David Howard Harrison

David Howard Harrison ( born June 1, 1843 in London, Upper Canada, † September 8, 1905 in Vancouver ) was a Canadian politician. He was Prime Minister of the Province of Manitoba and reigned from 26 December 1887 to 19 January, 1888. His reign of 24 days is by far the shortest of this province.

Biography

Harrison studied medicine at the University of Toronto and McGill University. In 1864 he opened a practice in the town of St. Marys, where he grew up and later became a forensic pathologist from Perth County. In 1882 he decided to move to Manitoba and establish a ranch. The following year, he ran for a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba and was elected in the constituency Minnedosa. He soon became friends with Prime Minister John Norquay. This Harrison appointed in August 1886, for the Minister of Agriculture, Statistics and Health. Three months later, he succeeded in re-election in the new constituency Minnedosa West.

As Norquay lost the support of the Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, because he no longer wanted to support the monopoly of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the provincial government broke apart. Harrison was appointed as the new Prime Minister of Manitoba on December 26, 1887. But a few days later, the governing Conservatives lost two by-elections, after which he resigned after only 24 days in office and Thomas Greenway, the leader of the Liberals, was commissioned to form a government.

After this defeat, Harrison did not run in the elections in 1888. He successfully led a bank in Neepawa and settled in 1900 in the province of British Columbia down.