John Wintermeyer

Who was John Wintermeyer?

John Joseph Wintermeyer was a politician in Ontario, Canada. Wintermeyer was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 1955 provincial election, and was chosen leader of the Ontario Liberal Party in 1958.

In the 1959 election, the Liberals under Wintermeyer's leadership increased their legislative caucus from 10 to 21, but were unable to prevent the ruling Ontario Progressive Conservative Party of Premier Leslie Frost from winning another majority. In the campaign, Wintermeyer promoted policies such as universal medicare, improvements to general welfare assistance, amalgamation of the various municipalities that made up Metropolitan Toronto, and full funding of Catholic schools. Wintermeyer had long been an advocate of a provincial sales tax, which put him in a difficult position when the Frost government introduced a 3% retail sales tax in 1961. While Wintermeyer personally supported the tax, his caucus did not, and he was forced to publicly renounce his support.

In the 1963 election, the Liberals increased their total seats by two, but Wintermeyer lost his seat of Waterloo North, and he resigned as party leader. He was succeeded as party leader by Andy Thompson.