Thomas Alexander Crerar (1876-1975) was a Canadian political leader who, using farmers' organizations as a power base, represented the Western point of view in Canada's government.

Thomas Alexander Crerar was born at Molesworth, Ontario, on June 17, 1876. The family moved west to Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, where Crerar was educated. After a stint of teaching in small rural schools, he turned to wheat farming and eventually to grain buying.

In 1907 Crerar became president of the Grain Growers Grain Company, a farmers' organization that had been established to fight the railway monopolies and the Eastern-controlled elevator companies. The Grain Growers quickly established a position of power, and Crerar, who was president until 1929, acquired a reputation as an articulate spokesman for the Western point of view.

Inevitably he was drawn into politics. During World War I Sir Robert Borden formed a Union government to ram conscription through Parliament. Crerar was one...