Dalton Bales

Who was Dalton Bales?

Dalton Arthur Bales was an Ontario cabinet minister and lawyer.

Bales joined the Toronto law firm of McLaughlin, Soward in 1946 while he was a law student. He was called to the bar in 1949 and eventually became partner.

He entered politics in 1958 by being elected to the North York Town Council as an alderman. In 1963, he was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as the Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament for York Mills. In 1966 he was appointed Minister of Labour in the government of Premier John Robarts. Robarts' successor, Bill Davis, appointed him Minister of Municipal Affairs in 1971 before promoting him to Attorney General of Ontario in 1972.

In 1972, Bales and several other cabinet ministers were accused of being in a conflict of interest over property they owned. In Bales' case he was accused of having purchased land in Markham, Ontario in 1969 while the Cabinet was considering development plans in the area. Bales offered to resign from cabinet but his resignation was refused. The incidents resulted in Davis issuing the province's first conflict of interest guidelines for cabinet ministers and later parliamentary assistants to follow.