11 Facts About Dalton McCarthy

Dalton McCarthy, or D'Alton McCarthy, was a Canadian lawyer and parliamentarian.

Dalton McCarthy was the leader of the "Orange" or Protestant Irish Canadians, and fiercely fought against Irish Catholics as well as the French Catholics.

Dalton McCarthy especially crusaded for the abolition of the French language in schools in Manitoba and Ontario.

An Irish-born Protestant, Dalton McCarthy was stridently anti-Catholic and anti-French Canadian.

Dalton McCarthy's contemporaries respected his organizational skills and perceived him as a potential Conservative leader after Prime Minister Sir John A Macdonald vacated the leadership.

Dalton McCarthy appears to have been associated with the Equal Rights Party which ran in that election but did not run as their candidate.

Dalton McCarthy appeared in the Supreme Court of Canada in the significant constitutional case of Citizens Insurance Co of Canada v Parsons, arguing successfully on behalf of two individuals claiming compensation under fire insurance policies.

Dalton McCarthy defended Emily Stowe in the 1879 abortion trial of Emily Stowe.

Dalton McCarthy was a founder of the "Imperial Federation League", which proposed uniting the United Kingdom and the emerging dominions under a central Cabinet government responsible to an Imperial Parliament elected from throughout the Empire.

Dalton McCarthy might have been appointed to cabinet had he not died following a carriage accident in 1898.

Dalton McCarthy was a key figure in the Manitoba Schools Question, and a major proponent in pushing English only in legislatures, courts, and schools of Western Canada.