Arthur Sifton

Arthur Sifton
2nd Premier of Alberta
In office
May 26, 1910 – October 30, 1917
MonarchGeorge V
Lieutenant GovernorGeorge H. V. Bulyea
Robert Brett
Preceded byAlexander Cameron Rutherford
Succeeded byCharles Stewart
Treasurer of Alberta
In office
March 26, 1913 – November 28, 1913
Preceded byMalcolm McKenzie
Succeeded byCharles R. Mitchell
In office
June 1, 1910 – May 4, 1912
Preceded byAlexander Cameron Rutherford
Succeeded byMalcolm McKenzie
Alberta Minister of Railways and Telephones
In office
December 20, 1912 – October 30, 1917
Preceded byAlexander Cameron Rutherford1
Succeeded byCharles Stewart
Alberta Minister of Public Works
In office
June 1, 1910 – May 4, 1912
Preceded byWilliam Henry Cushing
Succeeded byCharles R. Mitchell
Secretary of State for Canada
In office
December 31, 1919 – January 21, 1921
Prime MinisterRobert Borden
Arthur Meighen
Preceded byMartin Burrell
Succeeded byHenry Lumley Drayton
Canadian Minister of Public Works
In office
September 3, 1919 – December 30, 1919
Prime MinisterRobert Borden
Preceded byJohn Dowsley Reid
Succeeded byJohn Dowsley Reid
Canadian Minister of Customs and Inland Revenue
In office
May 14, 1918 – September 1, 1919
Prime MinisterRobert Borden
Preceded byAlbert Sévigny (as Minister of Inland Revenue)
Continuing (as Minister of Customs)
Succeeded byJohn Dowsley Reid
Canadian Minister of Customs
In office
October 12, 1917 – May 14, 1918
Prime MinisterRobert Borden
Preceded byJohn Dowsley Reid
Succeeded byContinuing
Northwest Territories Treasurer
In office
March 1, 1901 – January 14, 1903
Preceded byJames Hamilton Ross
Succeeded byFrederick Haultain
Northwest Territories Minister of Public Works
In office
March 1, 1901 – January 14, 1903
Preceded byJames Hamilton Ross
Succeeded byGeorge Bulyea
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Medicine Hat
In office
December 17, 1917 – January 21, 1921
Preceded byWilliam Ashbury Buchanan
Succeeded byRobert Gardiner
Member of the Alberta Legislative Assembly
for Vermilion
In office
June 29, 1910 – October 12, 1917
Preceded byArchibald Campbell
Succeeded byArthur Ebbett
Member of the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly
for Banff
In office
June 27, 1899 – January 1903
Preceded byRobert Brett
Succeeded byCharles Wellington Fisher
Member of the Brandon City Council
In office
1882–1884
Personal details
Born
Arthur Lewis Watkins Sifton

(1858-10-26)October 26, 1858
Middlesex County, Canada West
DiedJanuary 21, 1921(1921-01-21) (aged 62)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Political partyAlberta Liberal (1910–1917)
Other political
affiliations
Liberal-Conservative (1902–1903)
Unionist Party (1917–1921)
SpouseMary H. Deering
Children2
Signature
1 Rutherford served as Minister of Railways until June 1, 1910, after which the position was vacant until Sifton took it. Minister of Telephones was a new position.

Arthur Lewis Watkins Sifton, PC, PC (Can), KC (October 26, 1858 – January 21, 1921) was a Canadian lawyer, judge and politician who served as the second premier of Alberta from 1910 until 1917. He became a minister in the federal cabinet of Canada thereafter. Born in Canada West (now Ontario), he grew up there and in Winnipeg, where he became a lawyer. He subsequently practised law with his brother Clifford Sifton in Brandon, where he was also active in municipal politics. He moved west to Prince Albert in 1885 and to Calgary in 1889. There, he was elected to the 4th and 5th North-West Legislative Assemblies; he served as a minister in the government of premier Frederick Haultain. In 1903, the federal government, at the instigation of his brother (who was then one of its ministers), made Sifton the Chief Justice of the Northwest Territories. After Alberta was created out of a portion of the Northwest Territories in 1905, Sifton became the first Chief Justice of Alberta in 1907 and served until 1910.

In 1910, the Liberal government of Alberta premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford was embroiled in the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal. The Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, George Bulyea, was a Liberal and determined that for the sake of the Alberta Liberal Party, Rutherford had to be pushed aside in favour of a new premier. When other prominent Liberals declined it, the position was offered to Sifton, who accepted it. As premier, Sifton smoothed over the divisions in the party that had caused and been exacerbated by the railway scandal. He made attempts to break with the Rutherford railway policy; when these were rebuffed by the courts, he adopted a course similar to Rutherford's. He unsuccessfully pursued the transfer of rights over Alberta's natural resources from the federal government, which had retained them by the terms of Alberta's provincehood.

While Sifton was premier, the United Farmers of Alberta rose as a political force. Sifton tried to accommodate many of their demands: his government constructed agricultural colleges, incorporated a farmer-run grain elevator cooperative, and implemented a municipal system of hail insurance. Outside of agriculture, the UFA was instrumental in the Sifton government's implementation of some direct democracy measures (which resulted in prohibition) and the extension of the vote to women.

During the conscription crisis of 1917, Sifton supported the Conservative prime minister, Sir Robert Borden, in his attempt to impose conscription to help win the First World War. He backed the creation of a federal Union government composed of Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals. In 1917, he left provincial politics and became a cabinet minister in the Union government. Over the next three and a half years, he served briefly in four different ministries and was a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. He died in Ottawa in January 1921 after a brief illness.