Robert Stanfield - Federal Leader

Federal Leader

In 1967, the federal Progressive Conservative Party was racked by disunity between supporters and opponents of the leadership of John Diefenbaker. Stanfield entered the campaign for the party leadership. With the help of his Nova Scotian advisors and PC Party President Dalton Camp, he won a hard-fought battle and won on the fifth ballot of the 1967 leadership convention.

Stanfield brought the Progressive Conservatives high in the polls, prompting many to expect him to defeat the Liberal government of the aging Lester B. Pearson. Pearson would soon retire, prompting the Liberals to choose a new leader, Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau was a charismatic public speaker and a strong performer on television. This helped bring about "Trudeaumania" and dramatically raised the profile of his party. Stanfield's laconic speaking style and older appearance contrasted poorly with the new Liberal leader. The Liberals were re-elected and increased their support to form a majority government in the 1968 election.

In the election of 1972, Stanfield's Tories campaigned on the public's perception that the Liberals were mismanaging the economy with the slogan, "A Progressive Conservative government will do better." Though the Liberals started high in the polls, Trudeau's popularity had worn off and they slumped due to a poor campaign. Ending up, the Tories came within two seats of defeating the Liberal government. The Liberals dropped to a minority government, but nonetheless stayed in power for two years with support from David Lewis and the New Democratic Party.

Stanfield faced a variety of problems within the federal PC caucus, most controversially his support of Official Bilingualism, which threatened a caucus revolt. Implementing bilingualism had hurt the popularity of the Liberals significantly, as English-Canadians were not receptive and viewed it as a waste of money, but Stanfield did not (or would not) capitalize upon that by opposing it, even with the 1974 election approaching after the Liberals had lost a motion of non-confidence. The general election was expected to be close but Stanfield refused to sign the nomination papers of former Moncton mayor Leonard Jones; Jones had won the party nomination but he refused to support official bilingualism which was part of PC policy. Stanfield's support of bilingualism did not endear him to the electorate during his political career, though he earned much respect for his stand after he retired.