Editing Stan Roberts

{{Short description|Canadian politician (1927–1990)}}
{{other people|Stanley Roberts}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}

'''Stanley Carl "Stan" Roberts''' (January 17, 1927 &ndash; September 6, 1990<ref name="members"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yKRKa9Bf73sC&pg=PA432 |title=Visions of Canada: The Alan B. Plaunt Memorial Lectures, 1958 - 1992 |last=Ostry |first=Bernard |author2=Yalden, Janice  |page=432 |ISBN=0773571590 |year=2004 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press |accessdate=2013-09-15}}</ref>) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] [[politician]].  He was a member of the [[Legislative Assembly of Manitoba]] between 1958 and 1962,<ref name="members">{{cite web |url=https://www.gov.mb.ca/hansard/members/mla_bio_deceased.html#R0 |title=MLA Biographies - Deceased |work=Legislative Assembly of Manitoba |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330155427/http://www.gov.mb.ca/hansard/members/mla_bio_deceased.html#R0 |archive-date=2014-03-30 |df= }}</ref> and ran for the leadership of the [[Manitoba Liberal Party]] in 1961.<ref name="adams"/>  He was later involved with the [[Liberal Party of Canada]], and was a founding member of the [[Reform Party of Canada]].

==Early years==
Roberts was born in [[St. Adolphe, Manitoba]], later farming there,<ref name="lachine">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jBUyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nKUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5377,25073 |title=Outsider Roberts at home in Lachine |newspaper=Montreal Gazette |date=August 1, 1984 |page=5 |last=Janigan |first=Karen |accessdate=2013-09-15}}</ref> and received of [[Bachelor of Science]] degree from the [[University of Manitoba]] and an [[Master of Business Administration|MBA]] from [[University of Western Ontario|Western University]].<ref name="harper"/>  He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1958, as a [[Manitoba Liberal Party|Liberal-Progressive]] candidate in the francophone riding of [[La Verendrye (electoral district)|La Verendrye]] (Roberts was himself bilingual).  Although [[Dufferin Roblin]]'s [[Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba|Progressive Conservative (PC) Party]] won the general election,<ref name="members"/> Roberts defeated his Tory opponent [[Stan Bisson]] by 1565 votes to 1395.  He was re-elected in 1959,<ref name="members"/> defeating PC candidate [[Edmond Guertin]].

When [[Douglas Lloyd Campbell|Douglas Campbell]] resigned as Liberal-Progressive leader in 1961, Roberts ran to succeed him.  He represented a "left opposition" within the party, and accused its more conservative leadership of being ineffective against Roblin's centrist/progressive government.  He was defeated by establishment candidate [[Gildas Molgat]] by 475 votes to 279 on April 20, 1961, one day after the party formally renamed itself the Manitoba Liberal Party.<ref name="adams">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mLQ3Nhdnv5sC&pg=PA83 |title=Politics in Manitoba: Parties, Leaders, and Voters |page=83 |year=2008 |ISBN=0887553559 |last=Adams |first=Christopher |publisher=University of Manitoba Press |accessdate=2013-09-15}}</ref>

==Resignation==
Roberts resigned from the legislature to contest the [[1962 Canadian federal election|1962 federal election]]<ref name="members"/> in the [[electoral district (Canada)|riding]] of [[Provencher]]; he was defeated by [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada|Progressive Conservative]] [[Warner Jorgenson]] by about a thousand votes.  He again lost to Jorgenson in the [[1963 Canadian federal election|1963 federal election]], by a slightly greater margin.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/FederalRidingsHistory/hfer.asp?Include=&Language=E&rid=574&Search=Det |title=Provencher, Manitoba (1871 - ) |work=History of Federal Ridings since 1867 |publisher=Library of Parliament |accessdate=2013-09-15}}</ref>

Roberts subsequently worked as a Manitoba advisor to [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[Lester B. Pearson]], and served as president and acting leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party from 1969 to 1970 (after party leader [[Robert Bend]] failed to win his seat in the [[1969 Manitoba general election|1969 provincial election]]).  He also worked as an executive officer for [[McCabe Grain Company Limited]], later [[National Grain Company Limited]]. In 1971, he was named vice-president of [[Simon Fraser University]],<ref name="harper">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mojDQdgGhQgC&pg=PA77 |title=Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada |page=77 |ISBN=1551992205 |year=2009 |last=Johnson |first=William  |publisher=Random House LLC |accessdate=2013-09-15}}</ref> serving until 1976.<ref name="lachine"/>

==Constitutional reform involvement==
In 1976, Roberts became the first president of the [[Canada West Foundation]].  In this capacity, he took a leading role in arguing for the position of the west in Canada's constitutional debates.<ref name="harper"/>  He also developed contacts with [[Ernest Manning|Ernest]] and [[Preston Manning]].  In late 1978, Roberts expressed interest in [[Francis Winspear]]'s proposed constitutional reforms, which included [[Senate of Canada|Senate]] reform and the equal treatment of all provinces.

During this period, Roberts made several speeches warning about the possibility of western separatism.  There were some within the Canada West Foundation who believed that Roberts himself was partly sympathetic to separatism; he never became affiliated with the movement, but was forced to step down as CWF President in December 1980 after some controversial statements on the subject. In 1980, he moved from British Columbia to Toronto<ref name="obit"/> after being named president of the [[Canadian Chamber of Commerce]].<ref name="harper"/> Roberts left that position in 1982.<ref name="lachine"/>

Roberts remained loyal to the Liberal Party during this period.  He ran for the leadership of the [[British Columbia Liberal Party]] in 1984, but lost to former [[Member of Parliament]] [[Art Lee]] on the first ballot.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8wowAAAAIBAJ&sjid=j6UFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2145,36030 |title=B.C. Liberals elect Lee as new leader |newspaper=Montreal Gazette |date=April 2, 1984 |page=7 |accessdate=2013-09-15}}</ref>  Roberts's participation in this contest probably prevented him from running to succeed [[Pierre Trudeau]] as leader of the federal party.  Roberts disagreed with the selection of [[John Turner]] as party leader, but he nevertheless ran for the federal Liberals in the [[Quebec]] riding of [[Lachine (electoral district)|Lachine]] in 1984, losing to [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada|Progressive Conservative]] [[Robert Layton (politician)|Bob Layton]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/FederalRidingsHistory/hfer.asp?Include=Y&Language=E&rid=356&Search=Det |title=Lachine, Quebec (1966 - 1973) |work=History of Federal Ridings since 1867 |publisher=Library of Parliament |accessdate=2013-09-15}}</ref>

==Reform Party of Canada==
After this election, Roberts began to consider forming a new political party.  The federal Liberal Party had long been weak in western Canada, and won only two seats west of [[Ontario]] in 1984.  Roberts believed that a new party might be necessary to oppose Progressive Conservative [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[Brian Mulroney]] in western Canada.  In 1987, he became involved with [[Francis Winspear]], [[Preston Manning]] and [[Ted Byfield]] in plans to create what would later become the [[Reform Party of Canada]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qr6kGKC5Be8C&pg=PA51 |title=Waiting for the Wave: The Reform Party and the Conservative Movement |page=51 |year=2009 |ISBN=0773575278 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press |last=Flanagan |first=Tom |accessdate=2013-09-15}}</ref>

Roberts was in many respects an unlikely figure within this group.  His political philosophy was centrist, perhaps somewhat left-of-centre.  He was not an uncritical supporter of free-market economics, and he does not seem to have been a [[social conservatism|social conservative]].  Nevertheless, he was willing to work with more conservative figures to create the new party.

Even before the Reform Party's founding convention (October 30-November 1, 1987), Roberts began to have concerns about the new party's ideology.  He opposed its regionalist aspects, and was concerned by its popularity with voters who opposed bilingualism and [[Quebec]]'s role in Canada's Confederation.  One week before the founding convention, he agreed to stand for the party's leadership against Preston Manning, the only other declared candidate.

At the convention, Manning's supporters among the convention-goers voted to close the registration process one day ahead of schedule, perhaps fearing Roberts was planning to bus in several "instant delegates".  After failed negotiations with the Manning camp, Roberts dropped out of the race on November 1, claiming that Manning's supporters had hijacked the party from its original intentions.  He referred to Manning's supporters as "fanatical [[Alberta]]ns" and "small-minded evangelical cranks".{{citation needed|date=September 2013}}

Roberts subsequently sought the Reform Party's nomination in the [[British Columbia]] riding of [[Saanich—Gulf Islands]] for the [[1988 Canadian federal election|1988 federal election]], but was defeated.  He had no further involvement with the Reform Party,{{citation needed|date=September 2013}} and died of a brain tumour in [[Burnaby, British Columbia|Burnaby]] two years later.<ref name="obit">{{cite book |title=Canadian Obituary Record |year=1990 |last=Stamp |first=Robert M |publisher=Dundurn Press |ISBN=1550020870 |page=161}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Stan}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:1990 deaths]]
[[Category:Manitoba Liberal Party MLAs]]
[[Category:People from Eastman Region, Manitoba]]
[[Category:University of Manitoba alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba]]