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Edgar Rhodes)
Edgar Nelson Rhodes (January 5, 1877-March 15, 1942) was a Nova Scotia politician. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in 1908 as a Conservative. In January 1917 he became Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons when his predecessor, Albert Sévigny, was appointed to the Canadian Cabinet. Rhodes was highly regarded as Speaker and retained the position following the 1917 Canadian election that fall, becoming the first Speaker since Censored page to preside over more than one Parliament. In 1921 he was made a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada before retiring from politics to become president of the British-American Nickel Company.
The company failed in 1925 and Rhodes decided to return to provincial politics. Prior to the 1925 election he was asked to become leader of the Conservatives after the leader of the party, W. L. Hall was assaulted on the waterfront leading to rumours about his private life. Rhodes took over the party and led it to victory in the 1925 election defeating a Liberal government that had been in power for forty-three years but had been in its last years wracked by an economic downturn and severe labour unrest among miners in Cape Breton.
Rhodes ran on a Maritime Rights platform promising to curtail federal influence and stop the exodus of people from the province. The Tories more than doubled their seats in the House of Assembly winning forty out of forty-three seats. The new government introduced pensions for teachers and allowances for widowed mothers. Throughout his term, Rhodes had to contend with continuing violent strikes by miners in Cape Breton during which one miner, William Davis, was killed.
His government also abolished the Legislative Council, the province's appointed Upper House but first had to go to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to obtain permission to appoint enough new members to the Council to secure a vote for its abolition.
The Rhodes government had been re-elected in 1928 with a reduced majority, He returned to federal politics to become Minister of Fisheries under Prime Minister R.B. Bennett. From 1932 to 1935 he served as federal Finance Minister and, despite the Great Depression, handed down austere budgets which increased taxes and reduced spending.
He was appointed to the Canadian Senate three months before the 1935 federal election that routed Bennett's government. Rhodes remained a Senator until his death in 1942.
Last updated: 02-13-2005 09:46:57
