In June 1969, at the SNP Annual National Conference in Oban, Wolfe was elected as chairman (leader) of the SNP, defeating the incumbent leader, Arthur Donaldson, by 544 votes to 238. Having swung his support behind the ‘It's Scotland's oil’ campaign that changed the party's fortunes, he associated the SNP with the trade union campaigns against shipyard and other industrial closures and asserted its role as a radical participant in Scottish politics. Wolfe was instrumental in identifying publicly the social democratic, left-of-centre credentials of the SNP.