Joseph Needham

Who was Joseph Needham?

Joseph Needham was a Saskatchewan politician, clergyman and public administrator.

Needham was born in Bromhall, Cheshire, England and emigrated to Canada where he settled in Saskatchewan. Ordained as a Methodist minister, Needham entered commercial life in 1919 in Unity, Saskatchewan near the Alberta border working as an agent and secretary and eventually becoming a hospital superintendent.

He was elected to the House of Commons in the 1935 federal election as a member of the first federal parliamentary caucus Social Credit MPs in Ottawa. Needham was one of only two of the 17 Social Credit MPs to have been elected from outside of Alberta having been returned from the Saskatchewan riding of The Battlefords.

Needham served as president of the Social Credit League of Saskatchewan during this period and was the nominal leader of the provincial party during the 1938 provincial election which saw the party win 15% of the votes but only two seats - Needham did not seek a provincial seat himself and remained in the House of Commons. He was re-elected to the position of provincial president in 1939.