View source for William Stevens Fielding

{{Short description|Canadian politician (1848–1929)}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name             = William Stevens Fielding
| honorific-suffix = [[Queen's Privy Council for Canada|PC]]
| image            = William Stevens Fielding, premier of Nova Scotia.jpg
| order            = 7th
| office           = Premier of Nova Scotia
| predecessor      = [[William Thomas Pipes]]
| successor        = [[George Henry Murray]]
| monarch          = [[Queen Victoria|Victoria]]
| lieutenant_governor = [[Matthew Henry Richey]]<br />[[Archibald McLelan]]<br />[[Malachy Bowes Daly]]
| term_start       = 28 July 1884
| term_end         = 18 July 1896
| office1          = [[Nova Scotia House of Assembly|MLA]] for [[Halifax (provincial electoral district)|Halifax County]]
| term_start1      = 20 June 1882
| term_end1        = 18 July 1896
| predecessor1     = [[Charles James MacDonald|Charles J. MacDonald]]<br />[[John Fitzwilliam Stairs|John F. Stairs]]<br />[[William D. Harrington]]<br />[[John Pugh (Canadian politician)|John Pugh]]
| successor1       = [[William Bernard Wallace]]
| alongside1       = [[William D. Harrington]], [[Angus A. Buchanan]], [[William Roche (Nova Scotia politician)|William Roche, Jr.]], [[Michael Joseph Power]], [[William Anderson Black|William A. Black]]
| constituency_MP2 = [[Shelburne and Queen's]]
| parliament2      = Canadian
| predecessor2     = [[Francis Gordon Forbes]]
| successor2       = [[Fleming Blanchard McCurdy]]
| term_start2      = 5 August 1896
| term_end2        = 21 September 1911
| predecessor3     = [[Fleming Blanchard McCurdy]]
| successor3       = ''District abolished''
| term_start3      = 17 December 1917
| term_end3        = 29 October 1925
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1848|11|24}}
| birth_place      = [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1929|6|23|1848|11|24}}
| death_place      = [[Ottawa]]
| nationality      = Canadian
| spouse           = {{marriage|Hester Rankine|1876}}
| party            = [[Nova Scotia Liberal Party]]
| otherparty       = [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]]<br />[[Unionist Party (Canada)|Unionist Party]]
| relations        =
| children         = 4 daughters and 1 son
| residence        = 
| alma_mater       = [[Dalhousie University]]
| occupation       = Journalist
| profession       = Politician
| cabinet          = Minister of Finance (1896–1911) (1921–1925) <br /> Minister of Railways and Canals (acting) (1903–1904) (1907)
}}
'''William Stevens Fielding''', {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|PC}} (24 November 1848 – 23 June 1929) was a Canadian Liberal politician, the seventh [[premier of Nova Scotia]] (1884–96), and the federal [[Minister of Finance (Canada)|Minister of Finance]] from 1896 to 1911 and again from 1921 to 1925.

==Early life==

[[File:William S. Fielding, Halifax Morning Chronicle reporter, SS Atlantic disaster, 1873.jpg|thumb|Fielding as Halifax Morning Chronicle reporter, around the time he reported on the ''[[RMS Atlantic|SS Atlantic]]'' disaster, 1873]]
He was born in [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]]. Fielding became leader of the [[Anti-Confederation Party]] ([[Nova Scotia Liberal Party]]). In 1884, he became Premier and won the 1886 election on a pledge to remove Nova Scotia from confederation. When he failed to do this, he turned to economic matters including developing the coal industry.

The Liberal Party of Nova Scotia fared poorly in national elections during the 1880s and early 1890s. The national party advocated policies that would discontinue the national coal subsidy and, for all practical purposes, eliminate Catholic schools in Manitoba, policies disliked by provincial coal miners and Catholics respectively.  Fielding forged a more moderate coal policy and defused the school issue, winning back Catholics. Thus in 1896 the provincial Liberals improved their showing in the national election.<ref>K. M. McLaughlin, "W. S. Fielding and the Liberal Party in Nova Scotia, 1891–1896," ''Acadiensis'', Spring 1974, Vol. 3#2 pp 65–79</ref>

==Federal politics==

In 1896, he left provincial politics to become Minister of Finance in the [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] government of Sir [[Wilfrid Laurier]]. In 1910, he negotiated a [[reciprocity (Canadian politics)|reciprocity]] or [[free trade]] agreement with the [[United States]] which led to the government's defeat in the [[1911 Canadian federal election|1911 general election]]. Fielding lost his seat, and became editor of the ''Daily Telegraph'' of [[Montreal]].

==First World War==

Fielding supported the [[Unionist Party (Canada)|Unionist]] government of Sir [[Robert Borden]] during the [[Conscription Crisis of 1917]] and returned to the [[House of Commons of Canada|House of Commons]] as a [[Liberal-Unionist]] member.

==Liberal leadership convention, 1919==

Fielding had widely been seen as Laurier's successor but his split with the party over the [[conscription]] issue cost him the [[1919 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election|1919 Liberal leadership convention]] where he lost to [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] by 38 votes.

==Service in Mackenzie King's first Administration==
He served again as [[Minister of Finance (Canada)|Minister of Finance]] in King's first government formed after the [[1921 Canadian federal election|1921 election]]. Fielding's health began to deteriorate in the years after the election, and while he nominally remained as Finance Minister through King's first parliamentary term, Minister of Trade and Commerce [[James Robb (politician)|James Robb]] effectively took over the role from late 1923 onwards. King's government fell in September 1925 when parliament unexpectedly voted to reject that year's budget. Fielding, recognising that he would likely not survive another full parliamentary term and that his political career was at its end, publicly took responsibility for the rejection of the budget, announcing his resignation as Finance Minister and that he would not seek re-election, saving Robb (who had actually been responsible for getting the budget passed) from having to resign.<ref>{{cite DCB |url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/fielding_william_stevens_15E.html |title=Fielding, William Stevens |volume=15 |first=Carman |last=Miller}}</ref>

==Later life==
[[File:William Stevens Fielding, Vanity Fair, 1909-11-03.jpg|left|thumb|Fielding caricatured by WHO for [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]], 1909]]
In 1923, Fielding was sworn into the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom]] allowing him to be styled as [[Right Honourable]], a rare privilege among Canadians who have not served as Prime Minister, Governor-General, or Chief Justice of Canada.{{fact|date=January 2025}}

He died in [[Ottawa]].{{fact|date=January 2025}}

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=5869}}

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[[Category:1848 births]]
[[Category:1884 in Canada]]
[[Category:1929 deaths]]
[[Category:Canadian Baptists]]
[[Category:Ministers of finance of Canada]]
[[Category:Ministers of railways and canals of Canada]]
[[Category:Canadian people of English descent]]
[[Category:Liberal Party of Canada MPs]]
[[Category:Liberal-Unionist MPs in Canada]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Nova Scotia]]
[[Category:Canadian members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada]]
[[Category:Nova Scotia Liberal Party MLAs]]
[[Category:Politicians from Halifax, Nova Scotia]]
[[Category:Premiers of Nova Scotia]]
[[Category:Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)]]
[[Category:19th-century Baptists]]
[[Category:Nova Scotia political party leaders]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]