Discussions

was a great Canadian Politician.  
 
Today I would like to post a few notes to honour this man who was the epitome of a Politician.  
 
He was born in Brandon, Manitoba, April 3rd, 1916: he graduated from Brandon College, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1937 from McMaster University. He received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1951.  
 
In late January 1945, Flight Lieutenant Walter “Dinny” Dinsdale was a night fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air force. He shot down his fourth German Luftwaffe plane, even though his own de Havilland Mosquito was itself in flames, and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his wartime service.  
 
Mr. Dinsdale is Brandon’s most celebrated World War II “hero”, but with that said, he still remained a humanitarian at heart, and wished to return to his Salvation Army “street work” after his return from the War. Mr. Dinsdale was a social worker with the Salvation Army, from 1946 to 1951.  
 
After completing his Graduate Studies in Sociology, and Political Science he returned to the City of Brandon to take the position of Assistant Professor at Brandon College. Mr. Dinsdale had varied responsibilities as a lecturer, public relations officer, and student recruiter. His colleges were NDP stalwarts Stanley Knowles, Tommy Douglas, and Alberta Lieutenant Governor Grant McEwan, whom he trounced in the 1951 Federal Election.  
 
Mr. Dinsdale was a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) from 1951 until his death in 1982. Because of his character and personality he encouraged the majority of faithful voters for thirty-one years to mark their ‘X’ beside his name. His methods to gain voter support was by use of a dash of moral conservatism to his local flock, mixed with a down home talk-about-it-over-coffee approach. He was the first to admit that the majority of the people who voted for him were not necessary die hard Conservatives: they just wished to support a politician who would make local needs a top priority. Few new the city and its people better than Mr. Dinsdale because he was a member of one of Brandon's oldest and most prominent families.  
 
His father was an Alderman, Mayor, and MLA. His grandmother was born in Brandon only four years after the city was incorporated, and his grandfather immigrated to the city from England in 1906.  
 
Mr. Dinsdale was not a willing candidate for the up coming By-election in 1951, but he was subject to considerable pressure from those Brandon PC’s who were determined not to let the seat remain uncontested. On the day of the nomination, and his acquiesce, (acceptance) he was promptly fired by the politically nervous Brandon College. An added asset to his campaign was his young wife Lenore, (née Gusdal) who had strong ties in the northern segment of the constituency and was well known in Brandon and the surrounding area because of her work with the YWCA. She was as active and effective at campaigning as her husband: the Dinsdale's, husband and very pregnant wife traveled together to attend public meetings at which they spoke together, and on many occasions musically entertained together. The final piece of Hustings propaganda was when Mr. Dinsdale’s election eve message was delivered to virtually the entire constituency by means of a powerful public address system attached to a four passenger Stinson aircraft. This system attracted the attention of unexpected towns folk and farmers alike with a stirring rendition of martial music, followed by the last pleas of the campaign. The next day there were reports of startled horses and angry farmers, but the novelty of the technique cannot be discounted. The message bearing aircraft completed its journey by swinging over the Kinsman Stadium where a large and responsive crowd were happily witnessing their hometown Brandon Grey's baseball team defeat the visiting Elmwood Grants 6-3. The Dinsdale team won the by-election with a surprising 56.9% of the vote, they swept the city, except for the north end, and the traditionally Liberal rural polls.  
 
During his tenure in the Canadian House of Commons, he represented the electoral riding of Brandon for one year in 1951 until it was merged with the electoral riding of Souris, and then represented the merged riding of Brandon/Souris from 1952 until his death in 1982.  
 
During his period as MP, he was the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Veterans Affairs in 1957, and Parliamentary Secretary to the same minister in 1960. He then joined the Cabinet of John Diefenbaker as Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources from 1960 to 1963. He was also Acting Minister of Mines and Technical Surveys for a few months in 1961.  
 
Mr. Dinsdale waged a personal battle to help his son Gunnar return to health after he experienced a brain tumour that disabled him during his teen-aged years. Mr. Dinsdale became involved with government-affiliated organizations for the disabled, most notably, Rehabilitation International. He once said, “I had to wrestle through a nightmare of red tape when Gunnar was knocked out of action, some of those institutions were like human warehouses and I didn’t want that for him.” Gunnar graduated from Brandon University, and became a resource teacher for the Brandon School Division.  
 
Mr. Dinsdale also worked with groups involved in disseminating information on technological developments for the physically disabled. In this role he attended in 1976 the World Congress of Rehabilitation International in Tel Aviv, Israel as Canada’s Delegate.  
 
In Mr. Dinsdale’s opinion, his greatest achievement occurred from October 1960 to April 1963 when he was Minister of Northern Affairs and National Recourses. This was a key part of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s economic independence vision for Canada. He also chaired the ‘Resources for Tomorrow’ conference in Montreal, which led to the Resource Ministers Council on Cooperative Federalism. A by-product of this was the forming of the Environmental Department. The conference gave the opportunity for Mr. Dinsdale to meet the future Quebec Premier Rene Levesque, who was the Provincial Resources Minister at the time. “The young Minister even then liked to make late entrances and receive media attention,” Mr. Dinsdale is quoted as saying. They did not see eye-to-eye right from the start. Mr. Levesque wanted nothing to do with a Federal Chairman of a council involved with resources. He argued that resources were the jurisdiction of the Provinces. Mr. Dinsdale said, “I told him I was also Minister of Northern Affairs and he could look at it that way. He chuckled and stayed, we got along famously.” In the later years, Mr. Dinsdale became disenchanted because he felt the Resource Ministers Council had lost its punch in Ottawa, and Canada had made the shift from a Federation to a Republic. He was no fan of the Trudeau Federal Government and would bash Mr. Trudeau at any chance he could. When the Conservatives finally did get a short chance of Governing in 1979, Mr. Dinsdale was not asked to join the Cabinet of Prime Minister Joe Clark. Mr. Dinsdale was fond of saying “Canada’s future is in the west,” how right he was.  
 
If he was known in the House of Commons as an unabashed Westerner, he was equally known among his friends as a notorious Brandon Booster. He was once making a speech with these sentiments in it, saying that Brandon was near the centre of Canada, to which an Eastern heckler replied “ya dead centre.” Mr. Dinsdale was not amused. He once said, “You know, what’s the problem with Parliament today, there are no people there with perspective.” He died from kidney failure on November 20th. 1982 after suffering a stroke about two months before his death. He was married to Lenore, and had five children: Gunnar, Gregory, Elizabeth, Eric and Rolf.  
 
Source: Brandon Sun Archives, Daly House Museum,  
Brandon’s Politics and Politicians, by W. Leyland Clark.