The Ontario general election of 1919: The beginnings of agrarian revolt

12. This relationship existed from territorial days when W.R. Motherwell, later the first Minister of Agriculture in Saskatchewan, was one of the founders of the Territorial Grain Growers' Association. Other government personalities prominent in the Association and the Saskatchewan Co-operative Elevator Company until the 1920's were C. A. Dunning, George Langley, Charles Hamilton and John Maharg, all of whom were Ministers of Agriculture in this period. 13. Wood's distinctive theory of group government is presented in Macpherson, op. cit., pp. 29-38 and William Kirby Rolph, Henry Wise Wood of Alberta (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1950), pp. 63-66. For the opinion of Saskatchewan farm leaders on this theory, see The Grain Growers' Guide, November 26, 1919, p. 16 and December 17, 1919, p. 18. 14. Rolph, p. 32. The relationship of the Alberta government to the farmer is also noted by Thomas op.cit., p. 166; its rupture is described in C.A.R. ( 1919), 755. 15. Paul F. Sharp, The Agrarian Revolt in Western Canada (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1948), p. 39. 16. These perennial issues of both electoral and legislative debate are noted by Hopkins in the Canadian Annual Review. See, for example, C.A.R. ( 1913), 637 and C.A.R. ( 1920), 795. 17. Thomas, op. cit., p. 58. 18. The entrance of the Non..,Partisan League into Canada and its electoral activities are described in chapters 5 and 6 of Sharp, op. cit. The Ontario general election of 1919: The beginnings of agrarian revolt BRIAN D. TENNYSON On 20 October, 1919, the Conservative government of Sir William Hearst was decisively defeated in a provincial election by the combined forces of the United Farmers of Ontario and the Independent Labour Party. This paved the way for the only minor party government in Ontario history, that of E. C. Drury, and the first of several farmers' governments to be formed in Canada. This election was one of the most significant in provincial history, but it was also of considerable importance nationally, for it marked the first major electoral success of the 26 19. Thomas, op. cit., p. 185. 20. Morton, op. cit., pp. 82-85. 21. C.A.R. (1920), 755. 22. C.A.R. (1921 ), 781. For further discussion on the Saskatchewan farmers' response to proposals for direct political action, see Frederick Woodley Anderson , "Some Aspects of the Grain Growers' Movement, 1915-1935 with Particular Reference to Saskatchewan ," (unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Economics, University of Saskatchewan), pp. 63-67. 23. The Grain Growers' Guide, September 19, 1917, p. 10. 24. Rolph, op. cit., pp. 77-81; also, see C.A.R. (1919), 379-80. 25. C.A.R. ( 1921), 852-53 and Thomas, op. cit., p. 193. 26. C.A.R. ( 19'25-26), 497 and C.A.R. (1926-27), 450 27. For an indication of the magnitude of the disaster in Saskatchewan, see G. E. Britnell, "Saskatchewan, 1930-1935," Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, 11 (No. 2, May, 1936), 143-66. 28. See Anderson, op. cit., chapters 8 and 9 and S. M. Lipset, Agrarian Socialism: The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in Saskatchewan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959), chapter 4. 29. Macpherson, op. cit., p. 143. 30. For discussions concerning the advent of Social Credit, see Macpherson, op, cit., pp. 142-60 and John A. Irving, The Social Credit Movement in Alberta (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1959), passim. farmer-labour protest movements which during the war and the immediate postwar years completely overturned Canadian politics. A not unimportant result of the election was that it destroyed the political career of Sir William Hearst, which until 1919 had been remarkably successful. A prominent lawyer in the thriving steel town of Sault Ste. Marie, he had been elected to the Legislature in 1908, and entered the cabinet of Sir James Whitney in 1911. When Whitney died in September 1914, Hearst succeeded him as Premier. Thus, at the age of 50, having been in active politics for only six years, he had achieved the pinnacle of success. And yet, only five years later, his administration and political career lay in ruins. Why? By normal standards...