Arthur Sifton

The Right Honourable Arthur Sifton PC (UK), PC (Can), KC


2nd Premier of Alberta
In office May 26, 1910 – October 30, 1917
Monarch	George V
Lieutenant Governor	George H. V. Bulyea Robert Brett
Preceded by	Alexander Cameron Rutherford
Succeeded by	Charles Stewart
Alberta provincial treasurer
In office March 26, 1913 – November 28, 1913
Preceded by	Malcolm MacKenzie
Succeeded by	Charles R. Mitchell
In office June 1, 1910 – May 4, 1912
Preceded by	Alexander Cameron Rutherford
Succeeded by	Malcolm MacKenzie
Alberta Minister of Public Works
In office June 1, 1910 – May 4, 1912
Preceded by	William Henry Cushing
Succeeded by	Charles R. Mitchell
Alberta Minister of Railways and Telephones
In office December 20, 1912 – October 30, 1917
Preceded by	Alexander Cameron Rutherford¹
Succeeded by	Charles Stewart
Canadian Secretary of State
In office December 31, 1919 – January 21, 1921
Preceded by	Martin Burrell
Succeeded by	Henry Lumley Drayton
Canadian Minister of Public Works
In office September 3, 1919 – December 30, 1919
Preceded by	John Dowsley Reid
Succeeded by	John Dowsley Reid
Canadian Minister of Customs and Inland Revenue
In office May 14, 1918 – September 1, 1919
Preceded by	Albert Sévigny (as Minister of Inland Revenue) Continuing (as Minister of Customs)
Succeeded by	John Dowsley Reid
Canadian Minister of Customs
In office October 12, 1917 – May 14, 1918
Preceded by	John Dowsley Reid
Succeeded by	Continuing
Northwest Territories Territorial Treasurer
In office March 1, 1901 – January 14, 1903
Preceded by	James Hamilton Ross
Succeeded by	Frederick Haultain
Northwest Territories Minister of Public Works
In office March 1, 1901 – January 14, 1903
Preceded by	James Hamilton Ross
Succeeded by	George Bulyea
Member of Parliament for Medicine Hat
In office December 17, 1917 – January 21, 1921
Preceded by	William Ashbury Buchanan
Succeeded by	Robert Gardiner
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Vermilion
In office June 29, 1910 – October 12, 1917
Preceded by	Archibald Campbell
Succeeded by	Arthur Ebbett
Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories for Banff
In office June 27, 1899 – January 1903
Preceded by	Robert Brett
Succeeded by	Charles Wellington Fisher
Member of the Brandon City Council
In office 1882–1884
Personal details
Born	Arthur Lewis Watkins Sifton October 26, 1858 Middlesex County, Canada West
Died	January 21, 1921(1921-01-21) (aged 62) Ottawa, Ontario
Political party	Alberta Liberal Party (1910–1917)
Other political affiliations	Liberal-Conservative (1902–1903) Unionist Party (1917–1921)
Spouse(s)	Mary H. Deering
Children	2
Signature
^{1 Rutherford served as Minister of Railways until June 1, 1910, after which the position was vacant until Sifton took it. Minister of Telephones was a new position.}

Arthur Lewis Watkins Sifton, PC (UK), PC (Can), KC (October 26, 1858 – January 21, 1921), was a Canadian politician who served as the second Premier of Alberta from 1910 until 1917. He became a minister in the Government of Canada thereafter. Born in Ontario, he grew up there and in Winnipeg, where he became a lawyer. He subsequently practised law with his brother Clifford Sifton in Brandon, Manitoba, where he was also active in municipal politics. He moved west to Prince Albert in 1885 and to Calgary in 1889. There he was elected to the 4th and 5th North-West Legislative Assemblies; he later served as a minister in the government of Premier Frederick W. A. G. Haultain. In 1903, the federal government, at the instigation of his brother who was now one of its ministers, made Arthur Sifton the Chief Justice of the Northwest Territories. When Alberta was created out of a portion of the Northwest Territories in 1905, Sifton became its first chief justice.

In 1910, the government of Alberta Premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford was embroiled in the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal. The Liberal Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta, George Bulyea, determined that for the sake of the Liberal Party of Alberta, Rutherford had to be pushed aside in favour of a new Premier. When other prominent Liberals declined it, the position was offered to Sifton. As Premier, he smoothed over the divisions in the party that had caused and been exacerbated by the railway scandal. He made attempts to break with the Rutherford railway policy; when these were rebuffed by the courts, he adopted a course similar to Rutherford's. He unsuccessfully pursued the transfer of rights over Alberta's natural resources from the federal government, which had retained them by the terms of Alberta's provincehood.

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