Party Must Be Reformed!
Party Must Be Reformed!
“Cracknell was never a Douglas Social Crediter - he never believed in it. He put it perfectly… when he said… that Douglas had a “germ of a good idea” and that’s as far as he went. In his speeches and broadcasts he referred to the use of “a little more Reserve Bank Credit'' and that’s as far as Vern Cranknell would ever go”
J.B. O’Brien, said in an interview
Vernon Cracknell
“Cracknell was never a Douglas Social Crediter - he never believed in it. He put it perfectly… when he said… that Douglas had a “germ of a good idea” and that’s as far as he went. In his speeches and broadcasts he referred to the use of “a little more Reserve Bank Credit'' and that’s as far as Vern Cranknell would ever go”
J.B. O’Brien, said in an interview
Vernon Cracknell
Vernon Cracknell’s victory in the Hobson election was shocking for all of the Social Credit Party. On the first and second day, members of the Social Credit Party celebrated it tremendously. On the third day, however, most Social Credit members had the same question. “What would we do?” Most members did not think they could advance that far and, now, they had no idea how to proceed with it. Vernon Cracknell’s first parliamentary meeting had shown the Social Credit members their leader’s parliamentary traits. Those traits were that he was inexperienced, he was cracked severely under severe pressure and he had no idea about how to deal with parliamentary politics.
Despite this failure in parliamentary politics, Cracknell’s victory resulted with a decisive victory of the Reformists inside the Social Credit Party. This victory, despite having no effect on the party, not only consolidated power around Vernon Cracknell’s leadership, it also resulted in Reformists showing that the Social Credit Party could have a future in parliamentary politics, just like any party. Soon, reforms began to happen.
First came with the centralization of the power in the hands of the Dominion Council, which previously met infrequently and was filled with infighting. Slowly, party branches saw their power diminish. Highly individualistic branches were becoming more centralized around the party leadership, with Dominion Council deciding on most issues. This was followed by reforms such as the formation of women auxiliaries, the formation of a Junior League and the increase of the power Public Relations Officer, Alan Smith, amidst the small but very loud opposition from the traditionalists.
Taking power from the support of his reforms, Vernon Cracknell decided to go further in his reforms. And in the year of 1964, despite the massive opposition from the traditionalists of the party, it was announced that the party constitution was going to be rewritten. And, when the new constitution was announced, it caused a very strong and very angry reaction from the Traditionalists. Dominion Council being declared as the supreme decision making body between Conferences, a new provision that required all branch remits to be submitted to the appropriate national committee before being considered by Conference and increased powers given to the Leader…
John O'Brien
These constitutional reforms caused the resignation of, largely unimportant, Traditionalists. Except for one resignation. John O’Brien, the Deputy Leader of the Social Credit Party announced his resignation and decided to form his own party. Yet, despite this opposition, Vernon Cracknell gained power to change the party to his own direction, which was a party of rural conservatism.
Soon the party's monetary reform policies were watered down, while problems encountered by the rural people were becoming more mainstream in the party. A detailed program for better rural transportation, communication and public amenities was adopted by the party and was heavily endorsed by Vernon Cracknell. On the other hand, more and more single issue groups were associating themselves with the Social Credit Party of NZ. These included N.Z. Rhodesia Society, conservative Catholics, supporters of state aid to private schools and many more groups.
The Social Credit Party, despite the loss of its die-hard supporters, gained many more supporters, in the name of rural voters heavily dissatisfied with the direction New Zealand was going for. Cracknell’s speeches on small-business capitalism, which was more fair in his opinion, also drew small business owners threatened by the corporations to the Social Credit Party. While Cracknell's performance in the parliament was abysmal, the party was growing.
And, by the time election time came, the Social Credit Party of New Zealand was completely reformed. It had a good enough support base, dominated by small business owners and rural voters, and nearly all of the branches of the party were reigned in by the Dominion Council.