Alexander Bell Patterson (April 22, 1911 - April 2, 1993) was a long time Canadian Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) and was briefly leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada

Social Credit Party of Canada

The Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...

. Patterson, a minister by profession, was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 in the 1953 election

Canadian federal election, 1953

The Canadian federal election of 1953 was held on August 10 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 22nd Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Louis St...

 from the riding

Electoral district (Canada)

An electoral district in Canada, also known as a constituency or a riding, is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based...

 of Fraser Valley

Fraser Valley (electoral district)

Fraser Valley was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1925 to 1968 and from 1997 to 2004....

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

. He was defeated in the 1958 election

Canadian federal election, 1958

The Canadian federal election of 1958 was the 24th general election in Canada's history. It was held to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 24th Parliament of Canada on March 31, 1958, just nine months after the 23rd election...

. He ran for the party leadership at the 1961 Social Credit leadership convention

Social Credit Party of Canada leadership conventions

The Canadian social credit movement first contested the 1935 federal election in order to capitalize from the Alberta Social Credit League's surprise victory in Alberta's August 1935 provincial election...

 but withdrew before the first ballot.

Patterson returned to Parliament in 1962

Canadian federal election, 1962

The Canadian federal election of 1962 was held on June 18, 1962 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 25th Parliament of Canada...

. He became acting leader of the Social Credit Party in 1967 when leader Robert N. Thompson

Robert N. Thompson

Robert Norman Thompson was a Canadian politician, chiropractor, and educator. He was born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Canadian parents and moved to Canada in 1918 with his family...

 resigned citing the party's lack of financial support from its BC and Alberta wings. Once the writ was dropped for the 1968 election, Thompson sought and won the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

Progressive Conservative Party of Canada

The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....

 nomination in his riding. Bud Olson

Bud Olson

Horace Andrew Olson, PC, AOE was a Canadian businessman, politician, and the 14th Lieutenant Governor of Alberta. He also served as a Canadian Member of Parliament, Senator, Minister of Agriculture, and Minister of Economic and Regional Development...

 had left the party a few months before joining the Liberal Party of Canada

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

, leaving Patterson as the acting leader of the remaining three person Social Credit caucus

Caucus

A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...

 into the 1968 election

Canadian federal election, 1968

The Canadian federal election of 1968 was held on June 25, 1968, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 28th Parliament of Canada...

 in which all three MPs were defeated.

Patterson returned to Parliament in the 1972 election

Canadian federal election, 1972

The Canadian federal election of 1972 was held on October 30, 1972 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 29th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in a slim victory for the governing Liberal Party, which won 109 seats, compared to 107 seats for the opposition Progressive...

 representing Fraser Valley East

Fraser Valley East

Fraser Valley East was a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from1968 to 1997.This riding was created in 1966 from parts of Fraser Valley, Kamloops and Okanagan Boundary ridings....

 as a Progressive Conservative, and was subsequently re-elected as a Tory until his retirement from politics in 1984.