John Foster McCreight

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John Foster McCreight

John Foster McCreight , QC (* 1827 in Caledon , County Tyrone , Ireland , † November 18, 1913 in Hastings , England ) was a Canadian politician , lawyer and judge . From November 13, 1871 to December 23, 1872 he was the first Prime Minister of the Province of British Columbia .

biography

After attending a boarding school in Winchester studied McCreight law at Trinity College in Dublin and the approval was given in 1852 as Barrister . A little later he emigrated to Australia and opened a law firm in Melbourne . For reasons unknown, he moved from there seven years later and arrived in Victoria in 1860 after a long journey .

Victoria was then the capital of the colony Vancouver Island and experienced a rapid economic boom due to the Fraser Canyon gold rush . McCreight opened another law firm there. In 1866 he joined the Freemasons , who in 1873 appointed him their deputy grand master of the British Columbia Grand Lodge. He was also involved in the Anglican Church . With his work in the church and lodge he built up a network of relationships, but was initially not politically active.

This changed on July 20, 1871, with the accession of the United Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia to the Canadian Confederation . McCreight served as Attorney General in the transitional government . He was elected MP for the City of Victoria in the first elections to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly in October that year. On November 13, 1871, Lieutenant Governor Joseph William Trutch appointed him the first prime minister of the province.

McCreight's appointment was explicitly directed against Amor De Cosmos , the driving force behind joining the Federation, as he was considered rebellious and had a quick temper. But McCreight didn't seem up to the task either: Henry Crease, a provincial Supreme Court judge, described him as “bad-tempered and peculiar, alternately trusting and extremely suspicious, extremely stubborn, excessively stubborn on unimportant things, shy of publicity and not at all interested in politics ”.

Even so, McCreight's tenure was productive. His government tabled 54 new laws within a year, 36 of which were enacted. On December 13, 1872, he lost a vote of no confidence and resigned; he exercised his parliamentary mandate until 1875. In 1880 he was appointed to the British Columbia Supreme Court, of which he was a member until 1897. He then returned to England and spent the last years of his life in Hastings.

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personal data
SURNAME McCreight, John Foster
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1827
PLACE OF BIRTH Caledon , County Tyrone, Ireland
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1913
Place of death Hastings , England