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Biography of Richard Bedford BennettName: Richard Bedford BennettBirth Date: July 3, 1870 Death Date: June 26, 1947 Place of Birth: Hopewell, New Brunswick, Canada Nationality: Canadian Gender: Male Occupations: prime minister, political leader Richard Bedford Bennett Richard Bedford Bennett (1870-1947) was a leader of the Conservative party of Canada and prime minister during the Great Depression in the 1930s.Richard Bedford Bennett was born at Hopewell, New Brunswick, on July 3, 1870, a descendant of pre-Loyalist settlers from Connecticut. After graduating from Dalhousie University in 1893, he practiced law in Chatham, New Brunswick, for 4 years and then moved to Calgary in the Northwest Territories. There he soon built up a successful legal business and established a connection with the E. B. Eddy Company that was to lead to his holding a controlling interest in it 25 years later. He also acted as solicitor for the Canadian Pacific Railway.Bennett was a member of the Assembly of the Northwest Territories for 6 years and was elected to the Alberta Legislature in 1909, then resigned to contest and win the Calgary East Riding for the Conservatives in the general election of 1911. He did not run …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…and social security. His government then enacted measures extending farm credit and establishing a natural-products marketing board, unemployment insurance, and minimum wages and maximum hours in industry. After Bennett's defeat in the election of 1935, most of this legislation was ruled unconstitutional by the courts. Bennett remained as leader of the opposition until 1938, when he retired to live in England. In 1941 he was created Viscount Bennett of Mickleham, Calgary, and Hopewell. He died in England on June 26, 1947. Further Reading Lord Beaverbrook, Friends (1959), and Ernest Watkins, R. B. Bennett: A Biography (1963), contain useful discussions of Bennett. J. R. H. Wilbur, The Bennett New Deal: Fraud or Portent? (1968), contains the major documents of Bennett's administration.Gray, James Henry, R.B. Bennett: the Calgary years, Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1991. Waite, Peter B., The loner: three sketches of the personal life and ideas of R.B. Bennett, 1870-1947, Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1992. |