17th Parliament of Ontario
The 1926 to 1929 legislative term of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada
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The 17th Parliament of Ontario (or the 17th Legislature of Ontario, as it was known then) was the legislature of Ontario that was in office between December 1926 and October 1929. Its composition was initially determined by the 1926 Ontario general election held on December 1, 1926. Ontario voters re-elected the incumbent Conservative government headed by Premier Howard Ferguson in that election with a substantial majority mandate.
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| 17th Parliament of Ontario | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Ontario Legislative Building ca. 1948 | |||||
| Overview | |||||
| Legislative body | Legislative Assembly | ||||
| Jurisdiction | Ontario, Canada | ||||
| Meeting place | Ontario Legislative Building | ||||
| Term | February 2, 1927 â September 7, 1929 | ||||
| Election | 1926 Election | ||||
| Government | Ferguson ministry (Conservative) | ||||
| Members | 112 | ||||
| Speaker | William David Black | ||||
| Premier | Howard Ferguson (Conservative) | ||||
| Leader of the Opposition | W.E.N. Sinclair (Liberal) | ||||
| Party control | 74 / 112(66%) | ||||
Composition
Election outcome
When the dust settled in the days following the 1926 election, the incumbent Conservative government led by Premier Howard Ferguson had undisputedly secure a resounding mandate for his plan to repeal the Ontario Temperance Act and to implement a government controlled liquor retail system. Well over 70 members of his Conservative Party were elected to the new house with 112 seats.
While the overall big picture was abundantly clear, the finer details such as the exact seat counts or the precise make up of the opposition bench was less clear for a number of reasons unique to this election:
- Independent candidates (7 elected) - The principal campaign issue in the 1926 election was the government's plan to end prohibition in Ontario. The issue caused factures among both the governing Conservative Party and the Liberal Party. The incumbent Liberals who were "wet" contested the election as "Independent Liberal" candidates to signal their support for the government's plan and alignment with the opposition Liberals on other issues. Other candidates campaigned as independent-hyphen candidates to broaden their electoral appeal, most with tacit concurrence of their own party. Of the seven members who were elected independent labels, only one of them faced competition from a formally sanctioned candidate from their own party.
- Prohibitionist candidates (3 elected explicitly as such) - The Ontario Prohibition Union, the leading pro-temperance force in the 1924 Ontario prohibition referendum, operated as a militant political action committee in putting forward candidates pleadged to the dry cause in all electoral districts. While in some districts they put forward their own straight prohibitionist candidates, in most cases they broker agreements among pro-temperance candidates whether through a heavy hand behind closed door or through facilitating formal primary ballots. In a small number of districts, they even backed dry Conservative candidates, the most prominent candidate being former Attorney General William Nickle who resigned from the Ferguson ministry at the eve of the election call. Some of the candidates endorsed by the Union sought to highlight the endorsement by adding the prohibitionist, including three elected members.
- Progressive and United Farmer candidates - The members from the earlier United Farmer-Labour government joined forces and rebranded themselves as the Progressive Party. Two incumbent split off and resume their old United Farmer label upon the election of William Raney a non-farmer, as party leader. Many press report simply classified them all as Progressive Party candidate, even thought some of them explicitly repudiated the party. Many Progressive Party candidates campaigned by stressing presenting themselves as farmer candidates, adding to the confusion.
- Liberal-Progressive and Progressive-Liberal candidates - in most electoral districts, the local Liberal Party and Progressive Party associations were able to reach agreements to field not both field candidates, thanks in large part to aggressive pressuring from the Ontario Prohibition Union. In some instances, the agreed upon candidate received the formal endorsement from the other party, and campaign as jointly nominated candidates. Press report immediately following the election identified five such candidates.[6][7]
The main press outlets reported slightly different numbers on the day after the election. All outlets treated the Liberal-Progressives and the Independent Liberals as distinct categories, but did not report separate tallies for the United Farmers, or the members elected wiht additional Prohibitionist or independent labels.
Caucus formation
Two Conservatives, four Liberals, and one Progressive members were returned after having campaigned with the independent labels in addition to their party label. Two Liberals members were returned after having campaigned as Liberal-Prohibitionist. These members all joined their parties' rank in the legislature as expected without controversy. The four Liberals in particular campaigned with the independent labels due to their stance as "wet". They supported the government's implementation of liquor control but sat with the Liberals in the legislature and voted with their Liberal peers on issues other than temperance and liquor control.
Four returned members campaigned as Liberal-Progressive or Progressive Liberals: David Munroe Ross and Merton Elvin Scott, the pair returned for Oxford, and William Newman and Frederick George Sandy, the pair for Victoria. A fifth member, John Henry Mitchell of Simcoe Southwest, was erroneous identified as Liberal Progressive by press reports, and declared his Liberal partisan affiliation in his maiden speech.[8][9] Ross and Sandy, along with Dufferin member Thomas Slack, were previously part of the United Farmer government. The three joined the vast majority of their former colleagues and sat as Progressives. Scott, who served as mayor of Ingersoll prior to be elected, was well known as a Liberal partisan and joined the Liberal caucus as expected. This leaves William Newman, who was elected as a fusion candidate (as he called himself as such) and wished to remain affiliated with both groups. The clerk of the legislature however advised him that he must opt to sit behind one of the two party leaders. Newman opted to sit with the Liberals with the intention of supporting both leaders where possible.[8]
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17th Parliament of Ontario, upon convening in February 1927
Progressive > Conservative (byelection loss after first session) | |||||||||||
Changes
A month following the opening of the parliament, on March 9, 1927, Waterloo South member Karl Kenneth Homuth formally joined the Conservative caucus.[a] After the conclusion of the first session, Progressive leader William Raney resigned his seat upon his appointment to the Supreme Court of Ontario in September 1927, and was succeeded by John Lethbridge as Progressive Party leader. Conservative Horace Stanley Colliver, who held the seat prior to the 1926 election and lost to Raney by less than half of percentage point, recaptured the seat in the subsequent by-election and took his seat at the convening of the second session.
The election of Progressive Member Malcolm Alex McCallum was annuled by the Supreme Court of Ontario after it ruled McCallum and the President of South Bruce Prohibition Union committed the corrupted act of bribery by incentivizing the Progressive candidate to withdraw from the contest by reimbursing his campaign expense. The ruling was upheld upon appeal, leading to McCallum being unseated in November 1927. His seat remain vacant for the entire second session as the byelection to fill the seat was not held until June 1928.
Conservative Alexander Stuart died on the second last day of the second session, becoming the fifth representative for Renfrew North to died in office. Conservative Leeming Carr, a minister without portfolio, resigned in May 1928 to accept the appointment to be Sheriff for Wentworth County. He was the fourth and last member of Ferguson's cabinet to resign.
By-elections for the three vacant seats were held in June 1928, all won by Conservative candidates. Among those elected was Edward Arunah Dunlop, who previously held the Renfrew North seat from 1902 to 1908 and again from 1911 to 1919 and whose father was among the former Renfrew North members died in office. He and Premier Ferguson were among the ardent young turks when Premier James Whitney led the Conservative to power for the first time in 34 years. He was immediatel the third most senior member of the legislature upon his election as member for Renfrew North for the third time, and joined the Ferguson ministry as a minister without portfolio a day before the third session convened, and would be promoted by Ferguson to be Treasurer following the subsequent election. Dunlop did not escape the curse of the Renfrew North seat however. He was the sixth and last member for Renfrew North to died in office, and the second and to date last finance minister to died in office.
Three more members resigned after the conclusion of the third sessions.
| Party | 1926 election |
Caucus | Alligence | Gain (loss) | dissolution (1929) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| declared | changed | Unseated | Died | Resigned | Byelection | |||||
| Conservative | 72 | 74 | +1 | (1) | (3) | +4 | 75 | |||
| Independent-Conservative | 2 | |||||||||
| Liberal | 13 | 19 | +2 | (1) | 20 | |||||
| Independent Liberal | 4 | |||||||||
| P | Liberal-Prohibitionist | 2 | ||||||||
| Progressive | 9 | 10 | +3 | (1) | (1) | 11 | ||||
| Independent-Progressive | 1 | |||||||||
| Liberal Progressive | 4 | 4 | (4) | |||||||
| United Farmer | 3 | 3 | 3 | |||||||
| Labour | 1 | 1 | (1) | 0 | ||||||
| P | Farmer-Prohibitionist | 1 | 1 | (1) | ||||||
| Vacant | â | - | 3 | 3 | ||||||
| Total | 112 | 112 | - | - | (1) | (1) | (2) | 4 | 112 | |
Legislative session
Consistent with the usual practice in the first half of the twenties century, the 17th Parliament sat for three months in the early month of each year, in the following three sessions.[10]
| Session | Convened | Adjourned |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | February 2, 1927 | April 5, 1927 |
| 2nd | February 9, 1928 | April 3 , 1928 |
| 3rd | January 30, 1929 | March 28. 1929 |
Members
Key Figures
| Government | Opposition | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.svg) King of the United Kingdom [b] |
|||||
 Lieutenant Governor | |||||
| Premier Conservative Party Leader | Howard Ferguson Grenville |
W.E.N. Sinclair Ontario South |
Leader of the Opposition Leader, Liberal Party (interim) | ||
| Acting Premier Conservative Party de facto deputy leader |
George Stewart Henry York East [c][11][12] |
Alexander Mewhinney Bruce North | Whip, Liberal Whip | ||
| Chief Government Whip Conservative Whip |
William Henry Ireland Hastings West[13] |
William Edgar Raney Prince Edward | Progressive Party Leader | ||
| John Wesley Widdifield Ontario North[14][15] |
Progressive Whip | ||||
| Leslie Warner Oke Lambton East | United Farmers Leader | ||||
Notable new intake
The class of 1926 included the following notable members.
- W.A. Baird, High Park - was the last mayor of Toronto Junction before it was annexed by Toronto in 1907
- Thomas Farquhar, Manitoulin - a Mayor of Sault Ste. Marie prior to his election, his political career spanned four decades including services in the House of Commons and then Senate until his death, his resignation from the Commons provided Nobel Laureate and future prime minster Lester Pearson his entry into Parliament
- William Martin, Brantford - a Methodist Church minister, later served as Minister of Welfare and Minister of Public Works in the Henry ministry, and as a Manitoba MLA.
- Farquhar Oliver, Grey South - the youngest member in this parliament at age 22, later served as Minister of Public Works and Welfare in the Hepburn and Nixon ministries, and was deputy premier to Nixon; led the Ontario Liberal Party over three stints (1945â50, 1954â58, 1963â64) during its lengthy period in opposition
- Paul Poisson, Essex North - a WWI veteran who was awarded the Military Cross, later served in the Henry ministry as a minister without portfolio
- Frederick Thomas Smye, Hamilton West - appointed to the Ferguson Ministry in March 1929, and served until his death a year and a half later
List of Members
â Members who served in the Ferguson ministry (during this parliament) § Party leaders in this parliament
Changes in membership
| Electoral District |
Before | Change | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Reason | Member | New Member | Date | |||
| Waterloo South | March 9, 1927 | Change of Allegiance[a] | Karl Kenneth Homuth | March 9, 1927 | |||
| Prince Edward | September 16, 1927 | Resigned [i] | William Edgar Raney | Horace Stanley Colliver | November 1, 1927 | ||
| Bruce South | November 14, 1927 | Unseated[q] | Malcolm Alex McCallum | Foster Graham Moffatt | June 27, 1928 | ||
| Renfrew North | April 2, 1928 | Died in office | Alexander Stuart | Edward Arunah Dunlop | June 27, 1928 | ||
| Hamilton East | May 15, 1928 | Resigned [r] | Leeming Carr â | William Morrison | June 27, 1928 | ||
| Lanark North | June 1929 | Resgined[s] | Thomas Alfred Thompson | vacant at dissolution | |||
| Prescott | September 10, 1929 | Resigned[i] | Edmond Proulx | ||||
| St. David | September 1929 | Resigned[i][t] | Joseph Elijah Thompson | ||||
Notes
- Prior to the Statute of Westminster 1931, Canada was strictly speaking a dominion of the British Empire, thus did not have its own Crown per se.
- George Henry was designated as acting Premier on every occasions that the Premier is unavailable.
- Not formal division
- As a former UFO MPP, Slack campaigned consistently as a "Farmer Prohibitionist" candidate in 1926, with press reports mentioning being strongly supported by the local Prohibition Union and Arthur Roebuck (later a Liberal cabinet minister and senator, but was then a key UFO strategist)[16]
- Smyth was the nominated Liberal candidate. The local Dundas Prohibition Union organized a convention where he won a ballot which included Progressive candidate Joseph Louden and dry Conservative candidate N. W. Beach. He was subsequently endorsed by the Progressive association and the Prohibition Union.[18]
- During the 16th Parliament Leslie Oke and Beniah Bowman left the Progressive caucus upon William Raney's selection as party leader, and reclaimed their former United Farmers party label in the legislature. Bowman stood down to contest a federal seat, but Oke was joined by Farquhar Oliver and Thomas Farquhar who were elected in 1926 under the United Farmers banner.
- to accept judicial appointment
- Died on April 2, 1928
- Legislative Assembly and Elections Ontario records errorneously identify Mitchell as Liberal-Progressive. Mitchell made numerous statements early in his term noting that he campaigned as a Liberal Prohibitionist with the support but not formal endorsement of Simcoe Progressive, and confirming his Liberal affiliation.[8][19]
- Did not face competition from an party sanctioned candidate, broadly identifed in the press as the Conservative candidate.
- Homuth split from his former UFO-Labour colleagues over temperance and campaigned as a wet candidate.
- Election victory was annulled following a court ruling that McCallum and the President of South Bruce Prohibition Union have committed the corrupted act of bribery by incentivizing the Progressive candidate to withdraw from the contest by reimbursing his campaign expense.[23] Ruling was upheld in appeal. [24]
- to accepte appointment as Sheriff for Wentworth County
- Appointed Registrar of the Surrogate Court