Social Credit had little support outside of Alberta during the 1940s, and Hlynka spent his entire parliamentary career on the opposition benches. He did not mention his relations with other Social Credit MPs in his autobiography, and seems to have operated with a fair degree of independence. Some in the media regarded him as "the quintessential ethnic politician who was Ukrainian Canadian first and Social Crediter second", and one of his most prominent allies on Ukrainian issues was Walter Tucker, a leading Saskatchewan Liberal. In 1949, he refused to campaign against Nicholas Bachynsky, a prominent Ukrainian Canadian and Liberal-Progressive politician, in Manitoba's provincial election.