Pioneers and Prominent People of Saskatchewan

 

 

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In a review of this period Walter Scott, in his paper, the Regina Leader, of September 30th, 1897, paid this tribute to Mr. Haultain: "Punctiliously honest, possessing political courage which has stood the test in more than one severe trial, and being imbued with a progressiveness which is wholly free from any tincture of 'splurge' or recklessness, it is scarcely possible to imagine anyone better qualified to occupy the place which he has occupied in the period of evolution through which this country is passing."

This eulogy had been but a crystallization of public opinion and sentiment, and had found an echo in the minds and hearts of the people of the West, who confidently looked to the Lieutenant-Governor to call upon Mr. Haultain to form the first Provincial Government.

The explanation offered by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in the House of Commons, was that because Mr. Haultain had made serious objections to some clauses of the autonomy bill in its passage through the House, there was no doubt he would have attempted to destroy the constitution of the new Province, and therefore could not have been considered by the Lieutenant-Governor.

 

The loss which the country sustained by the retirement of F. W. G. Haultain from the leadership of the Legislative Chamber of Saskatchewan has been compensated for in the elevation of Sir Frederick Haultain to the bench, where, as Chief Justice of Saskatchewan, his eminent qualifications find ample scope.

 

 

THE FIRST CABINET

 

On September 12th, 1905, Premier Scott announced his first Cabinet:

PREMIER-Walter Scott, also Minister of Public Works and President of the Executive Council.

 

ATTORNEY-GENERAL--John Henderson Lamont.

 

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE-William Richard Motherwell, also Provincial Secretary.

 

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Pioneers and Prominent People of Saskatchewan