The New Student's Reference Work/Mowat, Sir Oliver

Mowat (mou′ăt), Sir Oliver, born in Kingston (Ontario), 1820. He studied law with Sir John A. Macdonald and was called to the bar in 1842. A member of the Quebec Union Conference in 1864, he was Vice-Chancellor of Upper Canada from 1864 to 1872; was called on to form a government in 1872 and became Premier and Attorney-General. He was counsel for Ontario before the Privy Council in England in the Ontario-Manitoba boundary case; was admitted high authority as to all questions pertaining to matters of Provincial or Dominion jurisdiction. He remained Premier of Ontario until 1896, when he resigned to take office as Minister of Justice in the Laurier Government. He was appointed to the Senate in 1896. A brilliant lawyer, a tactful leader and one of the most successful of Canadian statesmen, he closed his public career as Lieutenant-Governor of the Province. He died at Toronto in 1903.