Alexander Wallace Matheson

Alexander Wallace Matheson

Alexander Wallace Matheson (* 11. June 1903 in Bellevue , Prince Edward Iceland , † 3. March 1976 in Charlottetown , Prince Edward Iceland) was a Canadian politician of Prince Edward Iceland Liberal Party , the 1953-1959 Premier of Prince Edward Iceland was .

Life

Matheson, son of Archibald A. Matheson and Margaret MacPherson, completed his education at primary school and at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown. He then taught schools in Grandview and Valleyfield for four years. He then completed the usual training as a lawyer at the law firm MacKinnon & McNeill in Charlottetown and was admitted to the Prince Edward Island Bar in June 1933. In the following years he worked as a lawyer.

As a candidate for the Prince Edward Island Liberal Party , Matheson was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island in a by-election on November 7, 1940 in the 2nd Queens constituency, but initially lost his mandate in the September 15, 1943 election. During the second During the World War he served as a major in the reserve artillery in Charlottetown. Between 1946 and 1947 he was the Clerk Director of Parliament's Administration. In the subsequent election he was re-elected to the legislative assembly in the 4th Kings constituency on December 11, 1947 and re-elected in the elections on April 26, 1951, May 25, 1955, September 1, 1959 and December 10, 1962. On March 12, 1948, he was appointed Minister for Health and Welfare by Prime Minister John Walter Jones in his cabinet and held this ministerial post until 1953.

After Jones was appointed to the Senate of Canada by Prime Minister Louis Saint-Laurent for the Liberal Party of Canada on May 19, 1953 , Matheson applied for his successor as Prime Minister and Chairman of the Prince Edward Island Liberal Party. In an internal party vote he was able to prevail against Walter Darby, Douglas MacKinnon, William Hughes and EP Cullen, so that he could succeed Jones as Prime Minister and party chairman on May 25, 1953. In his cabinet he also took over the post of General Counsel, Attorney General and President of the Executive Council and also served as Minister of Welfare and Labor between 1956 and 1958. His party emerged victorious again from the elections on May 25, 1955 and was able to provide 27 of the 30 members of the legislative assembly. In the September 1, 1959 elections, however, the Liberal Party suffered a significant defeat by the Prince Edward Island Progressive Conservative Party , which had been in opposition since the July 23, 1935 elections . While the Conservatives could now provide 22 of the 30 parliamentarians, Matheson's Liberals only had eight seats. Thereupon Jones was replaced on September 16, 1959 by the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party, Walter Russell Shaw , as Prime Minister. In 1958 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in law by the University of New Brunswick . During his tenure, he continued the program for electrification of rural areas that his predecessor had started. While at the beginning of his government only the larger municipalities had access to electricity, electrification had reached even the smallest towns in 1959.

In September 1961 he wanted to resign from the office of chairman of the Liberal Party and its group (Liberal House Leader) , but was re-elected with a large majority of the members. In March 1965, he resigned these offices and also renounced his parliamentary mandate. On December 11, 1965, Alexander Bradshaw Campbell succeeded him as chairman of the Prince Edward Island Liberal Party . He then returned to practice as a lawyer before he was appointed district judge for Queens County in March 1967 . In March 1974 he resigned from his office as a judge for health reasons.

His marriage to Helen B. Farquharson on August 25, 1937 resulted in five children: Frances Janet, Ellen Margaret, James Alexander, Thomas Allan and Andrew. After his death he was buried in Sherwood Cemetery in Charlottetown.

Web links

• Entry in the Premiers Gallery of the Prince Edward Island Government
• Entry on the home page of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island