John William McLeod Thompson (July 18, 1908 in Elkhorn, Manitoba – December 15, 1986 in Winnipeg) was a lawyer, politician and judge in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1953 to 1962 as a Progressive Conservative, and held several cabinet posts in the government of Dufferin (Duff) Roblin. Education and local politics Thompson received a Bachelor of Arts from Brandon College, which he attended with Tommy Douglas and Stanley Knowles in the late 1920s. On graduation, he went on to study law at the University of Manitoba, graduating in 1933 with an LLB. While there he was a member of the top debating team with his debating partner and the future Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) leader Lloyd Stinson. After graduation, he settled back in Elkhorn and built up his law practice. Active in the Elkhorn community, Thompson was a municipal councillor from 1933 to 1939. Turning to national politics, he campaigned in the 1940 federal election as a "National Government" (i.e., Conservative) candidate, but lost to the Liberal, James Ewen Matthews. Shortly after marrying Lorraine Dutton of Virden in 1942, Thompson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and for three years was a leading airman during the Second World War. After the war, Thompson again focused on local politics in Elkhorn and was elected as a school trustee from 1945 to 1947, and then spent six years as Mayor of Elkhorn from 1947 to 1953 (his father, Wellington John Thompson, had also been Mayor of Elkhorn in 1922, and was editor of the local newspaper, The Elkhorn Advocate). Member of the Legislative Assembly for Virden Thompson was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the June 1953 provincial election as the Progressive Conservative member for Virden. Despite the Liberal-Progressives winning a majority under Douglas L. Campbell, Thompson, with 57% of the vote, had defeated G.A. Mooney to become the first Tory to serve Virden since 1914. Joining the opposition benches, Thompson soon established himself as one of the best speakers in the House. When Duff Roblin assumed the party leadership the following year, Thompson was a key voice of the opposition attacks during the 1956 beer price debate, the oil lease scandal of 1957, and was a sharp critic on penal reform. In the Manitoba Cabinet The Progressive Conservatives took power in 1958 after winning a minority government under Roblin. With 64% of the vote