Elmer S. Knutson was a Canadian

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...

 fringe politician. He was born on the family farm in Torquay, Saskatchewan

Torquay, Saskatchewan

Torquay is a town in Saskatchewan....

. He worked on road gangs, in lumber camps and mines until he won a baseball scholarship to a Lutheran college in North Dakota

North Dakota

North Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Canada to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th-largest state by area in the U.S....

, USA. After serving in the Royal Canadian Navy

Royal Canadian Navy

The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he opened a garage in Saskatoon. He later moved to Edmonton to form his own tractor parts company. In 1969, he established Derrick Dodge Chrysler, a car dealership, and ran it until 1976.

With the advent of the National Energy Program

National Energy Program

The National Energy Program was an energy policy of the Government of Canada. It was created under the Liberal government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau by Minister of Energy Marc Lalonde in 1980, and administered by the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources.-Description:The NEP was...

 in 1980, a policy that gave the federal government of Canada more control over oil and gas resources in western Canada, he formed the Western Canada Federation (West-Fed), a non-partisan organization to fight the federal Liberal Party

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...

. Most West-Fed members left the party to join the Victoria

Victoria, British Columbia

Victoria is the capital city of British Columbia, Canada and is located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of about 78,000 within the metropolitan area of Greater Victoria, which has a population of 360,063, the 15th most populous Canadian...

-based Western Canada Concept

Western Canada Concept

The Western Canada Concept was a Western Canadian political party founded in 1980 to promote the separation of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia and the Yukon and Northwest Territories from Canada in order to create a new nation.The party argued that Western...

 (WCC) party. Knutson was quoted as saying, "I've asked many times what the hell the WCC is and they can't tell me."

He was defeated in 1983 in his attempt to win the leadership 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...

. In 1984, he founded the Confederation of Regions Party to advocate a new Canadian constitution with more regional autonomy. He stepped down as leader a little more than a year later, saying, "If I can't get my message across, I had better give up trying."

He tried his hand at provincial politics in two by-election

By-election

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

s as well as the 1986 Alberta General Election

Alberta general election, 1986

The Alberta general election of 1986 was the twenty-first general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on May 8, 1986 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta....

 in the Olds-Didsbury

Olds-Didsbury

Olds-Didsbury was a provincial electoral district in central southern Alberta, Canada.The riding was created in 1963 as a merger between the Olds and Didsbury ridings....

 riding, and came up second.

Knutson died at the age of 86 in Edmonton.