures in Canada, that all provinces should be equal, and that the party should not adopt a policy on the issue because Quebecers themselves were not clear on what they wanted. MacLean supported the policy.
Candidates
Robert Stanfield, the 53-year-old PC Premier of Nova Scotia, was a late entrant to the campaign, and was the eventual victor. He had disclaimed any interest in running for the federal leadership having won a healthy mandate in the spring 1967 Nova Scotia election. He finally bowed to pressure from Dalton Camp and other Ontario opponents of Diefenbaker, and joined the race. According to reportage in the Toronto Star, it was his "honesty, forthrightness, and quiet demeanour" that set him apart from other candidates. Stanfield was supported by many party members from the Maritime provinces, but had little support from Quebec or the Western provinces. Running as a "right-of-centre" candidate, his successful convention presence, and especially his very well received speech at the Tuesday night policy session, attracted many of the anti-Diefenbaker delegates, and made him "the man to beat".
Dufferin Roblin, the 50-year-old PC Premier of Manitoba, was another late entrant to the campaign. He was the youngest serious contender, and was reported to have the behind-the-scenes support of the conservative Union Nationale party in Quebec. He portrayed himself as having been outside of the fighting over Diefenbaker's leadership, and independent of the Diefenbaker and Camp bloc. He would therefore be able to bring the party together. Roblin was seen to be on the left of the party, i.e., supported by Red Tories. He delivered an emotional appeal at the policy session for harmony between English-speaking Canadians and French-speaking Canadians. His call for party unity struck a chord with delegates, and it appeared as though he might lead on the first ballot. His Quebec delegates, however, were very critical of Diefenbaker at the convention, and undermined Roblin's image as a compromise candidate.
E. Davie Fulton, a 51-year-old lawyer from British Columbia had been defeated in the 1956 leadership convention by Diefenbaker. He had served as Minister of Justice and then Minister of Public Works in the Diefenbaker government, and left federal politics in 1963 to take over the leadership of the British Columbia PC Party. His attempt to revive that party's fortunes failed, and he returned to federal politics in the 1965 election. His campaign was run by Lowell Murray, later to be an important figure in the next PC government under Joe Clark. To support from his home province, he added considerable support from Quebec because of his ability to speak French. He was plagued with the reputation of being a bad politician, but he dispelled that notion during the campaign. He campaigned under the slogan, "It's Fulton - All across Canada!"
George Hees, the 57-year-old former Minister of Transport and then Minister of International Trade and Commerce in the Diefenbaker government, was described as a "millionaire bon vivant". Hees had been successful as trade minister, aggressively promoting Canadian trade in other countries, but left politics before the 1963 election. As head of the Montreal Stock Exchange, however, he had done nothing innovative, and returned to politics in the 1965 election. Hees did not come across as an intellectual, but injected glamour into the campaign, spending the most of any of the candidates, an estimated $200,000. The Globe and Mail newspaper noted that, surrounded by chanting young supporters, the "arrival of Hees was like something from Hollywood". Hees descended from one of two red London double-decker buses that he had hired to transport his campaign workers between his headquarters at the Royal York Hotel and the convention centre at Maple Leaf Gardens. Hees's speech, delivered in carnival-barker style, at the Tuesday night policy session, however, was not well received by delegates, and his support began to drift off to other candidates.
John Diefenbaker, the 72-year-old party leader and former prime minister, kept the other candidates, the delegates, observers and pundits waiting for his decision on whether or not he would run to succeed himself until the very last minute. He filed his nomination papers for the convention very close to the closing of nominations. Although he could not reasonably have expected to win, putting his name into the race allowed him one more opportunity to address the convention, and to appeal to the party to reject the ‘’Deux Nations’’ policy. By letting his name stand, however, he was pledging his support for the winner under the rules of the convention.
Wallace McCutcheon, a 61-year-old Senator joined the campaign to be the voice of the party's right-wing. He had served as Minister without Portfolio in Diefenbaker's government, and then as Minister of Trade and Commerce. He campaigned aggressively against "big government" and "creeping socialism". McCutcheon was seen as the candidate of Bay Street (Toronto's financial district). He used dozens of attractive young women in his demonstration at the convention (dubbed "blonde goddesses" by the Toronto Star). He advocated a guaranteed annual income of $10,000 per adult as an alternative to the various social programs offered by different levels of government. He proposed a "made-in-Canada" constitution to replace the British North America Acts and to guarantee the rights of Canadians, including language and cultural rights.
Alvin Hamilton, the 55-year-old former Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources and Minister of Agriculture in the Diefenbaker government, had stayed out of the leadership campaign while Diefenbaker dithered about running. He appealed to Diefenbaker loyalists, but remained in the race even when Diefenbaker decided at the last moment to seek the leadership again, and continued to call himself a Diefenbaker loyalist. Hamilton warned the party that the delegates to the convention were out of touch with the grassroots of the party, and presented himself as the main alternative to the "reactionary conservative" candidates, and was opposed to the "continentalism" of the Liberal Party. His campaign used signed that portrayed a red-yellow-green traffic light with the slogan "Stop - Think - Go Hamilton".