Thompson, Sir John Sparrow David (1844-1894), served as the fourth prime minister of Canada from 1892 until his death two years later. He was the first Nova Scotian to hold that office. Thompson, a Conservative, became prime minister during a period of difficulty for his party following the death of Sir John A. Macdonald. Macdonald, the first prime minister of the Dominion of Canada, had led the Conservative Party from 1867 until he died in 1891.
Thompson practiced law for several years before he entered politics in 1872. In 1882, he accepted Macdonald’s offer of an appointment to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Three years later, after some persuasion, Thompson joined Macdonald’s Cabinet as minister of justice.
Thompson’s honesty and his ability to combine the roles of lawyer and statesman earned wide respect. He gained fame as a skillful diplomat and helped negotiate several international treaties. He also became known for a sarcastic sense of humor that sometimes offended people.
Early life.
John Sparrow David Thompson was born on Nov. 10, 1844, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His father, John Sparrow Thompson, had emigrated from Ireland in 1828. He had settled in Halifax and worked in the Nova Scotia post office. In 1829, he married Charlotte Pottinger, a Nova Scotian of Scottish descent.
John, the youngest of five children, went to school in Halifax. He then studied law as a clerk in a legal firm. Thompson was admitted to the Nova Scotia bar in 1865. In 1870, he married Annie Affleck of Halifax. She was a Roman Catholic, and Thompson, a Methodist, converted to Catholicism about a year after their marriage.
Early political career.
Thompson entered politics in 1872, when Halifax voters elected him as a city alderman. He was elected to the Halifax board of school commissioners in 1874 and later served as board chairman. In 1877, the United States government asked Thompson to advise its delegation to the Halifax Fisheries Commission, which met to regulate international fishing rights off the Atlantic Coast. That same year, Conservative Party leaders urged Thompson to run for the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly from Antigonish. He won the election and soon gained a reputation as a competent legislator. In 1878, Thompson became attorney general of Nova Scotia.
Thompson and other members of the legislature had supported an attempt to reform municipal government in Nova Scotia. This attempt failed and many of the reform legislators were defeated in the election of June 1882. Thompson, who had served as premier of Nova Scotia for less than a month before the election, retained his seat in the legislature. However, he had become tired of politics. In July, Thompson accepted an appointment by Macdonald to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.
Minister of justice.
In the fall of 1885, Macdonald offered Thompson the office of minister of justice in his Cabinet. Thompson did not want to leave the provincial supreme court, but his wife persuaded him to do so. He became minister of justice in September and the next month was elected to the House of Commons from Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Thompson’s honesty and legal skill made him one of the most respected members of the government and of the Conservative Party. Macdonald declared that “the best thing I ever invented was Thompson.” As minister of justice, Thompson defended some unpopular actions of the Macdonald administration. One such action involved the execution of Louis Riel, who had led an uprising of Canadian Metis (people of mixed white and Indian ancestry). Many French Canadians had protested Riel’s execution. See Riel, Louis .
In 1887 and 1888, Thompson helped draft a U.S.-Canadian treaty on fishing rights. Queen Victoria knighted him in 1888 for this service. Thompson also directed a revision of the Canadian Criminal Code, which clarified the nation’s criminal laws.
Prime minister.
Macdonald died in 1891, and the Conservatives asked Thompson to take over as party leader and as prime minister. Thompson refused because he feared that Protestant Canadians would not accept a Roman Catholic, particularly one who had converted from a Protestant faith. John J. C. Abbott succeeded Macdonald, and Thompson continued as minister of justice.
In 1892, Abbott became ill and resigned as prime minister. The Conservatives again offered Thompson the positions of party leader and prime minister, and this time he accepted. He was sworn in on Dec. 5, 1892.
Thompson prevented a controversy involving Roman Catholic schools in Manitoba from becoming a major political issue during his term as prime minister. The controversy arose in 1890, when Manitoba’s legislature passed a bill that abolished tax support for the province’s Catholic schools. The legislature wanted to make all schools in the province part of the public school system. Catholics in Manitoba demanded that the federal government use its authority to disallow (reject) the legislation. Thompson tried to let the courts settle the matter. But the dispute did not end until 1896, when Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier helped work out a compromise.
Thompson also hoped to bring Newfoundland into the Canadian Dominion. He had almost succeeded at the time of his death. Newfoundland did not join the dominion until 1949.
As prime minister, Thompson continued to use his skill as a diplomat. In 1893, he represented the United Kingdom at the Bering Sea Convention in Paris. Partly as a result of his arguments, this conference ruled that the United States had to grant the United Kingdom fishing rights in the Bering Sea. See Bering Sea controversy .
In 1894, Thompson met in London with other British statesmen. They discussed publishing laws, commercial shipping regulations, and other issues involving members of the British Empire. At Windsor Castle, on December 12, Thompson was sworn in as a member of the Imperial Privy Council. This council consisted of leading statesmen of the empire. Immediately after the ceremony and in the presence of Queen Victoria, Thompson suffered a heart attack and died within minutes. He was buried in Halifax.
