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Dalton McCarthy (October 10, 1836 – May 11, 1898), or D'Alton McCarthy, was a Canadian lawyer and parliamentarian. He was the leader of the "Orange" or Protestant Irish Canadians, and fiercely fought against Irish Catholics as well as the French Catholics. He especially crusaded for the abolition of the French language in schools in Manitoba and Ontario.[1][2]
Dalton McCarthy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Canadian Parliament for Cardwell | |
| In office 1876–1878 | |
| Preceded by | John Hillyard Cameron |
| Succeeded by | Thomas White |
| Member of the Canadian Parliament for Simcoe North | |
| In office 1878–1898 | |
| Preceded by | Hermon Henry Cook |
| Succeeded by | Leighton McCarthy |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 10, 1836 Oakley Park, Blackrock (Ireland) |
| Died | May 11, 1898 (aged 61) Toronto, Ontario |
McCarthy originally served in the House of Commons of Canada as a Conservative. An Irish-born Protestant, McCarthy was stridently anti-Catholic and anti-French Canadian. His contemporaries respected his organizational skills and perceived him as a potential Conservative leader after Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald vacated the leadership.[3] However, he broke with the Conservatives in the 1890s, running and being re-elected as an Independent Member of Parliament (MP) in the 1891 Canadian federal election. He appears to have been associated with the Equal Rights Party which ran in that election but did not run as their candidate.
His firm, Boulton & McCarthy in Barrie, was the first incarnation of what is now Canada's largest law firm, McCarthy Tétrault. He appeared in the Supreme Court of Canada in the significant constitutional case of Citizens Insurance Co of Canada v Parsons, arguing successfully on behalf of two individuals claiming compensation under fire insurance policies.[4] The case helped establish the scope of provincial jurisdiction in contract matters. He also defended Emily Stowe in the 1879 abortion trial of Emily Stowe.
McCarthy was a founder of the "Imperial Federation League", which proposed uniting the United Kingdom and the emerging dominions under a central Cabinet government responsible to an Imperial Parliament elected from throughout the Empire. McCarthy organized his own slate of McCarthyite candidates for the 1896 election, but he was the only one elected.
Following the 1896 election, McCarthy forged an alliance with the Liberal Party, even though its leader Wilfrid Laurier was a French Canadian Catholic. He might have been appointed to cabinet had he not died following a carriage accident in 1898.
McCarthy was a key figure in the Manitoba Schools Question, and a major proponent in pushing English only in legislatures, courts, and schools of Western Canada.
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There is a Dalton McCarthy fonds at Library and Archives Canada.[5] Archival reference number is R4370.
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