Thomas Farquhar

Thomas Farquhar (28 January 1875 – 24 December 1962) was a Canadian politician and businessman from northern Ontario. Farquhar was active in municipal politics in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario serving the city’s seventh mayor from 1920 to 1922. He represented Manitoulin in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1926 to 1929 and represented the federal riding of Algoma East in the House of Commons from 1943 to 1948.

A September 1948 telegraph from Canadian Press, reporting on Farquhar's appointment to the Senate.

The Honourable Thomas Farquhar
Senator from Ontario
In office 10 September 1948 – 27 September 1962
Appointed by	W. L. Mackenzie King
Member of Parliament for Algoma East
In office 14 October 1935 – 9 September 1948
Preceded by	George Nicholson
Succeeded by	Lester B. Pearson
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament for Manitoulin
In office 1 December 1926 – 29 October 1929
Preceded by	Beniah Bowman
Succeeded by	Alvin Edwin Graham
7th Mayor of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario
In office 1920–1922
Preceded by	George Boyd
Succeeded by	James Dawson
Personal details
Born	(1875-01-28)28 January 1875 Barrie, Ontario, Canada
Died	24 December 1962(1962-12-24) (aged 87)
Political party	Liberal

In 1948, Farquhar accepted an appointment to the Senate which allowed Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King’s Minister of External Affairs, and future Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson the opportunity to be elected to the House of Commons in a by-election in the Algoma East riding.

In 1945 Farquhar founded a family-owned dairy on Manitoulin Island that today operates as Farquhar’s Dairy Limited.^[1]

Life and early work

Farquhar was the third of ten children of William and Jane (née Nixon) Farquhar. He was born on 28 January 1875 on a farm near Allandale, now Barrie, Ontario in Simcoe County.^[2] In 1877 the family moved to a farm near Kagawong on Manitoulin Island where Farquhar was educated.

In 1896, he travelled west to British Columbia's Slocan Valley where he mined several claims and became a prominent member of the Western Federation of Miners, serving one year as president of the union.

In 1903, Farquhar returned to Manitoulin to take up the family farm. Five years later he moved to Sault Ste. Marie to work at his father's meat business. After a stint in real estate, he and a partner purchased the Star Clothing Company at Queen and Gore Streets where he became a successful merchant.

Political career

Farquhar was active in public life in Sault Ste. Marie and Manitoulin Island. After serving as secretary-treasurer of the public school board from 1915 to 1916, he was acclaimed as a city alderman in 1918 and won election in 1919.

In the 1920 municipal election, local labour leaders persuaded Farquhar to run for mayor. He defeated then-mayor George Boyd, and was re-elected with a large plurality in 1921. He was renominated for the office in 1922 but declined to run against Boyd and James Dawson.

Farquhar was a candidate for the Progressive Party in Algoma West in the 1921 federal election but finished third with 27 per cent of the vote.^[3]

In 1922 he sold his clothing business to purchase a farm in Mindemoya on Manitoulin Island. Never far from public life, Farquhar served as the reeve of Carnarvon Township on Manitoulin from 1922 to 1925.

In 1926, Farquhar entered provincial politics and was elected to represent Manitoulin in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a United Farmers member. He sought re-election in 1929 as a Liberal but was defeated.

Farquhar's longest continual service would be in federal politics. In the 1935 general election he was elected to the House of Commons under the Liberal banner, representing the riding of Algoma East. He was subsequently re-elected on 26 March 1940 and 11 June 1945.

On 10 September 1948, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King appointed Farquhar to the Senate so that his new Minister of External Affairs Lester B. Pearson could contest the by-election in the relatively safe Liberal riding of Algoma East and enter the House of Commons.^[4]

In 1955 Farqhuar sponsored legislation in the Senate to create the St. Mary's River Bridge Company to facilitate the eventual construction of the International Bridge between Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.^[5]

In 1960, Farquhar suffered a severe stroke. He resigned from the Senate on 27 September 1962 at the age of 87.

Other work

In 1935, Farquhar went into the dairy business, eventually buying the dairy in Little Current. Farquhar's Dairy continues to operate as an independent dairy company in Northeastern Ontario. In 1945, he and his sons founded Thos. Farquhar & Sons Co. Limited.^[6] He was also a director for a mine in Gatineau, Quebec.

Family

In June 1907, Farqhuar married Kathleen Wiber on Manitoulin Island on June 1, 1907. She died six months later on December 18, 1907.

He married his second wife, Kathleen's younger sister, Florence Amy Wiber in Little Current on Manitoulin Island in October 1914. The couple had five children: Stanley, Ruth, Thomas, John and Allan.

His first son, Stanley, would follow his father's career path into public service, representing the riding of Algoma—Manitoulin in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1963 to 1971.

Death and memorials

Three months after his resignation from the Senate, Farquhar died at his home in Kagawong, Manitoulin Island on 24 December 1962 at the age of 87. He was interred in Mindemoya Cemetery on the island.^[7] His wife Amy died in November 1964. Both are memorialized in a stained glass window at Little Current United Church, in Little Current, Ontario.