During the 1937 provincial election, when Liberal premier Mitchell Hepburn was railing against the CIO's attempt to unionize General Motors and the supposed threat posed by organized labour, Rowe refused to take a stand against the CIO and repeatedly asserted that "the issue was not law and order but the right of free association."

Drew breaking with the party to run unsuccessfully as an "Independent Conservative" in the 1937 election in opposition to Rowe's position.

Following Drew's resignation in September 1956, Rowe took over as interim party leader until the 1956 Progressive Conservative leadership convention.

He publicly remained neutral in the contest, though quietly supported Donald Fleming's ultimately unsuccessful campaign.

A champion and supporter of agriculture and rural affairs, particularly harness horse racing,[2] he died in 1984 at Newton Robinson, Ontario.