Wilfrid Heighington

Template:Short description Template:Use Canadian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Wilfrid Laurier Heighington,<ref name="Windsor Star 19381123" /> Template:Post-nominals (July 30, 1897 – 23 March 1945)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> was a Canadian soldier, writer, lawyer and politician.<ref name="King & Empire Archive">Template:Cite web</ref>

Background

Heighington attended Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, leaving in 1915 to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force in World War I.<ref name="World 19161122 p.">Template:Cite news</ref> He was twice wounded in and twice mentioned in dispatches.<ref name="King & Empire Archive" /><ref name="World 19161122 p." /> After recuperating from serious wounds he returned to France to fight at the Somme and Vimy Ridge.<ref name="King & Empire Archive" /> He ended the war with the rank of captain.<ref name="Star obit" />

He became a lawyer following the war, was called to the bar in 1920, and was appointed King's Counsel eleven years later.

Politics

Heighington was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1929 Ontario general election as the Conservative Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the St. David electoral district in Toronto, Ontario.<ref name="OLA bio">Template:Cite web</ref> He was re-elected in 1934 despite the province wide landslide that brought the Ontario Liberal Party to power under Mitchell Hepburn.<ref name="OLA bio" /> He represented the Legislature as part of its official delegation on the pilgrimage to the Canadian National Vimy Memorial's official dedication ceremony in France.<ref name="Windsor Star 19360404">Template:Cite news</ref>

He was a candidate in the 1936 Conservative leadership election,<ref name="Windsor Star 19360410">Template:Cite news</ref> placing fifth. The following year he narrowly lost his seat in the legislature in the 1937 Ontario general election. Despite being out of the legislature, Heighington ran again for the party leadership in 1938,<ref name="Windsor Star 19381123">Template:Cite news</ref> and came in third, but with fewer votes (only 41). George Drew won the leadership on the first ballot.

Later life

Heighington was a prolific writer authoring articles and poems for Saturday Night, The Star Weekly and other periodicals, many of which were reissued in a book, Whereas and Whatnot (1934). In 1943, he published the war novel The Cannon's Mouth.<ref name="Globe Obit">Template:Cite news</ref>

He was still active with the military when he was hospitalized on 17 March 1945.<ref name="Star obit" /> He died due to complications from pneumonia at St. Michael's hospital on the evening of 23 March.<ref name="Globe Obit" />