Mr. Speaker, it is with regret that we learned of the passing of Bob Thompson. His career was rich and varied in service to others. Bob taught school in Alberta before the war. He was an officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He went to Ethiopia in 1943 both as a teacher and as an air force officer. During the forties and fifties he served with distinction as an educator in Ethiopia and in the Sudan before returning to enter public life in Canada.
He was the national leader of the Social Credit Party from 1961 to 1967 and was elected an MP for Red Deer in 1962, 1963, 1965 and 1968. When he retired from Parliament in 1972, he resumed his career as a university teacher and administrator and completed his public service as a member of the parole board.
I served in this House of Commons with Bob throughout his parliamentary career. I recall him as a man of substance and integrity. He was at the centre of events at a time of unusual political tumult. But even those of us with greatly differing political points of view came to respect and admire him for his sincerity and his personal high standards of parliamentary conduct.
I think it is fair to say that despite what a distinguished Canadian author called the distemper of the times, Bob Thompson was a leading parliamentarian without personal enemies. He made a strong contribution to this House and to Canada.
Therefore I wish to extend our sincere condolences to his widow Evelyn and to his family. Bob will certainly be missed in terms of service to Canada. Once again, our sympathy to his widow and his family.