- Frederick W. A. G. Haultain
Sir Frederick William Alpin Gordon Haultain (
November 25 ,1857 –January 30 ,1942 ) was the first premier ofCanada 'sNorth-West Territories (1897–1905), and the last premier prior to the creation of the provinces ofAlberta andSaskatchewan from the original territory.He was born in
Woolwich ,England in 1857, the son ofFrederick W. Haultain , and came toPeterborough, Ontario with his family in 1860. He grew up in Peterborough andMontreal , later receiving aBachelor of Arts from theUniversity of Toronto . He went on to study law atOsgoode Hall and was called to the bar in Ontario in 1882 and in the North-West Territories in 1884.Haultain was first elected to the
Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories in 1887, and became a leader of a group of Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) demandingresponsible government for the territory. Responsible government was finally granted in 1897, and Haultain became premier. Haultain opposed party politics and led a non-partisan administration.Nonetheless, he became leader of the
Northwest Territories Liberal-Conservative Party in 1897, and his party formed the government, but he still appointed a mix of Liberals and Conservatives to his cabinet.As premier, Haultain led negotiations for the granting of provincial status. Haultain argued for these territories to be admitted as a single province named Buffalo, and wanted the new province to be governed by non-partisan governments. The federal Liberal government of Sir
Wilfrid Laurier , however, fearful of a large conservative province in the west, decided to create two provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, in 1905.Frustrated in negotiations with the federal Liberal government, Haultain became increasingly identified with the Conservative Party and campaigned for it in the 1904 federal election. Laurier's Liberals were re-elected, and when the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were formed, the Liberal government passed over Haultain and appointed loyal Liberals to form those provinces' first governments.
Haultain led the
Provincial Rights Party in the 1905 Saskatchewan provincial election, which was won by theLiberal Party of Saskatchewan . From 1905 to 1912, Haultain sat in theLegislative Assembly of Saskatchewan as leader of the Opposition.In 1912, the newly elected Conservative federal government of Sir
Robert Borden made HaultainChief Justice of Saskatchewan'ssuperior court . He wasknighted in 1916, and in 1917 was madeChief Justice of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, a position he held until his retirement in 1938.External links
* [http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/people/prem_haultain.html Frederick Haultain biography]
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