Oliver Mowat

The Honourable Sir Oliver Mowat GCMG PC QC
As Premier in 1873
3rd Premier of Ontario
In office October 25, 1872 – July 12, 1896
Monarch	Victoria
Lieutenant Governor	William Pearce Howland John Willoughby Crawford Donald A. Macdonald John Beverley Robinson Alexander Campbell George Airey Kirkpatrick
Preceded by	Edward Blake
Succeeded by	Arthur Hardy
Ontario MPP
In office November 29, 1872 – July 14, 1896
Preceded by	George Perry
Succeeded by	Andrew Pattulo
Constituency	Oxford North
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
In office July 13, 1896 – November 17, 1897
Preceded by	Arthur Rupert Dickey
Succeeded by	David Mills
Leader of the Government in the Senate
In office August 19, 1896 – November 17, 1897
Preceded by	Sir Mackenzie Bowell
Succeeded by	David Mills
8th Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario
In office November 18, 1897 – April 19, 1903
Monarch	Victoria Edward VII
Governor General	The Earl of Aberdeen The Earl of Minto
Premier	Arthur Sturgis Hardy George William Ross
Preceded by	Casimir Gzowski
Succeeded by	William Mortimer Clark
Personal details
Born	(1820-07-22)July 22, 1820 Kingston, Upper Canada
Died	April 19, 1903(1903-04-19) (aged 82) Toronto, Ontario
Resting place	Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
Political party	Ontario Liberal Party
Spouse(s)	Jane Ewart
Religion	Presbyterian
Signature

Sir Oliver Mowat, GCMG PC QC (July 22, 1820 – April 19, 1903) was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and Liberal Party leader. He served as the third Premier of Ontario for nearly 24 years. He was the eighth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and one of the Fathers of Confederation. He is best known for defending successfully the constitutional rights of the provinces in the face of the centralizing tendency of the national government as represented by his longtime conservative adversary, John A. Macdonald. This longevity and power was due to his astute political maneuvering, in terms of building a political base around Liberals, Catholics, trade unions, and Anglophones distrustful of Quebec.

Mowat was born in Kingston, Upper Canada (now Ontario), to John Mowat and Helen Levack. As a youth, he had taken up arms with the loyalists during the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, which suggested a conservative inclination in politics. However, he did not trust the politics of John A. Macdonald, George-Étienne Cartier, or the other leaders of the Conservative Party, and instead joined the Reformers.

Mowat trained as a lawyer. On January 27, 1836, Mowat, not yet sixteen years old, articled in the law office of John A. Macdonald, during a time when there was no formal legal education in the province. Macdonald had just turned 21. Early in their work relationship, Mowat and Macdonald were close friends, and worked successfully to build the legal practice. But they grew apart over time, as Mowat matured into a genuine rival of the older Macdonald. Mowat was mostly even-tempered and moderate in his behaviour, in sharp contrast to the firebrand Macdonald, who struggled with alcohol abuse for much of his life. As a young man, Mowat moved away from Kingston, eventually settling in Toronto, to develop his own career and life away from Macdonald's prominence.