Stanley Carl "Stan" Roberts (January 17, 1927 – September 6, 1990) was a Canadian politician. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba between 1958 and 1962, and ran for the leadership of the Manitoba Liberal Party in 1961. He was later involved with the Liberal Party of Canada, and was a founding member of the Reform Party of Canada. Early years Roberts was born in St. Adolphe, Manitoba, later farming there, and received of Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba and an MBA from Western University. He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in 1958, as a Liberal-Progressive candidate in the francophone riding of La Verendrye (Roberts was himself bilingual). Although Dufferin Roblin's Progressive Conservative (PC) Party won the general election, Roberts defeated his Tory opponent Stan Bisson by 1565 votes to 1395. He was re-elected in 1959, defeating PC candidate Edmond Guertin. When Douglas Campbell resigned as Liberal-Progressive leader in 1961, Roberts ran to succeed him. He represented a "left opposition" within the party, and accused its more conservative leadership of being ineffective against Roblin's centrist/progressive government. He was defeated by establishment candidate Gildas Molgat by 475 votes to 279 on April 20, 1961, one day after the party formally renamed itself the Manitoba Liberal Party. Resignation Roberts resigned from the legislature to contest the 1962 federal election in the riding of Provencher; he was defeated by Progressive Conservative Warner Jorgenson by about a thousand votes. He again lost to Jorgenson in the 1963 federal election, by a slightly greater margin. Roberts subsequently worked as a Manitoba advisor to Liberal Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, and served as president and acting leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party from 1969 to 1970 (after party leader Robert Bend failed to win his seat in the 1969 provincial election). He also worked as an executive officer for McCabe Grain Company Limited, later National Grain Company Limited. In 1971, he was named vice-president of Simon Fraser University, serving until 1976. Constitutional reform involvement In 1976, Roberts became the first president of the Canada West Foundation. In this capacity, he took a leading role in arguing for the position of the west in Canada's constitutional debates. He also developed contacts with Ernest and Preston Manning. In late 1978, Roberts expressed interest in Francis Winspear's proposed constitutional reforms, which included Senate reform and the equal treatment of all