A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography. Various

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A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography - Various

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entered the study of Law and graduated at Osgoode Hall, being called to the Bar in 1890. He was created a King’s Counsel in 1908, and became head of the law firm of Pardee, Burnham & Gurd. In his student days and in the earlier years of his professional career he took a keen interest in various athletics and was a cricket player of note. He married, on December 31, 1892, Mary E. Johnston, daughter of Hugh Johnston, and to them was born one daughter, Pauline L. Early in life Mr. Pardee began to interest himself in public problems and public affairs, and in 1898, when but 31 years of age, he was chosen as Liberal candidate for the provincial riding of West Lambton, being elected to the Legislature of Ontario the same year. He sat in the Provincial House until 1902, when he was defeated by Hon. W. J. Hanna, who subsequently became Provincial Secretary in the first cabinet of Sir James Whitney. In the Dominion by-election of November 22, 1905, made necessary by the death of Dr. Johnston, the sitting member, Mr. Pardee was chosen by the electors of West Lambton to represent them in the Dominion House of Commons. He was re-elected at the general elections of 1908 and 1911. In November, 1909, on the nomination of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, then Prime Minister of Canada, he was unanimously chosen as Chief Government Whip, and still retains the important position of Chief Liberal Whip to the present time (1917). In the Dominion Parliament, as well as throughout the country, Mr. Pardee’s public work soon won him a position of usefulness and responsibility. He is a forceful and effective public speaker, and few public men are so universally popular and so highly esteemed. During his parliamentary career he has presided over, and served upon, many of the most important legislative committees of the House of Commons and Senate. In 1910 he was chosen by Sir Wilfrid Laurier to accompany him on his memorable tour through the Canadian West, making the first visit with the then Prime Minister to the new Pacific port of Prince Rupert. When, in 1911, the Administration of Sir Wilfrid Laurier was defeated at the polls upon the issue of reciprocal trade in natural products with the United States, and the Liberal party passed into Opposition, Mr. Pardee continued as Chief Whip and had a large share in the arduous parliamentary and organization work which ensued. Following the outbreak of the great war it was he who defined in Parliament, amid hearty approval from both sides of the House, the patriotic obligations which devolved upon Government and Opposition. He devoted his time and energy, both in the House and out of it, to patriotic endeavor, addressing recruiting rallies and contributing to the various national efforts of service and sacrifice. He moved in Parliament for the appointment of a special committee to consider national steps to recompense and aid returning wounded and maimed soldiers and was named by the House as a member of that committee. In 1918 he resigned the post of Liberal Whip and supported Sir Robert Borden on the question of Conscription, but declined a portfolio in the Union Government. In the general elections of that year he was again re-elected for West Lambton by a handsome majority. Mr. Pardee is strongly democratic in spirit, and during the parliamentary session of 1913–14, made a vigorous plea to the House against the indiscriminate bestowal of titles in Canada, and issued a warning against the danger of creating a pseudo-aristocracy in this young Dominion. In religion he is an Anglican and is a member of St. George’s Church, Sarnia.

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