Personal life
Philpott was one of thirteen children of Peter Wiley Philpott, a prominent evangelist and founder of the United Christian Workers which later became the Associated Gospel Churches of Canada, and Jessie Stuart Menzies.
He married Winnifred Hope Bowman in 1922 in Hamilton, Ontario.
Philpott died at the Shaughnessy Military Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia on December 9, 1964.
Service during World War I
A member of the class of '17 at the University of Toronto at the start of World War I, Philpott paused his studies and enlisted in 1914 because he feared “the war would be over by Christmas”. He was trained as a signaller and joined the Canadian 25th Field Battery in the Canadian Field Artillery. He later received a commission in the 33rd Howitzer Battery.
He arrived at Vimy prior to the Battle of Vimy Ridge and was among the Canadian artillery officers who adopted targeting techniques with improved mathematical precision during the week long shelling immediately prior to the battle which the defending German troops called “the week of suffering".
Philpott was twice mentioned in despatches by Sir Douglas Haig, commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force and was decorated twice for exemplary gallantry. He was awarded the Military Cross in December 1918, for clearing out an enemy machinegun nest while commanding a section on the advance with the infantry in Amiens August, 9 1918, with the following citation:
Lt. Elmore Philpott, 33rd Bty., 9th Bde., Can. Field Artillery.
For conspicuous gallantry and resource while commanding a section co-operating with infantry. On one occasion he engaged the enemy with open sights at 600 yards' range, and cleared out machine-gun nests which were holding up the advance. He kept his section close up with the advancing infantry for 24 hours, and successfully engaged strong points.
Military Cross with one bar and
Victory Medal 1914–18 with a Mention in Dispatches device
He was further awarded a bar to the decoration in July the following year for act during the capture of the Hindenburg Line, with the following citation:
Lt. Elmore Philpott, M.C., 33rd Bty. 9th Bde., Can. Fd. Arty.
For marked gallantry and determination as F.O.O. in charge of a party of signallers under heavy enemy shell fire on September 2nd, 1918, in the operations east of Arras, near Éterpigny. His party came under very heavy shell fire soon after our barrage started, and he was wounded in the back. He, however, pushed forward, and was again wounded, this time seriously, but established communication with brigade headquarters and an O.P. before allowing himself to be taken to a dressing station.
(M.C. gazetted 2nd December, 1918.)
The decoration was formally present to him by Lieutenant Governor Sir John Hendrie at a ceremony held at Queen's Park on Dominion Day in 1919. Philpott was decommissioned at the rank of Lieutenant at the end of the war. He was badly wounded during the great war, and needed two canes to help him walk for the rest of his life.
A pistol of Philpott entered the collection of the Royal Canadian Artillery Museum around 2025.
Political bids
After the war, Philpott became a journalist. He was on the staff of the Montreal Witness in the late 1920s, and was its managing editor when he left the Witness to join the editorial staff of the Globe in 1928.
Ontario Liberal leadership bid
While working as an associate editor for the Toronto Globe, in the lead up of the 1929 Ontario provincial election, Philpott became a high profile campaigner against the incumbent Conservative government led by Howard Ferguson. While not a candidate himself, he embarked on a campaign of to hold the government responsible for increase motor accidents, stumping for numerous candidates in support of prohibition and making featured appearances for the Ontario Prohibition Union. He also made appearance for Liberal candidates during the 1930 Dominion election.
A few weeks before the 1930 Ontario Liberal Party leadership convention, Philpott resigned from his editorship of the Globe amid speculation that he would enter the leadership contest. As a high profile war hero, Philpott was seen as a viable alternative to the interim party leader W.E.N. Sinclair, who had held the party leadership as interim leader for seven years, and posted poor results through two general elections.
As delegate entered the convention on December 16, the fourteen members of the Ontario Liberal caucus issued a statement endorsing the interim party leader, while the strong arm tactic deterred the candidacy of Sydney Tweed, the incumbent MPP for Waterloo North, it prompted an organized repudiation by some delegates. As the nominated contestants were called to the platform to give their convention address, Sinclair shocked delegates with his withdrawal from the contest. Philpott then aged 34, proceeded to first ballot with only one rival remaining, the Elgin West MP Mitchell Hepburn, also aged 34. Philpott was trounced by Hepburn by a tally of 427 to 97. Despite his loss, Philpott's convention performance received glowing coverage by the Daily Star, the main rival of his former employer.
The following year, Philpott contested a by-election held to fill the Hamilton West seat in the Ontario legislature left vacant by the death of provincial cabinet minister Frederick Thomas Smye. Philpott secured a 24-point swing against Conservative candidate Argue Martin, but came up 443 vote shy. He nonetheless reduces the Conservative's margin of victory from 52 points to 4 points. Hamilton West was redistributed to Hamilton–Wentworth and Hamilton Centre, both seats were won by the Liberals in the 1934 election when the party returned to government.
Brief CCF sojourn
However, Philpott left the Liberal Party prior to its electoral victory for a start-up party. In 1933, Philpott resigned from the Globe again to join the new Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and was asked to lead a campaign organizing clubs for the Ontario CCF. The CCF in Ontario was organized into three sections at the time: the United Farmers of Ontario (UFO), the Labour Conference made up of socialist and labour groups, and the CCF clubs. Philpott became the president of the Ontario Association of CCF Clubs, one of the key leaders of the party in the province, and a popular stump speaker for the socialist cause.
After twenty months of intense work in the party, including leading a purge of communists, Philpott suddenly resigned in March 1934 as president of the Ontario CCF clubs, ostensibly because he was the UFO candidate for Halton in the upcoming federal election and the UFO had left the Ontario CCF over the purported influence of Communists.
In March 1935, he announced he was rejoining the Liberal Party of Canada and was nominated as the Liberal candidate in the riding of York South for the 1935 election and proceeded to claim there was a "sinister conspiracy" to merge the CCF and the Communists with Communist Party head Tim Buck as leader of the new socialist party, a claim that Ontario CCF organizer Ted Jolliffe decried as a "fantastic fabrication". In the election, Philpott placed third behind the Conservative and CCF candidates.
Bids in British Columbia
Philpott returned to journalism and moved to British Columbia in the 1940s where he became a reporter and then a columnist for the Vancouver Sun. He ran as an Independent candidate in the federal by-election held in the riding of New Westminster in 1949, placing second behind the Liberal candidate.
Philpott was nominated in 1953 as the Liberal candidate for Vancouver South when incumbent MP Arthur Laing stood down to become provincial Liberal leader in 1953. He was considered a star candidate, and his candidacy was endorsed by prominent ministers Lester Pearson, Paul Martin and C.D. Howe. He was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 1953 election with 36.6% vote share, benefited from the opposition being divided among three major parties. To his disappointment however, he was not selected to enter cabinet. After serving one term, he was defeated in the 1957 election with only 21% vote share. He attempted to win back his seat in the 1958 general election but was again defeated, this time with only 17.7% vote share.
Philpott stood one last time for a parliamentary seat at the 1962 general election, allowing his name to be placed on the ballot in Okanagan Boundary, an electoral district in the province's interior region where the Liberals had limited prospect. He came in a distant forth, but managed to almost double the Liberal vote share.
Philpott became a vocal Sinophile supportive of the Communist regime, advocating for the admittance of the People's Republic of China into United Nations as early as 1956.
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