George Perry Graham

Who was George Perry Graham?

George Perry Graham, PC was a journalist, editor and politician in Ontario, Canada.

In the 1898 Ontario provincial election, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, and re-elected in 1902 and 1905. In 1904, he was appointed to the cabinet as Provincial Secretary by Premier George William Ross and served in that position until the Ross government lost the election of 1905.

When Ross resigned as leader of the Ontario Liberal Party in 1907, Graham briefly succeeded him, but quickly left later that year for federal politics when he was appointed Minister of Railway and Canals in the Liberal government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

Ross won a seat in the Canadian House of Commons in a by-election in 1907. He was defeated in the 1911 federal election that brought Robert Borden's Conservatives to power, but returned to the House of Commons in a 1912 by-election.

In 1921, he served in a number of defence portfolios in the Cabinet of William Lyon Mackenzie King. He lost his seat in the 1925 federal election, but was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1926, and sat in that body until his death in 1943.