Career
Lainson was a longtime party member and stood as a Social Cr candidate during the 1962 federal election in the riding of Saint John—Albert, New Brunswick. He led the Ontario Social Cr Party during the 1967 general election and was its candidate in Kitchener. "We"re going to stonewall this guy.
There"s no way we"re going to do business with him.
As far as we"re concerned, this bunch is part of the conspiracy," said one Keegstra supporter. and was temporarily deposed as party leader in 1987 in favour of Keegstra. Refusing to resign, Lainson"s leadership was reconfirmed at a party convention later in 1987 and he succeeded in expelling Keegstra from the party.
Lainson led the party through the 1988 federal election in which the depleted party ran only nine candidates and received only 3,407 votes, in what would be its final and worst ever performance in a general election. Lainson did not contest a parliamentary seat.
He resigned as party leader in 1990 for unspecified "personal reasons" and was succeeded by another evangelical minister, Ken Campbell.
In his business life, Lainson operated a computer services company for Christian charities in Ottawa.
