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Peter White


Peter White (August 30 1838 - May 3 1906) was a Canadian parliamentarian.

White had the good fortune to be born into a family that had established its homestead at the junction of the Muskrat and Ottawa Rivers where the town of Pembroke, Ontario was soon established. His family established several businesses including a lumberyard, general store and blacksmith's shop.

As a young man, Peter White and his brother took over the family lumber business and became wealthy as they supplied the railway and shipbuilding industries. He also became a major shareholder and president of the Pembroke Electric Light Company.

White entered politics and became reeve of Pembroke Township in 1870. He first ran for the Canadian House of Commons as a Conservative candidate in the 1872 Canadian election in the riding of Renfrew North but was defeated. He won election in 1874 but his victory was overturned by the courts and he lost the subsequent by-election that was held later that year. He again won election in the 1876 Canadian election and sat in the Canadian House of Commons for the next twenty years. A supporter of Sir John A. Macdonald, White was a believer in the National Policy.

Following the 1891 Canadian election, Macdonald nominated White to be Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons. Macdonald died soon after and White presided over a tumultuous period in the House of Commons as a succession of Conservative Prime Ministers attempted to hold the party and government together in the absence of the party's long time leader. Particularly divisive were debates over the Manitoba Schools Question that brought down the government of Sir Mackenzie Bowell. White opposed the government's policy which favoured Catholic education rights as it interfered with the provincial government's right to set education policy but, as Speaker, remained silent on the issue until the 1896 Canadian election campaign. Despite his independence on the issue, White lost his seat in the election and failed in several attempts to return to the House until the 1904 Canadian election when he finally regained his seat. By this time he was in declining health and was unable to regularly attend House sittings. He died in office in 1906.

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Preceded by:
Joseph-Aldéric Ouimet
1887-1891
Speaker of the
Canadian House of Commons

1891-1896
Followed by:
James David Edgar
1896-1899
Last updated: 09-12-2005 02:39:13