Edward Fearon
{{Short description|Canadian politician (1859–1933)}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name =Edward Fearon
| smallimage =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date |1859|09|20}}
| birth_place =Scotland
| death_date = {{death date and age|1933|11|03|1859|09|20}}
| death_place =
| residence =
| office = Member of the North-West Legislative Assembly for Medicine Hat
| term_start = 1894
| term_end = 1898
| predecessor = Thomas Tweed
| successor = Horace Greeley
| party =
| spouse = {{marriage |Annie Hastings|1902}}
| religion =
| occupation = rancher
}}
Edward L. Fearon (September 20, 1859{{spnd}}November 3, 1933) was a Canadian politician. He served on the North-West Legislative Assembly for Medicine Hat from 1894 to 1898.
Early life
Fearon was born September 20, 1859, in Scotland.{{cite book |editor1-last=Gemmill |editor1-first=J.A. |title=The Canadian Parliamentary Companion |date=1897 |publisher=J. Durie & Son |location=Ottawa |url=https://archive.org/details/canadianparliame1897unse |page=[https://archive.org/details/canadianparliame1897unse/page/403 403]}} Fearon moved to Kingston, Ontario, in 1878 and joined the North-West Mounted Police where he was stationed at Fort Walsh.{{cite news |title=Edward Fearon |work=The Regina Leader-Post |date=November 8, 1933 |page=12}}
Political life
Fearon contested the 1894 North-West Territories general election in the Medicine Hat electoral district against incumbent Thomas Tweed. In the years prior to the election, the Medicine Hat community became divided with Tweed around the issues of prohibition, hospital supply purchasing and obtaining government contracts for friends.{{Cite DCB |last=Wilson|first=L.J. Roy |title=Tweed, Thomas Andrew |volume=13 |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?id_nbr=7111}} Fearon was a popular rancher near Maple Creek. During the campaign Tweed's opponents depicted him as hostile to labour, against provincehood, and an ineffective representative. Fearon defeated Tweed with 398 votes to Tweed's 309.{{cite web |author=Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan |title=North-West Territories: Council and Legislative Assembly, 1876–1905 |url=https://www.saskarchives.com/sites/default/files/documents/NWT-Council.pdf |publisher=Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan |date=2009 |access-date=2022-06-29 |archive-date=2007-09-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928101028/http://www.saskarchives.com/web/seld/1-00.pdf |url-status=dead }} Fearon did not contest the 1898 North-West Territories general election. When describing Fearon's term in office, Historian L.J. Roy Wilson described Fearon as a "very poor representative".{{sfn|Wilson|1987|p=12}}
Later life
Fearon joined the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898 and returned to ranching in Maple Creek in 1901. In 1902 he married Annie Hastings. Fearon died on November 3, 1933, at the age of 74.
References
{{Reflist}}
;Works cited
- {{cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=L.J. Roy |title="Everlasting Squabble" Medicine Hat in Crisis, 1891–98 |journal=Alberta History |date=Winter 1987 |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |issn=0316-1552 |url=http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/9021.35.1/3.html |id=}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fearon, Edward}}
Category:19th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories