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Description area
Dates of existence
History
Prohibition sentiment in Ontario reaches a peak in the early 1920s following the majority vote against repeal of the Ontario Temperance Act in 1919 (The Hearst Referendum) and the 1921 vote against the legal importation of liquor into the Province. In the 1919 Provincial Election the strongly prohibitionist United Farmers of Ontario party came to power under the leadership of Premier Ernest C. Drury. Despite the energetic zeal and harsh penalties applies by his Attorney-General William E. Raney) a former member of the Dominion Alliance) in the enforcement of the Ontario Temperance Act, bootlegging and rum-running became so wide-spread as to discredit the prohibition experiment, particularly in urban areas.
In 1923 the Conservative Part of G. Howard Ferguson capitalized upon a general disenchantment among voters with the controversial Drury government. Despite the entrenchment of prohibition in law it once more became an election issue which Ferguson deftly handled, making vague statements of support in rural areas where prohibition remained popular, and equally vague promises of change in the urban areas where ‘wet’ sentiment was on the rise. The Conservatives easily ousted the United Farmers of Ontario and the voters now waited to see what action Ferguson would take.
On July 24, 1924 a plebiscite was announced for October 23, 1924 to secure a popular judgement on the Ontario Temperance Act. The questions to be voted upon where:
- Are you in favour of the continuance of the Ontario Temperance Act?
- Are you in favour of the sale as a beverage of beer and spirituous liquor in sealed packages under Government Control?
The Executive Committee of the Ontario Prohibition Union moved quickly to create a special Plebiscite Committee to handle the campaign. Prominent citizens and churchmen were recruited to carry out the campaign under the leadership of Campaign Director the Rev. Dr. Thomas Albert Moore, Secretary of the Board of Temperance and Moral Reform of the Methodist Church, and a later Moderator of the United Church of Canada. The Committee promised a campaign which would be “brief, intense, and courageous.”
Campaign activity was conducted by three working sub-committees; Organization, Publicity, and Finance. The Province was divided into 14 major districts with further division in county, riding, and municipal organizations. Women volunteers were united in the Ontario Women’s Prohibition Committee and young people of Sunday Schools and religious youth groups were encouraged in active participation.
When the votes were tallied the result was 585,676 for the retention of the Ontario Temperance Act, and 551, 645 for Government Control. The 1924 Plebiscite Campaign was to prove a pyrrhic victory for Ontario’s prohibitionists. Although the campaign demonstrated the organizational abilities of the prohibitionists in mounting a major and effective campaign, their narrow margin of victory demonstrated a significant dissatisfaction among the voters with the practise of prohibition as opposed to the theory that had provided such vast majorities in the 1919 and 1921 votes. The disparity in voting between the rural and urban areas, the latter of which had voted resoundingly against prohibition, prompted action by the Ferguson government. Within a year the distribution of 4.4% beer was approved and, following the re-election of the Ferguson government in 1926 on a platform of government control the Ontario Liquor Control Act was passes, ending Ontario’s prohibition experiment.