Arthur Sifton - Early Life

Early Life

Arthur Sifton was born October 26, 1858, in Arva, Ontario, to John Wright Sifton (1833–1912) and Catherine "Kate" Watkins (1832–1909). He was the older brother of Clifford Sifton. He attended public schools across southern Ontario, culminating with a boys' school in Dundas and high school in London. His father was a devout Methodist and a staunch Reformer and, later, Liberal. These allegiances permeated his home life; the Sifton household was often visited by clergy, laity, businessmen, lawyers, and politicians. In 1874 or 1875, John Sifton won contracts for preliminary construction work on the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) and moved the family to Winnipeg, where Arthur completed high school at Wesley College. Following his graduation, he and Clifford attended Victoria College, then located in Cobourg, Ontario. In 1880, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts. While in Cobourg, he was not a devoted student: he skipped many classes, and was judged by his classmates to be "intellectually, morally, physically and erratically preeminent in virtue and otherwise, especially otherwise".

Upon graduation, Arthur Sifton returned to Winnipeg to article with Albert Monkman until 1881, when he followed his father to Brandon. John hoped to take advantage of a local real estate boom; nominally, Arthur was running a Brandon branch of Monkman's law firm, though he had not yet finished his articling and was accordingly unqualified to practice law. On September 20, 1882, he married Mary Deering of Cobourg; the pair would have two children, Nellie Louise Sifton (born August 1883) and Lewis Raymond St Clair Sifton (born February 1898). In 1883, he wrote and passed his bar exam and joined Clifford's Brandon law firm, now styled Sifton and Sifton.

University of Alberta historian David Hall describes the next phase of Sifton's life as "shrouded in mystery". For reasons that are not clear, in 1885 Sifton dissolved his partnership with his brother and moved his family to Prince Albert. (Hall speculates that the brothers had a falling out, but notes that their later working relationship appears to have been amicable.) In 1885, Prince Albert's prospects did not appear bright, as it had been bypassed by the CPR line. Regardless, Sifton practiced law and was in 1885 made a notary public. Three years later, he earned a Master of Arts from Victoria College and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Toronto. In 1889, he relocated again, to Calgary; there is some suggestion that this move was for the sake of his wife's health. There he opened a law office, worked in the office of the city solicitor, and became a partner in the firm of Sifton, Short, and Stuart. At one point he was a crown prosecutor. In 1892, he was appointed Queen's Counsel.