Newton Rowell - Life and Career

Life and Career

He was born in London Township, Ontario. Rowell ran for the Canadian House of Commons in the 1900 federal election but was defeated in York East.

Returning to his law practice, he was made King's Counsel in 1902 and became senior partner in his law firm, Rowell, Reid, and Wood and had a prominent legal career.

He returned to politics in 1911. Though not a candidate, he was a prominent campaigner supporting the government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier during the 1911 federal election speaking across Ontario to promote both Laurier's plan for a Canadian navy and the trade reciprocity agreement negotiated between the federal government and the United States, against the opposition of prominent Liberal business leaders who feared free trade would be extended to manufacturing.

Later that year, he was chosen to lead the Ontario Liberal Party, despite not having a seat in the legislature, after incumbent leader Alexander Grant MacKay was forced to resign shortly before the beginning of that year's election campaign. He was elected to the legislature in the 1911 provincial election representing Oxford North and became Leader of the Opposition.

In 1917, Rowell, a supporter of conscription during World War I left the Ontario legislature and broke with Sir Wilfrid Laurier and the Liberal Party of Canada to join the national Unionist government of Sir Robert Borden as a result of the Conscription Crisis of 1917 and was appointed to Borden's government as President of the Privy Council of Canada in October 1917 and was also made vice-chairman of the government's War Committee giving him primary responsibility for organizing the war effort and enforcing conscription. He went on to win a seat in the House of Commons as the Unionist MP for Durham in the December 1917 federal election. Rowell attended meetings of the Imperial War Cabinet in London, England, along with other senior Canadian ministers. In 1919, he was given added responsibilities as Canada's first Minister of Health.

Rowell declined to join the government of Borden's successor, Arthur Meighen, in 1920 and did not run for re-election to parliament in 1921. After the war Rowell served as a Canadian delegate to the League of Nations and became involved in international affairs. He also helped lead the Methodists into a merger with Presbyterians to form the United Church of Canada.

As a lawyer he had one of the strongest litigation practices in Toronto, arguing many cases before the Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, including Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General). In 1903, he founded the firm that is now known as McMillan LLP. In 1929 he argued and won the Person's case, concerning whether women were eligible for appointment to the Senate of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada said no, but Rowell took the case to the Privy Council in London and won. It was a foundation case for female equality in Canada. In 1936 he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario.

He is also noted for being the first chair of the 1937 Rowell-Sirois Commission into Dominion-Provincial economic relations and for being a founding leader of the United Church of Canada.

Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it had ow as in now: row-ELL. (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)

Rowell was the maternal grandfather of former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Hal Jackman and current Senator Nancy Ruth. His daughter Mary wed Harry Jackman in 1930.