William Raney

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William Edgar Raney, K.C. (1859-1933) was a lawyer, politician and judge in Ontario, Canada, in the early twentieth century.

Raney was a well known lawyer in the first decades of the last century and came to the public eye through his opposition to gambling on horse racing, against which he had authored a series of reports.

Raney was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Wellington East in the 1919 provincial election that brought the neophyte United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) party to power. A lawyer, he was appointed to the cabinet as Attorney-General and was a leading force in the UFO-Labour government of E.C. Drury. Raney was best known for what has been described as his zealous appolication of Ontario's prohibition laws. The government's strict enforcement of the Ontario Temperance Act alienated its support in cities, in which it was already felt that the UFO government was too inclined towards rural causes and hostile towards cities.[1]

The return of only 17 UFO and 4 Labour MLAs in the provincial election of 1923 saw Premier Durry lose his own seat along with his government. Raney took over the leadership of the Progressives (as the UFO-Labour bloc of MLAs had become known), and led its unsuccessful effort in the 1926 election, with the return of only 17 Progressive/UFO/Labour MLAs. A year later, Raney resigned his seat to accept a judicial appointment.