William Henry Pope (Canadian politician)

William Henry Pope ( * May 29, 1825 in Bedeque, Prince Edward Iceland, † October 7, 1879 in St. Eleanors, Prince Edward Iceland ) was a Canadian politician, lawyer and journalist. As one of the Fathers of Confederation, he is among the pioneers of the Canadian federal government established in 1867.

Biography

Pope studied law at the Inner Temple in London, returned to Prince Edward Iceland and did an internship with Edward Palmer. In 1847 he was admitted as a lawyer, in addition he worked as a realtor. From 1859 he was editor of the conservative newspaper The Islander, the same year he was a candidate in the parliamentary elections. Although he had not been elected, Prime Minister Palmer appointed him as Colonial Secretary to the Cabinet. 1863 Pope eventually won in the constituency Belfast and retained under the new Prime Minister John Hamilton Gray in his ministerial post.

In Prince Edward Iceland Pope was one of the few prominent politicians who advocated the union of the colonies in British North America into a federal state. In September and October 1864, he attended the Charlottetown Conference and at the Quebec Conference. While his younger brother James Colledge Pope in 1865 Prime Minister, but he was in the government increasingly isolated. When he was staying in 1866 with a trade delegation to Brazil, the government refused to accede to Canada. In protest against this political maneuvering, he resigned from the government and abandoned in 1867 for re-election.

With newspaper articles Pope courted further for membership. In 1870 he was re-elected to parliament. When the construction of the Prince Edward Iceland Railway colony in 1872 drove almost to ruin, there was a change of mind. The government was forced to start accession negotiations with the Canadian government. Finally, Prince Edward Iceland joined in July 1873 still in and the federal government appointed Pope to the district judge.