BC Premier #14 – Mr. Conflict-of-Interest McElection-Rules-Violations
The 14th Premier of the Province of British Columbia, Mr. Conflict-of-Interest McElection-Rules-Violations.
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Name | Edward Gawler Prior |
| Born: | Dallowgill, England on May 21, 1853 | |
| Died: | December 12, 1920 in Victoria, BC | |
| Party: | none | |
| Held Office: | November 21, 1902 to June 1, 1903 |
- came to BC after practising as a mining engineer until 1873
- 1886: won a seat in the BC provincial legislature
- 1888-1896: won a seat in the Canadian House of Commons (MP for Victoria)
- December 1895 – July 1896 and 1897: Controller of Inland Revenue (federal)
- 1901: lost his federal seat for “violations of election rules”3
- 1901: apparently his election rule violating at the federal level didn’t prevent his from being elected at the provincial level and he rejoined provincial legislature
- 1902: became the Premier – the last one to lead a government in the non-party system
- 1903: kicked out of the Premiership by the Lieutenant Governor because he gave his own hardware company a really important contract (hello conflict of interest1)
- 1904: lost his seat in the provincial election; also lost an attempt to return to the Canadian House of Commons – apparently the voters finally realized that this guy was a wee bit on the immoral side
- however, it appears that people have a short memory, as despite the fact that he was fired from being the Premier by the Lieutenant Governor, in 1919 he was appointed as… the Lieutenant Governor. Then he died.
- he was a Mason
- he holds the dubious distinctions of being the last Premier to be dismissed by a Lieutenant Governor and the only BC Lieutenant Governor to die in office
In summary, despite being kicked out of positions at both the provincial and federal levels for his shady behaviour, he somehow became the Lieutant Governor. Awesome.
Image credits: Accessed from Wikipedia. In the public domain. w00t!
Footnotes:
1Unless you read the Masons’ website, in which he was dismissed for “non-confidence.”
References:
2Library of Parliament
3Wikipedia, the reference of that has very little to say about Prior
4Lieutant Governor of BC website
5viHistory (University of Victoria)
Comments |3|
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Category: BC premiers | politics
Tags: BC, BC premiers, British Columbia, Edward Gawler Prior, Edward Prior, history, politics, Premier
Tags: BC, BC premiers, British Columbia, Edward Gawler Prior, Edward Prior, history, politics, Premier
Makes you wonder what Michaëlle Jean has done prior to being Governor General. 😛
Wow those Masons are a crafty bunch. This entry couldn’t have been up more than a few hours before they sabotaged your footnotes.
Hello Beth
E.G. Prior was my great grandfather. I saw this blog entry describing the old rascal. I have some family stories about him that I can share if you are interested. In the meantime I have posted a picture of him with my granny, who was I may tell you just as absolutely adorable as she looks here, http://twitpic.com/5ehetl
Best wishes
James