Arthur Sturgis Hardy

Infobox President
name = Arthur Sturgis Hardy

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caption = The Hon. Arthur Sturgis Hardy
birth_date = birth date|1837|12|14|mf=y
birth_place = Mount Pleasant, Upper Canada
death_date = death date and age |1901|06|13|1837|12|14
death_place = Toronto, Ontario
order = 4th Premier of Ontario
term_start = July 21, 1896
term_end = October 20, 1899
predecessor = Oliver Mowat
successor = George William Ross
party = Ontario Liberal Party
religion = Anglican
spouse = Mary Morrison:"For the U.S. diplomat and academic, see Arthur Sherburne Hardy."Arthur Sturgis Hardy (December 14, 1837 – June 13, 1901) was a lawyer and Liberal politician who served as Ontario's fourth Premier from 1896 to 1899.

Hardy attended school at the Rockwood Academy in Rockwood, Ontario. He was first elected to the Ontario legislature in 1873 and was promoted to the Cabinet of Sir Oliver Mowat in 1877 as Provincial Secretary. In 1889 as Commissioner of Crown Lands, Hardy established Algonquin Park. Entering his sixties and having been in government for over twenty years, Hardy lacked the energy and strength to take the government forward or excite the populace when he succeeded Mowat as both Premier and Attorney-General in 1896. In the 1898 election Hardy's government was returned with a narrow six seat majority due to the collapse of the agrarian Patrons of Industry party which had served as the Liberal's allies in the legislature. Exhausted and needing money, Hardy retired from politics in 1899 and died two years later.

External links

* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=6766 Biography at the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]