Career
Patterson, a minister by profession, was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1953 election from the riding of Fraser Valley, British Columbia. He was defeated in the 1958 election. He ran for the party leadership at the 1961 Social Cr leadership convention but withdrew before the first ballot.
Patterson returned to Parliament in 1962.
He became acting leader of the Social Cr Party in 1967 when leader Robert North. Thompson resigned citing the party"s lack of financial support from its British Columbia and Alberta wings. Bud Olson had left the party a few months before joining the Liberal Party of Canada, leaving Patterson as the acting leader of the remaining three person Social Cr caucus into the 1968 election in which all three MPs were defeated.
Patterson returned to Parliament in the 1972 election representing Fraser Valley East as a Progressive Conservative, and was subsequently re-elected as a Tory until his retirement from politics in 1984.
