William Horace Temple

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For other persons of the same name, see William Temple.

Rev. William Horace (Bill) Temple (died April 1988), nicknamed "Bible Bill", was a Canadian politician, ordained minister, trade union activist and temperance crusader.

Temple fought in both World War I and World War II as an officer in the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force.

A Christian Socialist inspired by the social gospel movement, he was drawn to the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) party. He was the Ontario CCF's candidate in the west-end Toronto riding of High Park in the 1943 provincial election, but was defeated by George Drew, leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. Drew became Premier of Ontario as a result of the election.

Temple ran in the federal election as the CCF candidate in High Park. He placed third. He ran provincially again in the 1948 Ontario election, and castigated Drew for softening Ontario's liquor laws, claiming the Premier was the captive of "liquor interests". While Drew's party swept to victory across the province, Drew himself was defeated by Temple, and decided to resign as premier and move to federal politics.

As a Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP), Temple fought for temperance, and for housing for World War II veterans. Temple remained in the Ontario legislature until his defeat in the 1951 election.

He remained a minister in West Toronto where he founded the Inter-Church Temperance League. When the community joined the city of Toronto in 1909, it did so on condition of remaining a "dry" district where alcohol sales were prohibited. Temple and his Temperance League fought for half a century to maintain that regulation despite attempts by the city to reverse it. Over the years, several plebiscites were held on allowing alcohol sales, and Temple and his supporters successfully fought against permitting alcohol sales in referenda held in 1966, 1972, 1984. He died several months before a 1988 plebiscite, but had already begun the campaign, and his supporters credited him with their victory.

It was not until after Temple's death that neighbourhoods in the area finally voted to allow alcohol sales beginning in 1994 in the St. Clair West area, until 1998, when the last dry region in west Toronto became wet.

Temple was also a supporter of trade union rights throughout his life, and walked on countless picket lines. In the 1970s, he was arrested and charged with assault police. When brought to trial, the officer who had allegedly been assaulted, who was twice Temple's size and more than half his age, claimed in testimony that he had smelled alcohol on Temple's breath. This caused more offence to Temple than the claim that he had committed an assault, and character witness after character witness was brought to the stand to testify that Temple had never consumed anything stronger than ginger ale as long as they had known him. The charges were dismissed.

[edit] References

  • Hansard Ontario Legislative Assembly, 11 April 1988
  • Ontario Legislative Assembly Member's record
  • A life on the fringe : the memoirs of Eugene Forsey by Eugene Forsey, Toronto : Oxford University Press, 1990.
  • The Dilemma of Canadian Socialism : The CCF in Ontario by Gerald Caplan, 1973
  • Secular Socialists: The CCF/NDP in Ontario, A Biography by J.T. Morley
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