Thomas Tweedie

Thomas Mitchell March Tweedie (March 4, 1871 – October 4, 1944) was a politician, lawyer and Chief Justice in Canada.

Early life

Tweedie was born in River John, Nova Scotia in 1871. He graduated from Mount Allison University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1902 and subsequently entered Harvard University, where he earned a law degree in 1905. He joined the bar and started practicing law in 1907.

Provincial career

Tweedie was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in a 1911 by-election and served the Calgary seat that had been previously vacated by Richard Bennett. In this elected he ran under the Conservative banner. Tweedie defeated popular municipal alderman Thomas Skinner who ran as a Liberal candidate.

Tweedie was re-elected to his second term in the 1913 Alberta general election. The Calgary riding was broken up into 3 different ridings under the redistribution bill passed by the Sifton government. Thomas ran in the new riding of Centre Calgary. He won his second term in the legislature with a large margin defeating Liberal candidate John McDougall.[1]

In the 1917 Alberta general election he ran for re-election in Calgary Centre, this time being defeated by Alex Ross who ran as a Labor candidate. Thomas would quickly make the jump to federal politics running in the federal election later that year.

Federal career

After Thomas lost his seat in the 1917 provincial election, he attempted a run at federal politics. Thomas ran as a Unionist member in the new Calgary West federal riding during the 1917 federal election. He won a comfortable victory and served as the first Member of Parliament for the riding in the coalition government.

Thomas served most of his first in term parliament, until he vacated his seat on October 14, 1921 after he was appointed as a Justice to the Bench.

Judicial career

Thomas was appointed as a judge in 1921, giving up his seat in the House of Commons. He served as a justice for 23 years before being appointed as a chief justice on August 16, 1944. He would die a short time later on October 4, 1944 at the age of 73.

gollark: Ah, that's a shame.
gollark: A C looks kind of like an O.
gollark: Which means it's fine to use it in potatOS, right?
gollark: Huh?
gollark: What's getregistry?

References
  1. "Centre Calgary results 1913 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved 2009-05-08.
Legislative Assembly of Alberta
Preceded by
Richard Bennett		 MLA Calgary
1911–1913		 Succeeded by
Alex Ross
Robert Edwards
Fred J. White
Robert Marshall
Robert Pearson
Preceded by
New District		 MLA Centre Calgary
1913–1917		 Succeeded by
Alex Ross
Parliament of Canada
Preceded by
New District		 Member of Parliament Calgary West
1917–1921		 Succeeded by
Joseph Tweed Shaw
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