Robert Cruise (11 December 1868 – 19 June 1932) was a Canadian

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Dauphin,

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. Born in

Lachute Lachute () is a town in southwest Quebec, Canada, northwest of Montreal, on the Rivière du Nord, a tributary of the Ottawa River, and west of Mirabel International Airport. It is located on Autoroute 50, at the junctions of Quebec Provincial ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, the son of Peter and Margaret (Mill) Cruise, he was a farmer in Quebec until 1893 when he moved to

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settling in Dauphin where he acquired a farm of . He later sold this land and purchased of land. Cruise was elected as a

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

in the 1911 federal election, however, as a result of the Conscription Crisis of 1917 he and many other English-Canadian Liberals

crossed the floor Crossed may refer to: * ''Crossed'' (comics), a 2008 comic book series by Garth Ennis * ''Crossed'' (novel), a 2010 young adult novel by Ally Condie * "Crossed" (''The Walking Dead''), an episode of the television series ''The Walking Dead'' S ...

to support the

Union government The Government of India ( ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

formed by

Robert Borden Sir Robert Laird Borden (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I. Borde ...

in 1917. The Conscription question split the Liberal party with loyalists to party leader Sir

Wilfrid Laurier Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minis ...

styling themselves

Laurier Liberals Prior to the 1917 federal election in Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada split into two factions. To differentiate the groups, historians tend to use two retrospective names: * The Laurier Liberals, who opposed conscription of soldiers to supp ...

and supporters of the Borden government calling themselves

Liberal Unionists The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...

. Cruise stood for re-election in the 1917 election and was acclaimed as a Government supporter. He sat in parliament as a Unionist (Conservative and Liberal). He did not return to the Liberal Party following

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

but ran for re-election in 1921 as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

(technically, the Tories ran in this election as the National Liberal and Conservative Party in an unsuccessful attempt to retain the support of Liberals who had defected from the party during the war.) Cruise was soundly defeated by

William John Ward William John Ward (October 25, 1880 – August 18, 1971) was a Canadian politician, farmer, insurance agent, and real estate agent from Dauphin, Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = ...

, a candidate for the new Progressive Party of Canada.

References

*
The story of Manitoba (Volume 3)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruise, Robert 1868 births 1932 deaths Liberal Party of Canada MPs Liberal-Unionist MPs in Canada Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Manitoba