John Frederick Johnston

Who was John Frederick Johnston?

John Frederick Johnston was a Saskatchewan politician.

Johnston was born to a wealthy family in Bogarttown, Ontario that owned lumber and flour mills in Simcoe County.

He moved to Saskatchewan in 1905 and ultimately settled on a farm near Bladworth, Saskatchewan. In addition to his farm, he owned a lumberyard and hardware store in town and developed a string of general stores in the region.

He was elected by acclamation to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1917 wartime election as a Liberal-Unionist representing Last Mountain. The Liberal Party had split over the Conscription Crisis of 1917 and Johnston was one of the Liberals who broke with Sir Wilfrid Laurier in order to support the pro-conscription Union Government formed by Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden.

During the parliament, Johnston broke with both the government and the Liberals to support the new agrarian based Progressive Party formed by Thomas Crerar. He won the Progressive Party nomination in his riding and was re-elected in the 1921 federal election as a Progressive MP and became the party's chief whip in the Canadian House of Commons.

Johnston supported co-operation between the Progressives and the Liberals. He was re-electedas a Progressive MP, this time in the riding of Long Lake in the 1925 federal election. The Liberals lost seats in the election but stayed in power leading a minority government. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King convinced Johnston to cross the floor and join the Liberals in early 1926 in an attempt to buttress his government's support. He was re-elected as a Liberal in the 1926 federal election and, in December 1926, became Deputy Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons.