Lincoln Goldie (November 11, 1864 – September 19, 1931) was an industrialist and politician in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He represented

Wellington South Wellington South was a Canadian 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 as the "South Riding o ...

in the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA, french: Assemblée législative de l'Ontario) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by ...

from 1923 to 1931 as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

member. He served as

Provincial Secretary and Registrar of Ontario The Provincial Secretary and Registrar of Ontario was a senior position in the provincial cabinet of Ontario from before Canadian Confederation until the 1960s. The Provincial Secretary and Registrar was originally the second highest position in ...

in the government of

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 provincia ...

Background

Goldie was born in

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

, in 1864, one of five sons of James Goldie and Frances Owen. His father was the son of John Goldie, a botanist, and had been one of the leading flour manufacturers in the province as president of the James Goldie Co. Limited and of the Ontario Millers’ Association. James was a

perennial candidate A perennial candidate is a political candidate who frequently runs for elected office and rarely, if ever, wins. Perennial candidates' existence lies in the fact that in some countries, there are no laws that limit a number of times a person can ...

of the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

, having unsuccessfully contested the federal riding of

in five elections. Goldie's brother was

Thomas Goldie Thomas Goldie (July 9, 1850 – February 2, 1892) was a businessman, politician and early promoter of field sports in Ontario. A secretary for the Guelph Maple Leafs, he also served as mayor of Guelph from 1891 to 1892. Biography Early li ...

, an early promoter of field sports in Ontario who served as mayor of Guelph from 1891 to 1892. In 1902, Goldie was married to Estelle A. Bricker. They had a son, James, and a daughter, Margaret, who married neurologist

Herbert Jasper Herbert Henri Jasper (July 27, 1906 – March 11, 1999) was a Canadian psychologist, physiologist, neurologist, and epileptologist. Born in La Grande, Oregon, he attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon and received his PhD in psychology f ...

. Having been educated at Guelph, Goldie served for many years as manager of the James Goldie Co. Limited established by his father. As a representative of the company, Goldie was present at several conferences organized in 1902 by E. W. B. Snider and Daniel B. Detweiler to draft a report to the Ontario government on the benefits of making hydroelectric power generated at

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, ...

available to the rest of the province. These efforts eventually led to the organization of

Ontario Hydro Ontario Hydro, established in 1906 as the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, was a publicly owned electricity utility in the Province of Ontario. It was formed to build transmission lines to supply municipal utilities with electricity ge ...

in 1906 following the election of James Whitney as premier. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he was a member of the Dominion Wheat Board. Having retired from the milling industry in 1918, '' The Globe'' recorded that "it was partly due to the tremendous popularity that he gained in his business associations that he achieved such great success when he entered politics a few years later."

Political career

In the

1923 Ontario general election The 1923 Ontario general election was the 16th general election held in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It was held on June 25, 1923, to elect the 111 Members of the 16th Legislative Assembly of Ontario ("MLAs"). The Ontario Conservative Party ...

, Goldie was elected to represent

in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a member of the Conservative Party. A week after the election,

asked Goldie to become a member of his cabinet as

, a position he held from 1923 to 1930. As a member of the Ferguson cabinet, Goldie sat on several standing committees throughout his tenure, including the standing committees on Municipal Law, Agriculture and Colonization, Privileges and Elections, and Game and Fish. As Provincial Secretary, Goldie was primarily involved in the management of provincial civic institutions, namely hospitals, insane asylums and prisons. As chairman of the Social Service Council, he spoke of his "personal interest in the case of the feeble-minded," affirming that the Ferguson government would do everything in its power to solve the problem of providing adequate care to those with mental illness. On November 27, 1924, Goldie officially opened a new $3,500,000 civic hospital in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

and presided over the opening ceremony of the Canadian Red Cross Hospital there the following year. In 1927, Goldie implemented a program that included the organization of a dental service for all provincial inmates in addition to the training of occupational therapists for work in prisons. Furthermore, following the case of a priest who had been wrongly admitted to an insane asylum, Goldie also took the initiative of appointing independent visiting committees that would conduct monthly inspections of provincial insane asylums to ensure they were not admitting sane patients. These committees were first implemented in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

and were to be made up of "leading citizens", with Goldie stating the government's objective of fostering a sympathetic link between the public and insane asylums to ensure that no wrongful admittances would occur in the future. That same year, Goldie was sued by a Mr. W. E. Bastedo for $100,000 in damages for comments allegedly made to a Toronto paper about Mr. Bastedo's arrest and detention in a psychopathic institution. Following a period of ill health, Goldie resigned the position of Provincial Secretary on September 14, 1930. Having kept his seat in the legislature, Goldie died in office on September 19, 1931, at the age of 66.

Cabinet positions

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Goldie, Lincoln 1864 births 1931 deaths People from Guelph Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs