Oliver Mowat

Sir Oliver Mowat, GCMG PC QC was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and Liberal Party leader. He served as the third Premier of Ontario for nearlyyears. He was the eighth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and one of the Fathers of Confederation. He is best known for defending successfully the constitutional rights of the provinces in the face of the centralizing tendency of the national government as represented by his longtime conservative adversary, John A. Macdonald. This longevity and power was due to his astute political maneuvering, in terms of building a political base around Liberals, Catholics, trade unions, and Anglophones distrustful of Quebec.

Mowat was born in Kingston, Upper Canada , to John Mowat and Helen Levack. As a youth, he had taken up arms with the loyalists during the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, which suggested a conservative inclination in politics. However, he did not trust the politics of John A. Macdonald, Georgetienne Cartier, or the other leaders of the Conservative Party, and instead joined the Reformers.

Source: Wikipedia