William Stevens Fielding

William Stevens Fielding

William Stevens Fielding PC PC (* 24. November 1848 in Halifax , Nova Scotia ; † 23. June 1929 ) was a Canadian politician of the Liberal Party , the 1884-1896 Premier of Nova Scotia , nearly 23 years member of the House of Commons and Minister in the 8th cabinet of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier and in the 12th cabinet of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King .

Life

MPs, Ministers and Prime Ministers in Nova Scotia

Fielding as a young reporter for the Halifax Morning Chronicle (1873)

Fielding was a journalist for the Halifax Morning Chronicle , correspondent and publisher and was first elected to the Nova Scotia House of Representatives on June 20, 1882 . He represented there until July 19, 1896 the constituency of Halifax County . Shortly after his election, he was appointed by Prime Minister William Thomas Pipes on December 22, 1882 as a minister without portfolio in the government of Nova Scotia and joined the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, founded in 1883 . He held the ministerial office until May 1884.

Fielding opposed the Canadian Confederation , which led to Nova Scotia becoming a province of Canada in 1867 . He was one of the leaders of the forces of the discontented in the maritime provinces.

A few months later he became Prime Minister of Nova Scotia on July 28, 1884, succeeding Pipes, and held this office for almost twelve years until July 18, 1896. At the same time he also acted as provincial secretary during this time. In 1886 he won the provincial election with a promise to promote the repeal of the British North America Act of 1867.

Successor as Prime Minister was on July 20, 1896 George Henry Murray , who also belonged to the Liberal Party.

Federal Minister and Member of the House of Commons

The breakup with Wilfrid Laurier, in whose cabinet he was finance minister for 15 years, came because of the conscription crisis of 1917

After finishing his tenure as Prime Minister of Nova Scotia Fielding switched to federal politics and was appointed by Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier as Treasury Secretary and Treasurer of the 8th Canadian Cabinet on July 20, 1896. He held these offices until the end of Laurier's tenure on October 6, 1911.

Shortly after his appointment to the Federal Cabinet, on August 5, 1896 , he was elected for the first time as a member of the House of Commons in a by-election in the Shelburne and Queen’s constituency in Nova Scotia . He was a member of the House of Commons until his defeat in the general election on September 21, 1911 . At the same time, he held the office of Minister for Railways and Canals in the Laurier cabinet from April 9 to August 29, 1907.

As finance minister and treasurer, he advocated strengthening the economy, balanced budgets, federal subsidies for industry and bilateral trade agreements. He introduced one on a new tariff that favored British manufactured goods and signed trade agreements such as the 1911 Canada-US Agreement on the free trade in agricultural products. Its rejection by the electorate ultimately led to the defeat of the Liberal Party and the Laurier government in the 1911 general election.

Temporary member of the Unionists and candidacy as party leader of the Liberals

William Lyon Mackenzie King, his internal party rival in the election to chair the Liberal Party in 1919, reappointed Fielding as Treasury Secretary in 1921

During the First World War , Fielding and Laurier finally broke up because of the conscription crisis of 1917 . In the general election on December 17, 1917 , Fielding joined the Unionist Party formed by Prime Minister Robert Borden from members of the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party and was re-elected as their candidate in the Shelburne and Queen’s constituency. He later switched back to the Liberal Party and was a member of the House of Commons until his voluntary resignation on October 28, 1925. With interruptions he was a member of the second chamber of the Canadian parliament for almost 23 years .

On August 7, 1919, he ran for the position of chairman of the Liberal Party at the party congress in Ottawa and was in second place (297 votes, 31,) in the first ballot after William Lyon Mackenzie King (344 votes, 36.3 percent). 3 percent) and well ahead of the other two applicants, George Perry Graham and the executive party chairman Daniel Duncan McKenzie , who each received 153 delegate votes (16.2 percent). In the second ballot, King received 411 votes (43.8 percent), Fielding 344 (36.6 percent), Graham 124 votes (13.2 percent) and McKenzie only 60 (6.4 percent).

After Graham and McKenzie resigned as applicants, there was a duel between King and him in the third ballot: Of the 914 party congress delegates, 476 (52.1 percent) now voted for King, who then became chairman of the Liberal Party, while Fielding with 438 Votes (47.9 percent) only just lost.

After King formed Canada's 12th Cabinet as Prime Minister on December 21, 1921, he appointed his former rival Fielding to be Treasury Secretary and Treasurer of that government. He held these offices until his resignation for health reasons on September 4, 1925. He was not only a member of the Canadian Privy Council, as usual , but also became a member of the British Privy Council in 1923 .

Web links and sources

• William Stevens Fielding - biographical information on the website of the Canadian Parliament (English)
• Canadian Ministries at rulers.org
• Short biography in rulers.org

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Canada Provinces (rulers.org)