John Abbott

Biography

Sir John Joseph Caldwell Abbott was Canada's third prime minister, serving from June 1891 to November 1892. He was born on 12 March 1821 in St Andrews (now Saint-André-d'Argenteuil), Lower Canada, the son of an Anglican clergyman. He was the first prime minister born in what is now Canada. He studied law at McGill College, was called to the bar in 1847 and later served for many years as dean of the McGill law faculty.

Abbott became one of Montreal's leading commercial lawyers. In 1849 he signed the Montreal Annexation Manifesto, which called for union with the United States, a decision he later described as a youthful mistake. He entered the legislature of the Province of Canada for Argenteuil and served briefly as solicitor general for Canada East in 1862. After Confederation he was elected to the House of Commons for Argenteuil. As legal adviser to the shipping magnate Sir Hugh Allan, he was drawn into the Pacific Scandal of 1873, when documents taken from his office revealed Allan's campaign contributions to the Conservatives.

Abbott was unseated after the 1874 election and returned to the Commons in the early 1880s. He was a lawyer and director for the Canadian Pacific Railway and served as mayor of Montreal from 1887 to 1889. In 1887 he was appointed to the Senate, where he became government leader and a minister without portfolio.

When Sir John A. Macdonald died in June 1891, the Conservatives were divided over a successor, and the most able candidate, John Thompson, declined. Abbott was chosen as a compromise and governed from the Senate, the first prime minister to do so, while Thompson led in the Commons. His government dealt with corruption allegations involving the public works department, which led to the expulsion of the Quebec MP Thomas McGreevy from the Commons, and it passed the Criminal Code of 1892. Abbott did not face a general election as prime minister.

Abbott was knighted in 1892. Diagnosed with a serious illness, he resigned in November 1892 and was succeeded by Thompson. He died in Montreal on 30 October 1893 and is buried in Mount Royal Cemetery.