After a stint as a provincial legislator and party leader, Gibson ran again for a seat in the federal House of Commons, in the riding of North Vancouver—Burnaby.
During BC Liberals' long period of wilderness between the collapsed of the Liberal-PC Coalition in 1952 and its 2001 return to government, North Vancouver was one of the very rare spot where it had residual electoral strength.
Three months before 1975 election, three Liberal MLAs, including former leader Pat McGeer and future lieutenant governor Garde Gardom, defected to the Social Credit Party, leaving Gibson and party leader David Anderson as the only two Liberals in the legislature.
Just over a month before the election call on September 28, Gibson was acclaimed as leader, again following the footstep of his former boss Authur Laing.
Liberal leadership challenge to incumbent leader Gordon Wilson after an extramarital affair between him and caucus member Judi Tyabji came to light.
Campbell was already seen as the front runner prior to that change, but a Gibson win remained a possibility given the broad respect he commanded among long-time members across the province.
The amendment made Campbell's lead prohibitive given the large number of members recruited in Vancouver the political machine he headed as mayor, as evident by the swollen membership roll of 15,000.
He called himself non-partisan in a 2018 column, and have remained active and visible through public policy commentary throughout his retirement years.
Following the 2001 British Columbia provincial election, he was hired by the government to make recommendations on the structure and mandate of the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform.