Charles Stewart (premier)

The Honourable Charles Stewart PC
3rd Premier of Alberta
In office October 30, 1917 – August 13, 1921
Monarch	George V
Lieutenant Governor	Robert Brett
Preceded by	Arthur Sifton
Succeeded by	Herbert Greenfield
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Sedgewick
In office March 22, 1909 – February 28, 1922
Preceded by	New district
Succeeded by	Albert Andrews
Alberta Minister of Railways and Telephones
In office October 16, 1917 – August 31, 1921
Preceded by	Arthur Sifton
Succeeded by	Vernor Smith
Alberta Provincial Secretary
In office October 16, 1917 – August 28, 1918
Preceded by	Archibald J. McLean
Succeeded by	Wilfrid Gariépy
Alberta Minister of Public Works
In office November 28, 1913 – October 16, 1917
Preceded by	Charles R. Mitchell
Succeeded by	Archibald J. McLean
Alberta Minister of Municipal Affairs
In office May 4, 1912 – November 29, 1913
Preceded by	New position
Succeeded by	Wilfrid Gariépy
Member of the House of Commons of Canada for Edmonton West
In office October 29, 1925 – October 14, 1935
Preceded by	Donald MacBeth Kennedy
Succeeded by	James Angus MacKinnon
Member of the House of Commons of Canada for Argenteuil
In office February 28, 1922 – October 29, 1925
Preceded by	Peter Robert McGibbon
Succeeded by	George Perley
Canadian Minister of the Interior and Mines
In office December 29, 1921 – June 29, 1926
Preceded by	James Alexander Lougheed
Succeeded by	Henry Herbert Stevens
In office September 25, 1926 – August 6, 1930
Preceded by	R. B. Bennett
Succeeded by	Wesley Ashton Gordon
Personal details
Born	August 26, 1868 Strabane, Wentworth County, Ontario, Canada
Died	December 6, 1946(1946-12-06) (aged 78) Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Political party	Alberta Liberal Party Liberal Party of Canada
Spouse	Jane Russell Sneath
Children	8
Profession	Farmer
Signature

Charles Stewart, PC (August 26, 1868 – December 6, 1946) was a Canadian politician who served as the third premier of Alberta from 1917 until 1921. Born in Strabane, Ontario, in then Wentworth County (now part of Hamilton), Stewart was a farmer who moved west to Alberta after his farm was destroyed by a storm. There he became active in politics and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1909 election. He served as Minister of Public Works and Minister of Municipal Affairs—the first person to hold the latter position in Alberta—in the government of Arthur Sifton. When Sifton left provincial politics in 1917 to join the federal cabinet, Stewart was named his replacement.

As premier, Stewart tried to hold together his Liberal Party, which was divided by the Conscription Crisis of 1917. He endeavoured to enforce prohibition of alcoholic beverages, which had been enshrined in law by a referendum during Sifton's premiership, but found that the law was not widely enough supported to be effectively policed. His government took over several of the province's financially troubled railroads, and guaranteed bonds sold to fund irrigation projects. Several of these policies were the result of lobbying by the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA), with which Stewart enjoyed good relations; even so, the UFA was politicized during Stewart's premiership and ran candidates in the 1921 election. Unable to match the UFA's appeal to rural voters, Stewart's government was defeated at the polls and he was succeeded as premier by Herbert Greenfield.

After leaving provincial politics, Stewart was invited to join the federal cabinet of William Lyon Mackenzie King, in which he served as Minister of the Interior and Mines. In this capacity he signed, on behalf of the federal government, an agreement that transferred control of Alberta's natural resources from Ottawa to the provincial government—a concession he had been criticized for being unable to negotiate as Premier. He served in King's cabinet until 1930, when the King government was defeated, but remained a member of Parliament until he lost his seat in 1935. He died in December 1946 in Ottawa.