London Evening Advertiser
- FERGUSON TO NAME DATE THIS EVENING
- FIND DEAD BODY OF PARKHILL MAN
- DEBENTURES WILL MEET LONDON'S HIGHWAY COST
This partial reading of the London Evening Advertiser for October 18, 1926 opens with a Canadian Press report. It said Premier Howard Ferguson was meeting his cabinet before announcing an Ontario election. His platform was expected to be government control of liquor sales by local option, the date would be December 1 or 8, and gossip said the cabinet was not united on the liquor policy. A short local item reported that Henry Ellis, a Parkhill cattle dealer who had lived there for 60 years, was found dead in his office with a revolver; a doctor ruled it suicide and no inquest would be held. A city-finance story explained that London had held back its 1921–1924 provincial highway payments while municipalities pressed for refunds. The city now planned to cover the $201,803 bill with debentures, and the treasurer argued that paying promptly would save money and strengthen London's claim to a share of the gasoline tax.
This edition translates three selected excerpts from a partly legible page. The Ferguson story starts in mid-sentence with an illegible word and breaks off, and the Parkhill and debenture stories are also cut off. Other columns, including the Imperial Conference, hotel excavation, university registration and Bluenose race stories, are cut by the page edges and were not read. The available evidence did not cover the background to the 1921–1924 provincial highway charges on municipalities, the gasoline-tax dispute, or the Federal Square hotel project, so the commentary does not discuss them.
Translation
FERGUSON TO NAME DATE THIS EVENING
[?] will be delayed till tonight. The premier was not in his office this morning. He is in conference with members of his cabinet, arranging final details for his appeal to the people. The policy of the Government on the temperance question which it will ask the electors to endorse, it is generally believed will be government control of the sale of liquor by local option. As far as can be ascertained the date of the election has not yet been set, but in circles close to the cabinet the choice is said to be between Dec. 1 and Dec. 8. Gossip at the Parliament Buildings and among supporters of the Government frankly agree that the cabinet is not a unit on the policy of government control of sale of liquors and, because
FIND DEAD BODY OF PARKHILL MAN
No Inquest Will Be Held Into Fatality Discovered This Morning. Henry Ellis, a resident of Parkhill for the last 60 years, was found dead this morning in his office with a revolver in his hand. Dr. O. L. Berdan of St. Thomas investigated the circumstances and concluded it was a clear case of suicide, and that no inquest was necessary. Mr. Ellis was a cattle dealer of the
DEBENTURES WILL MEET LONDON'S HIGHWAY COST
during 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924 was not paid by London because agitation has been on foot by Ontario municipalities to seek a return of portions of such payments. Practically every city in the province has paid up to the Government, however, and it only remains for London to settle its account. A ten-year debenture issue covering the debt will mean an annual payment of $26,134. Spread over a period of 20 years, the debenture payments would be $16,193 per year. It will be left to the council to decide what term debentures will be issued. City Treasurer James S. Bell will recommend the small term debentures. Prompt payment of the bill will mean a saving of $63,726, he points out. Along with the $201,803 payment to the Government, the city will carry a good argument for the return of a share of the gasoline tax collected by the Government, Mr. Bell declares. It is only fair that if the city is to pay for
Context
When was the election held, and what was it about?
The cabinet sources in the Canadian Press despatch had it right. Ferguson's government went to the polls on December 1, 1926, the earlier of the two dates the paper mentioned, to elect 112 members of the 17th Legislative Assembly. The campaign later became known as the temperance election, because its main issue was the government's proposal to repeal the Ontario Temperance Act and replace prohibition with government-controlled liquor sales. The paper's own phrase, government control 'by local option', was what reporters expected on October 18, not the final wording of the policy. The Conservatives were returned with a majority and won 72 seats, three fewer than in 1923. So when the paper described a premier settling 'final details for his appeal to the people', it was recording the start of a campaign he would win.
Who in the cabinet was 'not a unit' on liquor control?
The despatch only repeated gossip that the cabinet was divided, but the most important dissenter is known. Attorney-General William Folger Nickle, a Kingston lawyer best known federally for the Nickle Resolution against titles for Canadians, had gone along with the government's earlier decision to allow low-alcohol beer. He would not go further. Nickle resigned from cabinet in October 1926, when Ferguson announced the plan to repeal the Ontario Temperance Act and allow liquor sales. He then ran in Kingston as an independent on a prohibition platform and lost to the Conservative candidate. The paper's hint that the cabinet's disagreement had consequences ('and, because…') breaks off in the surviving text, but the split it pointed to soon became public.
Why did Ferguson reopen the liquor question after the 1924 plebiscite?
Only two years earlier, in the 1924 plebiscite, Ontario voters had narrowly chosen to keep the Ontario Temperance Act, by 51.5% to 48.5%. Temperance supporters were angry that the government came back to the question so soon. The vote, however, showed a political split that mattered to Ferguson. The large cities, the Conservatives' base, had voted heavily wet, while the rural areas that supported the opposition had voted dry. Seat changes passed in 1925 and 1926 made the cities even more important. London, Ottawa, Hamilton and Windsor each gained a seat, and Toronto's delegation rose from ten to fifteen. For readers of a London evening paper, the liquor platform was therefore tied to the growing electoral weight of their own city.
What did 'government control of the sale of liquor' become in 1927?
After it was re-elected, Ferguson's government passed the Liquor Control Act. It was presented as a compromise between the complete prohibition the temperance movement wanted and an unregulated liquor trade. The act set up the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. Its first chief commissioner was David Blyth Hanna, and its first 18 stores opened on June 1, 1927. The policy the Advertiser said was 'generally believed' in October 1926 therefore led to liquor sales through government-owned and operated stores. The sources used here do not say how far the local-option idea the paper mentioned survived in the final law, so that detail remains the paper's report of what was expected.
Original
FERGUSON TO NAME DATE THIS EVENING
[?] will be delayed till tonight. The premier was not in his office this morning. He is in conference with members of his cabinet, arranging final details for his appeal to the people. The policy of the Government on the temperance question which it will ask the electors to indorse, it is generally believed will be government control of the sale of liquor by local option. As far as can be ascertained the date of the election has not yet been set, but in circles close to the cabinet the choice is said to be between Dec. 1 and Dec. 8. Gossip at the Parliament Buildings and among supporters of the Government frankly agree that the cabinet is not a unit on the policy of government control of sale of liquors and, because
FIND DEAD BODY OF PARKHILL MAN
No Inquest Will Be Held Into Fatality Discovered This Morning. Henry Ellis, a resident of Parkhill for the last 60 years, was found dead this morning in his office with a revolver in his hand. Dr. O. L. Berdan of St. Thomas investigated the circumstances and concluded it was a clear case of suicide, and that no inquest was necessary. Mr. Ellis was a cattle dealer of the
DEBENTURES WILL MEET LONDON'S HIGHWAY COST
during 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924 was not paid by London because agitation has been on foot by Ontario municipalities to seek a return of portions of such payments. Practically every city in the province has paid up to the Government, however, and it only remains for London to settle its account. A ten-year debenture issue covering the debt will mean an annual payment of $ 26, 134. Spread over a period of 20 years, the debenture payments would be $ 16, 193 per year. It will be left to the council to decide what term debentures will be issued. City Treasurer James S. Bell will recommend the small term debentures. Prompt payment of the bill will mean a saving of $ 63, 726, he points out. Along with the $ 201, 803 payment to the Government, the city will carry a good argument for the return of a share of the gasoline tax collected by the Government, Mr. Bell declares. It is only fair that if the city is to pay for
Source: Holding institution