The Hon. Newton Rowell |
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Member of the Canadian Parliament for Durham |
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In office 1917–1920 |
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Preceded by | Charles Jonas Thornton |
Succeeded by | Fred Wellington Bowen |
Ontario MPP | |
In office 1911–1918 |
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Preceded by | Andrew MacKay |
Succeeded by | John Alexander Calder |
Constituency | Oxford North |
6th President of the Canadian Bar Association | |
In office 1932–1934 |
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Preceded by | Louis St. Laurent |
Succeeded by | Isaac Pitblado |
6th President of the Ontario Bar Association | |
In office 1927–1930 |
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Preceded by | Wallace Nesbitt, K.C. |
Succeeded by | Dalton Lally McCarthy, K.C. |
Personal details | |
Born |
Newton Wesley Rowell November 1, 1867 London Township, Ontario |
Died | November 22, 1941 Toronto, Ontario |
(aged 74)
Political party |
Ontario Liberal Party Unionist (federal) |
Newton Wesley Rowell, PC, KC (November 1, 1867 – November 22, 1941) was a Canadian lawyer and politician and leading lay figure in the Methodist church. Rowell led the Ontario Liberal Party from 1911 to 1917 and put forward a platform advocating temperance. Rowell's Liberals failed to oppose the Whitney government's passage of Regulation 17 which restricted the teaching of the French language in schools alienating the province's French-Canadian minority.
He was born in London Township, Ontario. Rowell ran for the Canadian House of Commons in the 1900 federal election but was defeated in York East.
Returning to his law practice, he was made King's Counsel in 1902 and became senior partner in his law firm, Rowell, Reid, and Wood and had a prominent legal career.
He returned to politics in 1911. Though not a candidate, he was a prominent campaigner supporting the government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier during the 1911 federal election speaking across Ontario to promote both Laurier's plan for a Canadian navy and the trade reciprocity agreement negotiated between the federal government and the United States, against the opposition of prominent Liberal business leaders who feared free trade would be extended to manufacturing.