William "Scottie" Bryce was a politician in Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He briefly served as leader of the Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation

Manitoba Co-operative Commonwealth Federation

The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation , known informally as the Manitoba CCF, was a provincial branch of the national Canadian party by the same name. The national CCF was the dominant social-democratic party in Canada from the 1930s to the early 1960s, when it merged with the labour movement...

 (CCF), although he never served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba

The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and the lieutenant governor form the Legislature of Manitoba, the legislature of the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly in provincial general elections, all in single-member constituencies with first-past-the-post...

.

Bryce, born in Lanark

Lanark

Lanark is a small town in the central belt of Scotland. Its population of 8,253 makes it the 100th largest settlement in Scotland. The name is believed to come from the Cumbric Lanerc meaning "clear space, glade"....

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, was educated at Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 and apprenticed as a machinist

Machinist

A machinist is a person who uses machine tools to make or modify parts, primarily metal parts, a process known as machining. This is accomplished by using machine tools to cut away excess material much as a woodcarver cuts away excess wood to produce his work. In addition to metal, the parts may...

. He arrived in Canada in 1919 and farmed in Dugald

Dugald, Manitoba

Dugald is a community in Manitoba, Canada, 22 km east of Winnipeg. It was the site of a railway accident in 1947.It is located in the rural municipality of Springfield.Dugald is the birthplace of former NHL goaltender Trevor Kidd....

, Manitoba. From 1941 to 1943, he served as President of the Manitoba Farmers Association. He was also a member of the National War Services Board (1942–43) and the Advisory Board of Dominion Beef Committee.

Bryce 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 a 1943 by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

, during a period of increased popularity for the federal CCF

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation

The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...

. Running in 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 Selkirk, Bryce defeated his Liberal opponent Charles Fillmore by about 5500 votes. He was re-elected by narrower margins in the general elections of 1945

Canadian federal election, 1945

The Canadian federal election of 1945 was the 20th general election in Canadian history. It was held June 11, 1945 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 20th Parliament of Canada...

 and 1949

Canadian federal election, 1949

The Canadian federal election of 1949 was held on June 27 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 21st Parliament of Canada. It was the first election in Canada in almost thirty years in which the Liberal Party of Canada was not led by William Lyon Mackenzie King. King had...

. He was a leading advocate for farmer's concerns during his time in parliament, and generally avoided ideological debates.

Bryce's tenure as provincial CCF leader was an anomaly in the party's history. He was chosen leader in 1952 due to concerns that his federal riding would be eliminated by redistribution. As it happened, Bryce decided to stay in federal politics and Lloyd Stinson

Lloyd Stinson

Lloyd Stinson was a politician in Manitoba, Canada, and the leader of that province's Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1953 to 1959. Although widely regarded as a capable leader, he was unable to achieve a major electoral breakthrough for his party.Stinson was born in Treherne,...

 was chosen provincial leader in 1953. Bryce does not appear to have played a significant role in the operations of the provincial party.

Bryce was defeated by Liberal Robert Wood in the federal election of 1953

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...

, but won a by-election after Wood's death the following year. He was re-elected in the 1957 election

Canadian federal election, 1957

The Canadian federal election of 1957 was held June 10, 1957, to select the 265 members of the House of Commons of Canada. In one of the great upsets in Canadian political history, the Progressive Conservative Party , led by John Diefenbaker, brought an end to 22 years of Liberal rule, as the...

, but fell to Progressive Conservative

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....

 Eric Stefanson in John Diefenbaker

John Diefenbaker

John George Diefenbaker, PC, CH, QC was the 13th Prime Minister of Canada, serving from June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963...

's landslide victory of 1958

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...

.

In the 1959 provincial election

Manitoba general election, 1959

Manitoba's general election of May 14, 1959 was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Manitoba, Canada. It resulted in a majority victory for the Progressive Conservative Party under the leadership of Dufferin Roblin...

, Bryce ran for the CCF in the riding of Selkirk but placed a surprisingly poor third, receiving only 872 votes out of about 4400 cast. He retired from politics after this.

Strangely, no record of Bryce's death certificate has yet been found by the federal House of Commons.