William Hearst (politician)

Encyclopedia : W : WI : WIL : William Hearst (politician)

Sir William Howard Hearst, K.C.M.G. (February 15, 1864–September 29, 1941) was the Conservative premier of the Canadian province of Ontario from 1914 to 1919.

His government passed legislation to permit women to vote in provincial elections, and held a plebiscite on prohibition. The plebiscite was held the same day as the 1919 general election. While prohibition was approved by the voters, the Hearst government was unexpectedly defeated by the United Farmers of Ontario party in their first election.

Sir William Howard Hearst was born in the township of Arran, Bruce County, Ontario. He studied law at Osgoode Hall, Toronto, and became a lawyer in 1888. Hearst practiced law Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where he became prominent in municipal affairs. He was an unsuccessful candidate in Algoma East in 1894. In 1902 he organized support in Northern Ontario for James P. Whitney.

In 1908 Hearst was elected member for the riding of Sault Ste. Marie. In 1911 he became Minister of Forests and Mines. On the death of James P. Whitney in 1914, Hearst became his successor and was sworn in as Premier on October 2, 1914.

Under his administration a comprehensive measure to provide compensation to workers for injuries was put into operation. He took steps to deal with housing problems and provide loans to settlers. Municipal acts were passed. School fairs and teaching of agriculture were inaugurated. Measures were taken to increase war production. Reforestation and fire prevention services were established. And the Orpington Hospital in England was built as a gift of the people of Ontario.

Hearst served as a member of the International Joint Commission formed to settle international boundary waters disputes between the United States and Canada.

He resumed his law practice in Toronto after his term as premier.

References

Middletown, Jesse Edgar, The Municipality of Toronto - A History, Dominion Publishing, 1923, Volume 3, page 67
Oliver, Peter. "Sir William Hearst and the collapse of the Ontario Conservative Party", in his Private & Public Persons. Toronto : Clarke Irwin, 1975, pp. 16-43. ISBN 0772010308.

|- style="text-align: center;" |- style="text-align: center;" |width="30%" align="center" rowspan=""|Preceded by:
Sir James P. Whitney

|width="30%" align="center" rowspan=""|Succeeded by:
Ernest C. Drury |- |-

|width="30%" align="center" rowspan=""|Succeeded by:
George Howard Ferguson |-

Macdonald \| Blake \| Mowat \| Hardy \| Ross \| Whitney \| Hearst \| Drury \| Ferguson \| Henry \| Hepburn \| Conant \| Nixon \| Drew \| Kennedy \| Frost \| Robarts \| Davis \| Miller \| Peterson \| Rae \| Harris \| Eves \| McGuinty
Premiers of Ontario

	Leaders of the Ontario PC Party
Macdonald \| Cameron \| Meredith \| Marter \| Whitney \| Hearst \| Ferguson \| Henry \| Rowe \| Drew \| Kennedy \| Frost \| Robarts \| Davis \| Miller \| Grossman \| Brandt \| Harris \| Eves \| Tory

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.