Karl Homuth at Long Branch Small Arms plant

Karl Kenneth Homuth (December 12, 1893 – March 15, 1951) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

manufacturer and political figure in

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. He was born in

Preston, Ontario Preston is a community in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario. Prior to 1973 it was an independent town, incorporated in 1915, but amalgamation with the town of Hespeler, Ontario, the city of Galt, Ontario ...

, the son of Otto Homuth and Charlotte McDowell, and was educated there and in

Galt Galt or GALT may refer to: Biology and biochemistry * Galactose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase, an enzyme * Gut-associated lymphoid tissue, a subset of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue People and fictional characters * Galt (surname), a list o ...

. He joined George Pattinson's textile manufacturing company in 1910. In 1917, he left that firm to work in his father's company, taking over its operation in 1928 after his father's death. In 1914, he married Minnie A. Rahn. Homuth served on the town council for Preston from 1917 to 1919.Hall of Fame, City of Cambridge
/ref> He died of complications of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...

in his Ottawa home on March 15, 1951. Homuth's father was a Liberal and Karl defied him by running as a Labour candidate in the 1919 provincial election, was elected as the Member for

Waterloo South Waterloo South was a federal electoral district and a provincial electoral district in Canada. Federally, it was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1968. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the Bri ...

and supported the

United Farmers of Ontario The United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) was an agrarian and populist provincial political party in Ontario, Canada. It was the Ontario provincial branch of the United Farmers movement of the early part of the 20th century. History Foundation and r ...

-Labour government of E.C. Drury. He was one of the few Labour MLAs who survived the 1923 provincial election that routed Drury's government and was the only Labour MLA returned in the 1926 provincial election in which he broke with his colleagues in what by then was known as the Progressive Party over the issue of

temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture *Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...

. Homuth supported Conservative Premier

George Howard Ferguson George Howard Ferguson, PC (June 18, 1870 – February 21, 1946) was the ninth premier of Ontario, from 1923 to 1930. He was a Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1905 to 1930 who represented the eastern provinc ...

's proposal to liberalise Ontario's

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcohol ...

laws during the 1926 election in which liquor policy was the principal issue (the Conservatives consequently did not run a candidate against him) and continued to support Ferguson's government after the election ultimately joining the Tories and successfully running for re-election as a Conservative in the 1929 provincial election before resigning in 1930 to unsuccessfully seek the federal seat of

Waterloo North Waterloo North was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1968. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867 which entitled each of north an ...

for the federal Conservatives. He went on to sit in House of Commons of Canada from 1938 to 1951 representing Waterloo South for the Conservative Party of Canada, then National Government and finally Progressive Conservative member. Homuth died in office in 1951. The ensuing

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

returned Howie Meeker, a then-active

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

player who would go on to have notable careers as a coach, manager and broadcaster.

Electoral record

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Homuth, Karl Kenneth 1893 births 1951 deaths Progressive Conservative Party of Canada MPs United Farmers of Ontario MLAs People from the Regional Municipality of Waterloo