26 Facts About John Hugill

John William Hugill was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as Attorney General of Alberta from 1935 until 1937.

John Hugill became a prominent resident of that city, and served two years on its city council.

John Hugill was elected as a candidate for it in the 1935 provincial election and, when it formed government, was named Attorney General by Aberhart.

John Hugill did not believe that social credit could be legally implemented by a provincial government and did not support the Aberhart's attempts to do so.

Thereafter John Hugill was an outspoken opponent of the Aberhart government, though he did not seek re-election in the 1940 election.

John Hugill retired from the practice of law in 1949, and died in 1971.

John Hugill was born in West Hartlepool, County Durham, October 3,1881.

John Hugill studied at the City of London School before immigrating to Canada in 1896.

John Hugill was called to the bars of Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1910, and subsequently earned a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Manitoba.

John Hugill's hobbies included golf, polo, and big game hunting.

John Hugill held a lifetime membership in the Alpine Club, which he was awarded for reaching the summit of Mount Stephen.

John Hugill was consul to Sweden and vice consul to the Netherlands for fifteen years.

John Hugill was not an adherent of its social credit monetary theories, but joined Social Credit because he viewed it as a vehicle of reform.

Concerned about the constitutionality of a provincial government legislating on banking and monetary issues, as was advocated by many Social Crediters, John Hugill sought assurances from Aberhart that no such legislation would be forthcoming from a Social Credit government.

Athabasca University historian Alvin Finkel suggests that John Hugill's initial support of Social Credit was opportunistic, and not born of any belief in its rightness.

John Hugill provided both, and Aberhart recruited him to run as a Social Credit candidate in Calgary.

Partly in response to the situation, British social crediter John Hugill Hargrave visited Alberta to advise the government on how it might implement social credit.

At a cabinet meeting with Hargrave present, John Hugill expressed that the Canadian Constitution did not give to the provinces sufficient powers to implement social credit, and that doing so would necessitate the use of the federal power over banking and currency.

John Hugill did not believe that the acts were within the province's legislative competence, but avoided saying so publicly.

John Hugill asked Hugill whether he considered the bills constitutional, and Hugill replied in the negative.

John Hugill speculates that neither Bowen nor Hugill was aware of this rule, and criticizes the federal government for not monitoring the situation and advising Bowen as to the proper use of his powers.

John Hugill joined the People's League, a collection of mainstream elements opposed to Aberhart which ran nominally independent candidates in the 1940 and 1944 elections, and denounced Aberhart's government as a "tyrannical dictatorship" and the premier as the most sadistic man he had ever met.

John Hugill himself did not seek re-election in the 1940 election.

Later, when Aberhart received word that Ryerson Press was going to publish an expose of his government authored by John Hugill, he threatened to cancel Ryerson's contracts to print Alberta's school textbooks unless the company reconsidered.

At the expiration of his term as MLA in 1940, John Hugill returned to practicing law in Edmonton and Calgary.

John Hugill retired to Victoria in 1949, the year after the death of his wife, and died in Vancouver on January 13,1971.