1965, Dawson was nominated as the Manitoba Liberal Party candidate for the Hamiota riding in the upcoming 1966 Manitoba general election. He was elected to the 28th Manitoba Legislature with 2,194 votes, compared to 2,043 for the incumbent Conservative Party candidate Barry Strickland. In his first speech as a member of the legislative assembly, Dawson defended local industries in Rivers and spoke against the potential decommissioning of CFB Rivers. Shortly into his time in the legislature, he was quoted in the Hansard as saying, "I believe that at 18 years of age a young person is twice as clever as any person in this House was at 18, when he was 18". Dawson criticized the Fitness and Amateur Sport Department leadership, and stated that Manitoba was far behind in taking advantage of federal government subsidies compared to Saskatchewan and Alberta, and was failing to keep Manitoba's physical education students employed locally in recreational programs. He also sought for Manitoba to retain skilled professionals trained at the province's expense and to stop losses due to human capital flight. He supported legislation in 1967 to allow for languages other than English to be taught in Manitoba schools. He also sought increased subsidies for rural students attending college or university in big cities due to additional costs of travel, room and board, and stated that rural students paid twice as much as an urban student. Manitoba hosted the 1967 Pan American Games and arranged events for the 1967 Canadian Centennial. When Sterling Lyon, the Minister of Tourism and Recreation, forecasted a record-high year for tourism, Dawson noted that Dominion Bureau of Statistics data showed that Manitoba received only 3 per cent of national tourism dollars. Dawson wanted to use the 1967 events to boost recreation in Manitoba, and proposed legislation for low-interest loans to communities for installation of artificial ice in hockey and curling rinks. He stated that similar legislation existed in Ontario and it had positively impacted ice sports. When the 1967 medicare bill was introduced by the government it covered services by an ophthalmologist, but not an optometrist. Dawson argued that the government was discriminating against smaller towns which did not have an ophthalmologist by excluding coverage. He recommended combining hospitals and medicare into the same administration to save money and increase services. He also argued for more availability of doctors to provide services, and that premiums being too expensive for