Robert Manion

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Robert James Manion (1881-1943) was a Canadian politician and physician and leader of the Canadian Conservative Party.

Manion had been a member of the 21st Canadian Batallion and was decorated for heroism at Vimy Ridge. He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons during the conscription election of 1917 as a Liberal-Unionist MP for Fort William.

After the war Manion did not rejoin the Liberal Party and remained with the Conservatives who had led the Unionist government. He was appointed Minister of Soldiers' Civil Re-establishment in the government of Arthur Meighen in 1921 and sat in the opposition benches after the defeat of the Meighen government. When Meighen again became Prime Minister of Canada in 1926, Manion served in several positions including Postmaster-General and in the 1930-1935 government of R. B. Bennett he was Minister of Railways and Canals.

Manion lost his seat for the first time when the Bennett Tories lost the 1935 election. Despite not having a seat, Manion won the 1938 Conservative leadership convention in hopes that his Catholicism and marriage to a French-Canadian would help the party in Quebec where the perception of the Tories as being anti-French and anti-Catholic Orangemen hurt their prospects. Manion entered the House of Commons through a by-election in 1938 and campaigned against conscription despite the fact that he had joined the Unionists in 1917 because he favoured the draft.

The defeat of the government of Maurice Duplessis in Quebec hurt Manion's hopes of building an electoral alliance with the conservative Premier. As well, his stance against conscription turned much of the Tory base in Ontario against the leader. In the March 1940 general election Manion's Tories campaigned under the name National Government with the platform of forming a wartime coalition government but the renamed Tories were unable to make any gains from their 1935 result and Manion failed to win his seat leading to his resignation as party leader two months later.

Robert Manion

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