Canada 1958 without Diefenbaker as PC leader

[King of Kensington]

Diefenbaker's populist appeal ended up destroying Social Credit and crushing the CCF.   What if the Tories had picked a more traditional eastern Tory like Sidney Smith?  

ETA: Or perhaps more aptly the title should be Canada 1957/1958 given Dief first won in 1957 before getting a massive majority a year later.

[Citizen Hats]

The Tories had some innovative backroom men in that election too, such as Allister Grossart and Gordon Churchill, but Grossart, was part of Deifenbaker's leadership team, so he might not have been running the show. 

There were complaints with the Liberal Government, and their vote totals would have gone down, but they probably still would have won another term, with St. Laurent retireing in the middle of it. 

Does Social Credit knock out the Tories? Probably not. Part of the reason why the Socreds never defeated the Tories in OTL is because of the internally conflicting nature of Social Credit.  Social Credit was split three ways in the provinces where it was ever of any strength. In Alberta, it was by this point a Christian fundamentalist party, run by small government farmers who cared mostly about how long the skirts were and if the beer was too strong.  In BC, it was a fundamentally middle class party, an anti-socialist coalition run by small businessmen who supported huge public infrastructure investment and non-socialist developmentalism. In Quebec, they were social-credit theory supporting Franco-Canadien Nationalists.  It's never been entirely clear to my why these forces attempted to unite in a single Federal Party at all.

So, it would seem that things really don't change from OTL. The Tories pick up the West later in OTL and Social Credit lasts a bit longer, but I feel that Diefenbaker is more of a catalyst and an independent force

[DC Al Fine]

The Quebec wing of Social Credit only became competitive after the Diefenbaker sweep. Even then the parties only had a few years together before the western wing died out. The fiscal-con/socon divide in the Socreds is no different than most right of centre parties. Really you had two Socred parties; the western conservative one, and the Quebec nationalist one.

[Citizen Hats]

You make some fair points, those divisions do exist- but imagine if the BC Liberals and the Wild Rose Alliance tried to jointly sponsor a Federal Party, that was still dominated by Christy Clark and Danielle Smith. It would be difficult, to say the least

[RogueBeaver]

Anyone but Dief would not have won '57, so '58 doesn't happen. Liberals win a reduced majority.

[King of Kensington]

Eventually the Conservatives probably would have come up with a "western strategy."