Simon Fraser Tolmie

Canadian politician

Simon Fraser Tolmie

The Hon. Simon Fraser Tolmie

21st Premier of British Columbia
In office
August 21, 1928 – November 15, 1933
Monarch| George V
Lieutenant Governor| Robert Randolph Bruce
John W. F. Johnson
Preceded by| John Duncan MacLean
Succeeded by| Thomas Dufferin Pattullo
MLA for Saanich
In office
July 18, 1928 – November 2, 1933
Preceded by| Thomas George Coventry
Succeeded by| Norman William Whittaker
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Victoria City
In office
December 17, 1917 – October 29, 1925
Preceded by| George Henry Barnard
Succeeded by| District Abolished
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Victoria
In office
October 29, 1925 – June 5, 1928
Preceded by| New District
Succeeded by| D'Arcy Britton Plunkett
In office
June 8, 1936 – October 13, 1937
Preceded by| D'Arcy Britton Plunkett
Succeeded by| Robert Mayhew
Personal details
Born| (1867-01-25)January 25, 1867
Victoria, British Columbia
Died| October 13, 1937(1937-10-13) (aged 70)
Victoria, British Columbia
Political party| Conservative
Other political
affiliations| BC Conservative
Spouse| Mary Anne Tolmie [1]
Children| 4
Cabinet| Minister of Agriculture (1919–1921, 1926)

Simon Fraser Tolmie, PC (January 25, 1867 - October 13, 1937) was a veterinarian, farmer, politician, and the 21st premier of British Columbia, Canada.

## Early life[edit]

Tolmie had a pioneer lineage, which aided him in his political aspirations. He was the son of Dr. William Fraser Tolmie, a prominent figure in the Hudson's Bay Company and a member of both the colonial assembly of Colony of Vancouver Island and the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. William Fraser was early supporter of Scottish industrialist reformer Robert Owen, and was a strong supporter of women's suffrage in British Columbia. His maternal ancestry was Métis and representative of the marriages of First Nations women and French and Scottish men who worked in the fur trade. Tolmie's mother, Jane Work, was the daughter of John Work, a prominent Victoria resident, Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor, and member of the former colony's assembly. Jane's mother was Josette Legace, a Métis daughter of a First Nations woman from the Spokane area and Pierre Legace, a French-Canadian trapper father. Born in Victoria, Tolmie spent his early life on his family's vast farm, Cloverdale (the Victoria neighbourhood bears its name). He graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1891 and later became the Dominion Inspector of Livestock.

## Early political career[edit]

Tolmie entered federal politics in the election of 1917, becoming Unionist MP for Victoria City. He was returned in the subsequent four elections as a Conservative (the riding changed its name to Victoria in 1924). Tolmie served as Minister of Agriculture in the governments of Sir Robert Borden and Arthur Meighen from 1919–1921, and in 1926.

Tolmie was part of a general anti-drug panic in 1922 with severe racist overtones. He supported amendments to drug laws calling for the deportation of all Asians convicted of trafficking and for the use of the 'lash'.[2]

## Premier of British Columbia[edit]

Tolmie was elected leader of the British Columbia Conservative Party in 1926 but continued to sit as a Member of Parliament until the 1928 provincial election, in which he ran and was elected MLA for Saanich. The Conservatives were victorious that year, taking 32 of the legislature's 48 seats, including every seat in Vancouver and Victoria. Tolmie thus became Premier of the province, also serving as Minister of Railways.

Like their federal counterparts, who returned to power in 1930, Tolmie's Tories' commitment to applying "business principles to the business of government," rebounded to their disadvantage when the Great Depression hit. By 1931, unemployment reached 28% - the highest in Canada - and Tolmie was finally forced to act, setting up remote relief camps. Tolmie acceded to the request from the business community that a royal commission be established to propose solutions to the province's increasingly dire financial situation. The Kidd Report, issued in 1932, recommended such sharp cuts to social services that mainstream British Columbians were enraged. They had come to expect more from their provincial government than its traditional functions of maintaining law and order, providing physical infrastructure and encouraging private enterprise.

The strained situation took its toll on the provincial party, which became so wracked by internal discord that the executive decided to run no candidates in the 1933 election. Rather, each local riding association acted on its own. Some candidates ran as independents, some as Independent Conservatives. Those supporting Tolmie, ran as Unionists, and those grouped around William John Bowser, a former premier, ran as Non-Partisans. The result was easily foreseen. The Liberals captured 42% of the vote and 34 of the 47 seats, the new social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation became the official opposition, and the Conservatives who had run under various banners picked up just five seats. Tolmie lost his own seat.

## Later life[edit]

Tolmie returned to politics three years later, returning to his old federal seat of Victoria in a 1936 by-election. He died in Victoria a little over a year later.

Tolmie led the last Conservative provincial government in British Columbia.

## References[edit]

1. ^ "Simon Fraser Tolmie 1867-1937 - Ancestry®".
2. ^ Carstairs, C., 1999. Deporting “Ah Sin” to save the white race: Moral panic, racialization, and the extension of Canadian drug laws in the 1920s. Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 16(1), pp.65-88

## External links[edit]

*   * Simon Fraser Tolmie – Parliament of Canada biography

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« 1910–1919 — First ministers of Canada, including Newfoundland, 1920—1929 — 1930–1939 »

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Monarch | George V
Governor General | Duke of Devonshire | Lord Byng of Vimy | Viscount Willingdon
Prime Minister | [a] | Arthur Meighen | William Lyon Mackenzie King | [b] | William Lyon Mackenzie King
Premier of Ontario | Ernest Charles Drury | Howard Ferguson
Premier of Quebec | [c] | Louis-Alexandre Taschereau
Premier of Nova Scotia | George Henry Murray | Ernest Howard Armstrong | Edgar Nelson Rhodes
Premier of New Brunswick | Walter Edward Foster |  | Peter Veniot | John Babington Macaulay Baxter
Premier of Prince Edward Island | John Howatt Bell | James David Stewart | Albert Charles Saunders
Premier of British Columbia | John Oliver | [d] | [e]
Premier of Manitoba | Tobias Norris | John Bracken
Premier of Saskatchewan | William Melville Martin | Charles Avery Dunning | James Garfield Gardiner | [f]
Premier of Alberta | Charles Stewart | Herbert Greenfield | John Edward Brownlee
Commissioner of the Northwest Territories | William Wallace Cory
Gold Commissioner of Yukon | George P. MacKenzie | Percy Reid | [g] | [h]
Governor of Newfoundland | Sir Charles Alexander Harris | Sir William Allardyce | [i]
Prime Minister of Newfoundland | Richard Squires | [j] | [k] | Walter Stanley Monroe | [l] | [m]

1. ^ Sir Robert Borden
2. ^ Arthur Meighen
3. ^ Lomer Gouin
4. ^ John Duncan MacLean
5. ^ Simon Fraser Tolmie
6. ^ James Thomas Milton Anderson
7. ^ George A. Jeckell
8. ^ George Ian MacLean
9. ^ Sir John Middleton
10. ^ William Warren
11. ^ Albert Hickman
12. ^ Frederick C. Alderdice
13. ^ Richard Squires

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Ministers of Agriculture

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