1st Parliament of Ontario

The 1st Parliament of Ontario was in session from September 3, 1867, until February 25, 1871, just prior to the 1871 general election. This was the first session of the Legislature after Confederation succeeding the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada (last session was the 8th Parliament of the Province of Canada).

1st Parliament of Ontario
Coalition parliament
3 September 1867 – 25 February 1871
Parliament leaders
PremierJohn Sandfield Macdonald
Party caucuses
GovernmentConservative Party
OppositionLiberal Party
* Coalition government
Legislative Assembly
Speaker of the
Assembly
John Stevenson
→ 2nd

The 1867 general election produced a virtual tie between the Conservative Party led by John Sandfield Macdonald and the Liberal Party led by Archibald McKellar. Macdonald ended up securing the Premiership by leading a coalition government with the support of moderate Liberals. His Cabinet, nicknamed the Patent Combination, included two conservatives (John Carling and Matthew Crooks Cameron), a coalition Grit (Edmund Burke Wood) and two old school Baldwinite Reformers (Sandfield Macdonald himself and Stephen Richards). The first ministry would survive the first parliament by less than a year, resigning in December 1871.

In the first several years of Confederation, individuals could be elected to both federal and provincial parliaments and serve as MPs and MPPs at the same time. In the first Parliament of Ontario, provincial cabinet ministers John Sandfield Macdonald, Edmund Burke Wood, and John Carling all sat in both parliaments, as did Edward Blake, Thomas Roberts Ferguson, John Lorn McDougall (after 1869) and Frederick William Cumberland (after 1871). Generally, they represented the same riding, but it was not necessarily so; for example, Edward Blake represented Bruce South in the provincial parliament but Durham West at the federal level.

John Stevenson served as speaker for the assembly.[1]

Below is a list of members of Ontario's first parliament. Bolded names are cabinet ministers; Capitalized names also sat in federal parliament.

Western Ontario

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Riding Member Party
Algoma FREDERICK WILLIAM CAMERON Conservative
Bothwell Archibald McKellar Liberal
Brant Hugh Finlayson Liberal
Brant South EDMUND BURKE WOOD Conservative
Bruce North Donald Sinclair Liberal
Bruce South EDWARD BLAKE Liberal
Cardwell Thomas Swinarton Conservative
Durham East Arthur Trefusis Heneage Williams Conservative
Durham West John McLeod Liberal
Elgin East Daniel Luton Conservative
Elgin West Nicol McColl Conservative
Essex Solomon Wigle Conservative
Grey North Thomas Scott Conservative
Grey South Abram William Lauder Conservative
Haldimand Jacob Baxter Liberal
Halton William Barber Liberal
Hamilton James Miller Williams Liberal
Huron North William Torrance Hays Conservative
Huron South Robert Gibbons[nb 1] Conservative
Isaac Carling (1868) Liberal
Kent John Smith Liberal
Lambton Timothy Blair Pardee Liberal
Lincoln John Charles Rykert Conservative
London JOHN CARLING Conservative
Middlesex East James Evans Liberal
Middlesex North James Sinclair Smith Liberal
Middlesex West Nathaniel Currie Conservative
Monck George Secord Conservative
Niagara Donald Robertson Conservative
Stephen Richards (1867) Conservative
Norfolk North James Wilson Conservative
Norfolk South Simpson McCall Liberal
Northumberland East John Eyre Liberal
Northumberland West Alexander Fraser Liberal
Ontario North Thomas Paxton Liberal
Ontario South William McGill Liberal
Oxford North George Perry Liberal
Oxford South Adam Oliver Liberal
Peel John Coyne Conservative
Peterborough East George Read Conservative
Peterborough West John Carnegie Conservative
Simcoe North William Lount Liberal
Simcoe South THOMAS ROBERTS FERGUSON Conservative
Toronto East Matthew Crooks Cameron Conservative
Toronto West John Wallis Conservative
Victoria North Alexander Peter Cockburn Liberal
Victoria South Thomas Matchett Liberal
Waterloo North Moses Springer Liberal
Waterloo South Isaac Clemens Liberal
Welland William Beatty Liberal
Wellington Centre Alexander David Ferrier Conservative
Wellington North Robert McKim Liberal
Wellington South Peter Gow Liberal
Wentworth North Robert Christie Liberal
Wentworth South William Sexton Liberal
York East Hugh Powell Crosby Liberal
York North John McMurrich Liberal
York West Thomas Grahame Conservative

Eastern Ontario

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Riding Member Party
Addington Edmund John Glyn Hooper Conservative
Brockville and
Elizabethtown
William Fitzsimmons Conservative
Carleton Robert Lyon Liberal
Cornwall JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD Conservative-Liberal
coalition
Dundas Simon S. Cook Liberal
Frontenac Henry Smith[nb 2] Conservative
Delino Dexter Calvin (1868) Conservative
Glengarry James Craig Conservative
Grenville South Mcneil Clarke Conservative
Hastings East Henry Corby Conservative
Hastings North George Henry Boulter Conservative
Hastings West Ketchum Graham Conservative
Kingston Maxwell W. Strange Conservative
Lanark North Daniel Galbraith Liberal
Lanark South William McNairn Shaw[nb 3] Conservative
Abraham Code (1869) Conservative
Leed North and
Grenville North
Henry Dolphus Smith Liberal
Leeds South Benjamin Tett Conservative
Lennox John Stevenson Conservative
Ottawa Richard William Scott Liberal
Perth North Andrew Monteith Conservative
Perth South James Trow Liberal
Prescott James P. Boyd Liberal
Prince Edward Absalom Greeley Conservative
William Anderson (1870) Liberal
Renfrew North John Supple[nb 4] Liberal
Thomas Murray (1870) Conservative
Renfrew South JOHN LORN MCDOUGALL Liberal
Russell William Craig Conservative
Stormont William Colquhoun Conservative

References

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  1. ^ "Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario". Legislative Assembly of Ontario. Archived from the original on 2014-08-01. Retrieved 2014-08-29.

Notes

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  1. ^ Robert Gibbons was unseated on appeal
  2. ^ Henry Smith died in 1868
  3. ^ William McNairn Shaw died in 1869
  4. ^ John Supple died in 1869
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