Whitney ministry

Whitney ministry

ministry of Ontario
Whitney Ministry, upon entering office
Date formedFebruary 8, 1905 (1905-02-08)
Date dissolvedOctober 2, 1914 (1914-10-02)
People and organisations
Monarch
Edward VII (d.1910); George V
Premier
James Whitney
Total no. of members
15
Member party
  Conservative
Status in legislature
Majority
Opposition party
  Liberal Party
Opposition leader
George Ross (1905-07)
George Graham (1907)
A.G. MacKay (1907–11)
Newton Rowell (1911–17)
History
Incoming formation
1905 Ontario general election
Outgoing formation
death of Whitney
Elections1905, 1908, 1911, 1914
Legislature term
PredecessorRoss ministry
SuccessorHearst ministry

The Whitney ministry was the cabinet (formally the Executive Council of Ontario) that led the Government of Ontario from February 8, 1905, to October 2, 1914. Led by the Ontario's 6th Premier, James Whitney, the ministry consisted of members of the Conservative Party, which commanded a majority of the seats in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario for the entire duration of the ministry.

The Hon. Sir James Pliny Whitney

After thirty-four years opposition, the ministry replaced the Liberal Ross ministry upon the Conservative Party's resounding victory in the 1905 Ontario general election. Premier Whitney led the Conservative Party into three more election campaigns, renewing their governing mandates with majority victories in 1908, 1911, 1914. The Whitney ministry governed through the 11th, 12th, and 13th Parliament of Ontario as well as the first several weeks of the 14th Parliament of Ontario.

Whitney died on September 25, 1914,[1][2] just three months after his last electoral victory. He was succeeded a week later as Premier of Ontario by William Howard Hearst, known as the "baby minister" of the Whitney ministry,[3] who joined the ministry in 1911. Accordingly, on October 2, 1914, the Whitney ministry was dissolved and was succeeded by the Hearst ministry.

Organization

Soon after Premier Whitney took office in 1905, he renamed the two commissioner titles to ministers. He also created a new department, the Office of the President of the Executive Council, ending the practice of having the first minister being serviced by the attorney general's office. The departments, the eighth formally recognized ministerial portfolio in the provincial government, enable the premier to draw ministerial salary without simultaneously holding an operational portfolio.[4]A separate expense line was added to the supply bill for 1907 to provide a budget for the "Premier and President of Executive Council Department". that year[5] The new department providing support to the premier and was very modest at the time, one of the smallest agencies of the government, consisting of just two senior aides, one junior aide, and a stenographer.

Ministers

In addition to the ten inaugural members, five additional members joined the ministry over its tenure.

Some notable appointments by Whitney:

  • Sir Adam Beck, who laid the foundation for Ontario's electricity supply and its public ownership, held a seat as a minsiter without portfolio throughout Whitney's ministry and again in the Ferguson minister in the last two years of his life, and was routinely referred to as the hydro minister or electricity minister in the press. He launched an unsuccessful bid for leadership following Whitney's death, and was dropped from cabiet by Whitney's successor William Hearst and lost his seat in 1919. He was however retained as chair of the hydro commission by both Hearst and the United Farmers Premier Ernest Drury, and was the only member of the Whitney ministry to serve again in the Ferguson ministry upon the Conservative's return to power.
  • Joseph Octave Reaume, the Minister of Public Works, was the second Francophone to join the Ontario ministry (first being Alfred Évanturel who served in the final three months of the predecessor Liberal ministry)[6][7]; he was left with the unenviable task of defending Regulation 17, when the ministry sought to cater to the powerful Orangeman force and imposed severe restrictions on all French instruction in the province's bilingual elementary schools

By senority

  Continued service in the Hearst ministry         Did not continue in the Hearst ministry       † Died in office

MinisterMinisterial ServiceParliamentary ServiceNotes
StartEndTimespanElectoral DistrictRegion 1st
James WhitneyFebruary 8, 1905† Sep 25, 1914





DundasEast1888
William Arnson WilloughbyFebruary 8, 1905† April 28, 1908





Northumberland EastMidland1886
Arthur MathesonFebruary 8, 1905† Jan 25, 1913





Lanark SouthEast1894
James Joseph "J.J." FoyFebruary 8, 1905Dec 22, 1914





Toronto South [a] Toronto1898
Robert Allan PyneFebruary 8, 1905May 23, 1918





Toronto EastToronto1898
Samuel Nelson MonteithFebruary 8, 1905October 6, 1908





Perth SouthSouthwest1899[b]
Adam BeckFebruary 8, 1905October 2, 1914






LondonSouthwest1902[c]
William John HannaFebruary 8, 1905Dec 19, 1916





Lambton WestSouthwest1902
John Strathearn HendrieFebruary 8, 1905October 2, 1914






Hamilton WestCentral1902[d]
Joseph Octave ReaumeFebruary 8, 1905October 2, 1914






Essex NorthSouthwest1902[e]
Francis CochraneMay 30, 1905Oct 12, 1911





Nipissing East [f]North1905[g]
James Stoddart DuffOctober 6, 1908Nov 17, 1916





Simcoe WestCentral1898
Isaac Benson LucasJune 3, 1909Nov 14, 1919






Grey CentreSouthwest1898
William Howard HearstOctober 12, 1911Nov 14, 1919






Sault Ste. MarieNorth1908
Richard Franklin PrestonFeb 18, 1914Nov 14, 1919






Lanark NorthEast1894

By portfolio

PortfolioMinisterTenure
StartEnd
Premier and President of the Council
(from 1907, Prime Minister and President of the Council)[h]		James WhitneyFebruary 8, 1905† September 25, 1914
Attorney GeneralJames WhitneyFebruary 8, 1905May 30, 1905
James Joseph "J.J." FoyMay 30, 1905October 2, 1914
TreasurerArthur MathesonFebruary 8, 1905† January 25, 1913
Isaac Benson Lucas acting from no later than Jan. 31, 1913[9][10]
May 13, 1913October 2, 1914
Provincial Secretary and Registrar William John HannaFebruary 8, 1905October 2, 1914
Minister of Agriculture Samuel Nelson MonteithFebruary 8, 1905October 6, 1908
James Stoddart DuffOctober 6, 1908October 2, 1914
Commissioner of Crown Lands James Joseph "J.J." FoyFebruary 8, 1905May 30, 1905
Minister of Lands and MinesFrancis CochraneMay 30, 1905April 27, 1906
Minister of Lands, Forests and MinesApril 27, 1906October 12, 1911
William Howard HearstOctober 12, 1911October 2, 1914
Minister or EducationRobert Allan PyneFebruary 8, 1905October 2, 1914
Commissioner of Public WorksJoseph Octave ReaumeFebruary 8, 1905May 25, 1905
Minister of Public WorksMay 25, 1905October 2, 1914
Ministers without PortfolioAdam BeckFebruary 8, 1905October 2, 1914
John Strathearn HendrieFebruary 8, 1905October 2, 1914
William Arnson WilloughbyFebruary 8, 1905† April 28, 1908
Isaac Benson LucasJune 3, 1909May 13, 1913
Richard Franklin PrestonFebruary 18, 1914October 2, 1914

Notes

  1. ↑ later Toronto North and then Toronto Southwest
  2. ↑ Electoral defeat
  3. ↑ Member of later Ferguson ministry
  4. ↑ Appointed Lieutenant Governor, sworn into office immediately after predecessor governor John Morison Gibson completed the swearing-in of the Hearst ministry
  5. ↑ Electoral defeat
  6. ↑ After 1908, Sudbury
  7. ↑ Joined dominion Borden ministry as Minister of Railways and Canals and continued as minister without portfolio in the Unionist ministry until his death on September 22, 1919
  8. ↑ The departmental name listed in Supply Act 1907[8] for funding that year was the "Office of the Prime Minister and President of the Council"

References

  1. ↑ "Premier Whitney Is Dead". Didsbury Pioneer. September 30, 1914. Retrieved January 8, 2025.
  2. ↑ "Sir James Whitney Dead". The Lanark Era. September 30, 2014. Retrieved January 8, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "Hearst, New Premier. Baby Minister in Whitney Ministry to Form New Cabinet". Buffalo Courier Express. October 2, 1914. Retrieved January 8, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ An Act to amend The Act respecting the Executive Council. Statutes of the Province of Ontario. Vol. 5 Edward VII. 1905. c.5.
  5. ↑ Supply act 1905. Statutes of the Province of Ontario. Vol. 5 Edward VII. 1905. c.1, schedule A.
  6. ↑ "First French Canadian in Ontario Cabinet". The Sault Star. June 21, 1933. Retrieved January 8, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Former Ontario Minister is Dead – Joseph Octave Reaume Was French-Canadian Member in Whitney Ministry". The Gazette. Montreal. June 13, 1933. Retrieved January 8, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ Supply Act 1907. Statutes of the Province of Ontario. Vol. 7 Edward VII. 1907. c.1, schedule A.
  9. ↑ "Prov Treasurer of Ontario". Montreal Gazette. February 1, 1913. p. 8.
  10. ↑ "Ontario is Satisfied with Subsidy Paid by Dominion". Toronto World. February 26, 1913. p. 2.
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