Vernor Smith

Who was Vernor Smith?

Vernor Winfield Smith was a politician in Alberta, Canada who served as the province's Minister of Railways and Telephones from 1921 until 1932. Born in 1864 in Prince Edward Island, he moved to British Columbia in 1883 where he worked for several railway companies as an accountant. In 1915 he moved to Camrose, Alberta to become a farmer. The same year, he married Lily Bury, with whom he would have five children.

Smith contested the 1921 provincial election in the riding of Camrose for the United Farmers of Alberta, where he received 56% of the vote and defeated incumbent Liberal George P. Smith. The UFA, which had never before run candidates in an election, won a surprise victory in 1921, and new premier Herbert Greenfield appointed Smith to his cabinet as Minister of Railways and Telephones. In this capacity, Smith was responsible for dealing with a number of money-losing railways, including the Edmonton, Dunvegan and British Columbia Railway, that had fallen into the government's hands as a result of the collapse of the syndicates that had built them. He favoured government ownership of these railways, while Greenfield supported selling them to the Canadian Pacific Railway.