Frederick Haultain

Frederick Haultain

Sir Frederick William Alpin Gordon Haultain (born November 25, 1857 in Woolwich , England , † January 30, 1942 in Montreal , Québec ) was a Canadian politician and judge . From October 1897 to September 1905 he was the first Prime Minister of the Northwest Territories until the newly created provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan were split off .

biography

The son of a Belgian artillery officer in the British Army was born in England. The family emigrated to Upper Canada in 1860 and settled in Peterborough . Haultain spent several years of his youth in Montreal . In 1879 he received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto and then studied law. He was admitted to the bar in the Province of Ontario in 1882, and two years later in the Northwest Territories, after settling in Fort Macleod in what is now the province of Alberta.

In 1887, Haultain was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories . He sat at the head of a political movement that demanded the introduction of self-government . The Canadian government granted this ten years later. On October 7, 1897, Haultain, who had been chairman of the Executive Committee since 1891 and thus also head of government, was appointed the first Prime Minister of the Northwest Territories by Lieutenant Governor Charles Herbert Mackintosh . In the same year he founded the Liberal Conservative Party of the Northwest Territories, a branch of the Conservative Party at the federal level, although he actually considered party politics to be inappropriate.

In November 1898 and May 1902 Haultain was confirmed in the elections. As prime minister, Haultain led negotiations on provincial status. He advocated a province called Buffalo, which would encompass the entire Northwest Territories. The liberal federal government led by Wilfrid Laurier , however, opposed a large, conservative province in the west and instead opted for the creation of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan in the southern part of the territory.

Haultain remained in office until September 1, 1905. As he moved closer and closer to the Conservative Party, Laurier disregarded him and appointed loyal liberals prime ministers of the new provinces. Haultain founded the Conservative Provincial Rights Party and was opposition leader in the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly until 1912 . From 1912 he was chairman of the Provincial Supreme Court for five years. In 1917 he was appointed chairman of the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal and held that position until 1938.

In 1906 Haultain married Marian St. Clair Castellain, daughter of the Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories.

Web links

• Biography on abheritage.ca
• Sir Frederick William Haultain ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .