Editing Richard John Cartwright

{{Short description|Canadian politician}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = Sir Richard John Cartwright
| honorific-suffix    = {{postnominals|country=CAN|size=100%|PC|GCMG}}
| image               = Richard John Cartwright.jpg
| alt                 = 
| caption             = (Image from the [[Library of Parliament]])
| birth_name          = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1835|12|04}}
| birth_place         = [[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]], [[Upper Canada]]
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|1912|09|12|1835|12|04}}
| death_place         = 
| nationality         = Canadian
| other_names         = 
| occupation          = politician
| known_for           = 'the Rupert of debate' {{why|date=May 2023}}
'Blue Ruin Knight'
}}
'''Sir Richard John Cartwright''' {{postnominals|country=CAN|PC|GCMG|}} (December 4, 1835 &ndash; September 24, 1912) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] businessman and politician.

Cartwright was one of Canada's most distinguished federal politicians during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a cabinet minister in five Liberal governments. He served in the Canadian Parliament for 43 years and 5 months, being an MP from 1867 to 1904 then a Senator until his death in 1912.
Prior to Confederation, he had served 4 years, 1 month and 15 days in the Legislative Assembly of the old Province of Canada. 
Thus, he was a legislator for more than 47 and a half years. He was a vigorous and trenchant orator, and was known as 'the Rupert of debate'. In particular, his debates with his Conservative counterpart, Sir [[George Eulas Foster]], are the stuff of Canadian Parliamentary legend.

He was a progressive. A free trader, he stood against the Conservatives' high-tariff policy. Often propounding on the inalienable right of Canadian freeman to vote for and in support of their patriotic convictions independent of any party,<ref>Edmonton Bulletin, Oct. 26, 1900</ref> he favoured proportional representation via [[Single Transferable Voting]]. He supported the fight of western farmers for accessible terminal grain elevators in 1910.<ref>Grain Growers Guide Jan. 25, 1911</ref>

==Early life==
He was born and raised in [[Kingston, Ontario|Kingston]], [[Upper Canada]] in a [[United Empire Loyalist]] family, the son of [[Harriet Dobbs]] Cartwright and the grandson of [[Richard Cartwright (Upper Canada politician)|Richard Cartwright]], a Loyalist who was expelled from the U.S. at the time of the War of Independence.<ref>Canadian Encyclopedia (2000), p. 415</ref> His father, Robert Cartwright, was an Anglican minister.  His uncle, [[John Solomon Cartwright]], was his father’s twin brother and a notable businessman, lawyer, banker, and politician, being a member of the last [[Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada]] and then a member of the first [[Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada]].

Richard Cartwright was a major landowner in the area, and became prominent in Kingston's financial community as president of the Commercial Bank of Canada. He suffered a major blow when his bank failed in 1867.<ref>{{ cite web | url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cartwright_richard_john_14E.html | title=CARTWRIGHT, Sir RICHARD JOHN | author=Cecilia Morgan and Robert Craig Brown | publisher=University of Toronto/Université Laval | access-date=October 21, 2013}}</ref>

==Early political career==
Cartwright entered politics when he was elected as a [[Conservative Party of Canada (historic)|Conservative Party]] member and supporter of [[John A. Macdonald]] in the [[Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada|Province of Canada's legislative assembly]] in 1863. In 1867, the Province of Canada became part of the new [[Canadian Confederation]].

In 1867, Cartwright was [[1867 Canadian federal election|elected]] to the newly formed [[House of Commons of Canada]], again as a Tory. He was MP for the riding of Lennox, Ontario.

==Crosses floor to join Liberals==
In the year 1869, he broke with the Conservatives over Macdonald's appointment of Sir [[Francis Hincks]] as [[Minister of Finance (Canada)|Minister of Finance]], and [[crossing the floor|crossed the floor]] to join the [[Liberal Party of Canada]].

==Cabinet Minister for Mackenzie==
With the Liberal party's victory in the [[1874 Canadian federal election|1874 election]], Cartwright was appointed Minister of Finance by [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[Alexander Mackenzie (politician)|Alexander Mackenzie]]. He supported [[free trade]], but sought limited [[tariffs]] as a means of generating government revenue.

==Knighted==
Cartwright was not elected in the 1878 general election but was successful in a Nov. 2, 1878 by-election in Huron Centre.

He sat in the [[parliamentary opposition|opposition bench]]. (The Liberals were defeated in the [[1878 Canadian federal election|1878 election]].)

In recognition of his service, he was awarded a [[knighthood]] in 1879.

From the [[1887 Canadian federal election|1887 election]], he represented the riding of [[Oxford South (federal electoral district)|Oxford South]].

In 1887, he called for the House of Commons to consider proportional representation.<ref>Cartwright, Reminiscences, p. 384</ref>

In the 1890s, the Liberals moved away from support for unrestricted [[reciprocity (Canadian politics)|reciprocity]] with the [[United States]], and Cartwright's influence in the party diminished.

==Cabinet Minister for Laurier==
[[File:DENT(1881) 2.577 SIR RICHARD J. CARTWRIGHT.jpg|thumbnail|Sir Richard J. Cartwright]]
With the victory of [[Wilfrid Laurier]]'s Liberals in the [[1896 Canadian federal election|1896 election]], Cartwright returned to [[Canadian cabinet|Cabinet]]. Laurier denied Cartwright the finance ministry as a way of assuring Canada's business community that the government was not going to adopt free trade. Instead, he appointed Cartwright Minister of Trade and Commerce. Cartwright also served as a Canadian member of the Anglo-American Joint High Commission to resolve diplomatic problems between Canada and the United States in 1898. Cartwright was appointed to the [[Imperial Privy Council]] in 1902.

==Senator==
In 1904, he was elevated to the [[Senate of Canada]], but remained Trade and Commerce minister until the fall of the Laurier government in the [[1911 Canadian federal election|1911 election]]. In this position he introduced, in 1908, a limited system of old age annuities. Additionally, he served as [[Leader of the Government in the Senate (Canada)|Leader of the Government in the Senate]] from 1909 until 1911, and as [[Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Canada)|Leader of the Opposition in the Senate]] from 1911 until his death in 1912.

==Legacy==
In the [[Kingston, Ontario]], area, Cartwright Street and Cartwright Point are named for him and his family, in recognition of their longstanding contributions to the region. He is honoured with commemorative plaques in Kingston on King Street (at his former residence) and in Memorial Hall, City Hall.

His memories were preserved in his book Reminiscences, published in 1912.

==Family==
Sir Richard Cartwright's eldest son, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cartwright, studied at the [[Royal Military College of Canada]] in [[Kingston, Ontario]] from 1878 to 1881, where he won several academic prizes. He was a railway engineer in Manitoba. He served in the suppression of the [[1885 Riel rebellion]] and in the [[Boer war]] in [[South Africa]], where he was mentioned in dispatches four times. He served as assistant adjutant-general at militia headquarters and as a musketry officer during [[World War I]].<ref>Richard Preston RMC: A History of the Royal Military College</ref>

==Archives==
There is a Cartwright Family Fonds with the Ontario provincial archives, consisting of documents from 1799 to 1913.  The documents were generated by Richard Cartwright, his sons John Solomon Cartwright and the Reverend Robert David Cartwright, Robert's wife Harriet (Dobbs) Cartwright and their son, Sir Richard Cartwright.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ontario Archives: Cartwright Family Fonds. |url=https://aims.archives.gov.on.ca/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/DESCRIPTION_WEB/WEB_DESC_DET?SESSIONSEARCH&exp=sisn%20150 |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=10 August 2021}}</ref>

== Electoral record ==
{{Election votes only | title=By-election: On Mr. Cartwright being named Minister of <br />Trade and Commerce, 30 July 1896: South Riding of Oxford}}
|- 
{{Canadian party colour|CA|Liberal|row}}  
|[[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]]
|Sir R. J. Cartwright
|align="right"|acclaimed   
|}
{{1900 Canadian federal election/Oxford South}}

== Notes ==
<references/>

== References ==
* {{Canadabio|ID=7276|author1=Cecilia Morgan|author2=Robert Craig Brown}}
* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=16123}}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=Cartwright, Sir Richard John|volume=5}}
* {{cite ODNB|first=Donald|last=Swainson|title=Cartwright, Sir Richard (1835–1912)|id=54614}}

== External links ==

* [http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/ARCH_DESCRIPTIVE/DESCRIPTION_DET_REP/SISN%20150?SESSIONSEARCH Cartwright family fonds] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408192707/http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/ARCH_DESCRIPTIVE/DESCRIPTION_DET_REP/SISN%2520150%3FSESSIONSEARCH |date=8 April 2019 }}, Archives of Ontario
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{{CanMinFinance}}
{{CA-Ministers for International Trade}}
{{CA-Leaders of the Government in the Senate}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cartwright, Richard John}}
[[Category:1835 births]]
[[Category:1912 deaths]]
[[Category:Canadian Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]]
[[Category:Ministers of finance of Canada]]
[[Category:Ministers of trade and commerce of Canada]]
[[Category:Canadian senators from Ontario]]
[[Category:Leaders of the opposition in the Senate of Canada]]
[[Category:Canadian people of Anglo-Irish descent]]
[[Category:Canadian people of English descent]]
[[Category:Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs]]
[[Category:Liberal Party of Canada MPs]]
[[Category:Liberal Party of Canada senators]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario]]
[[Category:Canadian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada]]
[[Category:Politicians from Kingston, Ontario]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Canada West]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Senate of Canada]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]