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).

The 1867 general election produced a virtual tie between the Conservative Party led by John Sandfield Macdonald and the Liberal Party led informally 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.

Members

Riding Member Party First elected Comments
  Addington Edmund John Glyn Hooper Conservative 1867
  Algoma FREDERICK WILLIAM CAMERON Conservative 1867
  Bothwell Archibald McKellar Liberal 1867 Informal Leader of the Opposition, 1867 to c. 1868
  Brant Hugh Finlayson Liberal 1867
  Brant South EDMUND BURKE WOOD Conservative 1867 Treasurer in Sandfield Macdonald ministry[2]
  Brockville and
Elizabethtown
William Fitzsimmons Conservative 1867
  Bruce North Donald Sinclair Liberal 1867
  Bruce South EDWARD BLAKE Liberal 1867 Informal Leader of the Opposition, c. 1868 to 1872
  Cardwell Thomas Swinarton Conservative 1867
  Carleton Robert Lyon Liberal 1867
  Cornwall JOHN SANDFIELD MACDONALD Conservative-Liberal
coalition
1867 Premier and Attorney General in Sandfield Macdonald Ministry[3]
  Dundas Simon S. Cook Liberal 1867
  Durham East Arthur Trefusis Heneage Williams Conservative 1867
  Durham West John McLeod Liberal 1867
  Elgin East Daniel Luton Conservative 1867
  Elgin West Nicol McColl Conservative 1867
  Essex Solomon Wigle Conservative 1867
  Frontenac Henry Smith Conservative 1867 died September 18, 1868[4]
  Delino Dexter Calvin (1868) Conservative 1868 elected October 19, 1868[5]
  Glengarry James Craig Conservative 1867
  Grenville South Mcneil Clarke Conservative 1867
  Grey North Thomas Scott Conservative 1867
  Grey South Abram William Lauder Conservative 1867
  Haldimand Jacob Baxter Liberal 1867
  Halton William Barber Liberal 1867
  Hamilton James Miller Williams Liberal 1867
  Hastings East Henry Corby Conservative 1867
  Hastings North George Henry Boulter Conservative 1867
  Hastings West Ketchum Graham Conservative 1867
  Huron North William Torrance Hays Conservative 1867
  Huron South Robert Gibbons Conservative 1867 unseated December 9, 1868 on appeal of election results[6]
  Isaac Carling (1868) Liberal 1868 elected 1868?[7]
  Kent John Smith Liberal 1867
  Kingston Maxwell W. Strange Conservative 1867
  Lambton Timothy Blair Pardee Liberal 1867
  Lanark North Daniel Galbraith Liberal 1867
  Lanark South William McNairn Shaw Conservative 1867 died January 6, 1869[8]
  Abraham Code (1869) Conservative 1869 elected February 6, 1869[9]
  Leed North and
Grenville North
Henry Dolphus Smith Liberal 1867
  Leeds South Benjamin Tett Conservative 1867
  Lennox John Stevenson Conservative 1867 Speaker
  Lincoln John Charles Rykert Conservative 1867
  London JOHN CARLING Conservative 1867 Commissioner of Agriculture and Public Works in Sandfield Macdonald ministry[10]
  Middlesex East James Evans Liberal 1867
  Middlesex North James Sinclair Smith Liberal 1867
  Middlesex West Nathaniel Currie Conservative 1867
  Monck George Secord Conservative 1867
  Niagara Donald Robertson Conservative 1867 resigned December 27, 1867 to allow Stephen Richards an opportunity to win a seat in the Legislative Assembly[11]
  Stephen Richards (1867) Conservative 1867 elected December 11, 1867;
Commissioner of Crown Lands in Sandfield Macdonald ministry[12]
  Norfolk North James Wilson Conservative 1867
  Norfolk South Simpson McCall Liberal 1867
  Northumberland East John Eyre Liberal 1867
  Northumberland West Alexander Fraser Liberal 1867
  Ontario North Thomas Paxton Liberal 1867
  Ontario South William McGill Liberal 1867
  Ottawa Richard William Scott Liberal 1867
  Oxford North George Perry Liberal 1867
  Oxford South Adam Oliver Liberal 1867
  Peel John Coyne Conservative 1867
  Perth North Andrew Monteith Conservative 1867
  Perth South James Trow Liberal 1867
  Peterborough East George Read Conservative 1867
  Peterborough West John Carnegie Conservative 1867
  Prescott James P. Boyd Liberal 1867
  Prince Edward Absalom Greeley Conservative 1867 resigned December 7, 1870[13]
  William Anderson (1870) Liberal 1870 elected June 30, 1870[14]
  Renfrew North John Supple Liberal 1867 died October 22, 1869[15]
  Thomas Murray (1870) Conservative 1869 elected December 5, 1869[16]
  Renfrew South JOHN LORN MCDOUGALL Liberal 1867
  Russell William Craig Conservative 1867
  Simcoe North William Lount Liberal 1867
  Simcoe South THOMAS ROBERTS FERGUSON Conservative 1867
  Stormont William Colquhoun Conservative 1867
  Toronto East Matthew Crooks Cameron Conservative 1867 Provincial Secretary and Registrar in Sandfield Macdonald ministry[17]
  Toronto West John Wallis Conservative 1867
  Victoria North Alexander Peter Cockburn Liberal 1867
  Victoria South Thomas Matchett Liberal 1867
  Waterloo North Moses Springer Liberal 1867
  Waterloo South Isaac Clemens Liberal 1867
  Welland William Beatty Liberal 1867
  Wellington Centre Alexander David Ferrier Conservative 1867
  Wellington North Robert McKim Liberal 1867
  Wellington South Peter Gow Liberal 1867
  Wentworth North Robert Christie Liberal 1867
  Wentworth South William Sexton Liberal 1867
  York East Hugh Powell Crosby Liberal 1867
  York North John McMurrich Liberal 1867
  York West Thomas Grahame Conservative 1867

References

Notes

No tags for this post.