Oliver Mowat
Plot W, Lot 57
Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto
The future premier of Ontario and Father of Confederation was born in Kingston, Upper Canada (Ontario) on July 22, 1820. The young Mowat was educated in his hometown, then went to study law, being called to the bar in 1842. After practising in Kingston for a short period, Mowat left for Toronto where he entered into a partnership with Messrs. Burns and Van Koughnet. In 1857, Mowat was elected alderman for the city’s St. Lawrence Ward, a position he held for St. James Ward the following year. During 1857, Mowat was elected to the legislative assembly and in 1864 was a delegate to the conference on the Confederation of Canada held that year in Quebec City. He took an active part in preparing the Constitutional Act of Confederation, thus becoming one of the true “Fathers of Confederation.”
In 1872, Mowat accepted the position of premier and attorney general of the province of Ontario and retained the premiership until 1896 when he was elected an MP in the government of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. Sir Oliver Mowat received his knighthood in 1892. The year after he was appointed to the Canadian Senate, Mowat was chosen to be Ontario’s eighth lieutenant-governor on November 18, 1897. When Mowat died on April 19, 1903 he was succeeded as the King’s representative in Ontario by William Mortimer Clark (Plot I, Lot 14).
Mike Filey
Mount Pleasant Cemetery: An Illustrated Guide
Second Edition Revised and Expanded