Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police

The Commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police is the head of the Ontario Provincial Police force in the Canadian province of Ontario.

The first head of a provincial police force was John Wilson Murray, who was a provincial constable appointed to the position of Detective for the Province of Ontario.^[1] In 1897, Murray was joined by two detectives under his command. In 1909, the Ontario Provincial Police Force was formally created consisting of 45 constables under the direction of Superintendent Joseph E. Rogers (Rogers began as a detective under Murray).^[2] In 1921, the force was reorganized as the OPP with the passage of the Provincial Police Force Act and Major General Harry M. Cawthra-Elliot was appointed to the newly created position of Commissioner.^[3]

Since 1939 most OPP Commissioners have been police officers and some promoted within the OPP.

Years Served	Name	Notes
1921–1922	Major General Harry Macintyre Cawthra-Elliot (1867–1949)[4]	Cawthra-Elliot was career military officer and married into the Cawthra family
1922–1939	Major General Arthur Victor Seymour Williams C.M.G. (1867–1949)[5]	Williams was the second career military officer to head the OPP, he was previously an Inspector with the North-West Mounted Police
1939–1953	William H. Stringer (1886–1953)	Stringer was career OPP officer, the first to be promoted within the force[6]
1953–1958	Edwin V. McNeill (1896–1962)	McNeill was an OPP Inspector and served briefly as interim Windsor Police Chief
1958–1963	Wilfred Hamilton Clark (1904-????)
1963–1973	Eric Hamilton Silk, QC (1908–2004)[7]	Silk was the first civilian head of OPP; he was career civil servant (counsel with the Office of the Attorney General of Ontario)
1973–1981	Harold Hopkins Graham (1916–2001)	Graham was a career officer with the OPP; former Inspector, Assistant Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner
1981–1983	James Laird Erskine (1916–2005)	Erskine was former head of OPP fraud squad and Deputy Commissioner
1983–1988	Robert Archibald (Archie) Ferguson	Ferguson was 37 year OPP veteran (1951–1988) [8]
1988–1998	Thomas Bernard O'Grady (b. 1936)	O'Grady was a 36 year veteran of the OPP (1962–1998) [9]
1998–2006	Gwen M. Boniface (b. 1956)	Boniface was a career OPP officer
2006–2010	Julian Fantino (b. 1942) [10]	Fantino was a Metro Toronto Police veteran; later served as Chief of Police of London, York Region and Toronto; head of EMO (Deputy Minister)
2010-	Christopher D. Lewis (b. 1953)	Lewis is a former Deputy Commissioner and OPP veteran[11]

References

1. ^ Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
2. ^ http://www.opp100.ca/English/history.html
3. ^ http://www.opp100.ca/English/media/documents/backgrounder_long_eng.pdf
4. ^ http://www.opp100.ca/English/media/documents/backgrounder_long_eng.pdf
5. ^ http://www.opp100.ca/English/media/documents/backgrounder_long_eng.pdf
6. ^ http://www.opp100.ca/English/media/documents/backgrounder_long_eng.pdf
7. ^ http://www.opp100.ca/English/history.html
8. ^ http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=1401976
9. ^ http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/34-1/l039.htm
10. ^ http://www.opp100.ca/English/history.html
11. ^ http://www.opp.ca/ecms/index.php?id=22