Graduate Students

Sholdice, Mark - M.A

"Patronage like Hamlet's Ghost, will not Down": United Farmers of Ontario-Independent Party Provincial Government and Political Patronage, 1919-1923 - Dr. Catharine Wilson, advisor

         This major research paper examines the issue of political patronage during the tenure of the United Farmers of Ontario-Independent Labor Party coalition government in Ontario, which held office 1919-1923. In examining the first third party government in Canadian history, I high light the ceaseless controversy which political patronage provoked among reformers, moderates and the general public. The leaders of the United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) are shown to have practiced a limited form of patronage in making appointments, despite their strong public renunciations of the practice. This paper reveals the process by which the UFO's early anti-patronage stance weakened under the pressure of public administration. The Ministry of the Attorney General is studied to gauge the relative importance of political considerations in the government's public appointments. The strong reaction of the opposition parties and the general public to the government's patronage decisions emphasizes the contemporary importance of the issue. Overall this paper argues that politically-motivated appointments were not the result of simple hypocrisy but came about because of the UFO's desire to include greater numbers of farmers and workers in the province's political system. This theme of inclusion helps us to better understand the ideological nature of the agrarian movement.