William Raney - Ontario Attorney General

Ontario Attorney General

Raney was initially a Liberal running unsuccessfully for the Ontario legislature in the 1914 provincial election. After the United Farmers of Ontario unexpectedly won the 1919 provincial election the agrarian party — pursuing an unusual matter of principle — had no lawyers in its caucus and so the new government of E.C. Drury approached Raney to accept the position of Attorney-General. He accepted and contested a by-election entering the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Wellington East. He was sworn in as the Attorney General of Ontario on November 14, 1919.

He became a leading force in the UFO-Labour government. In his ministerial capacity, he set out to abolish party patronage methods in the Ontario Ministry of Justice, and had the administration of the Ontario Temperance Act transferred to his office. Indeed, he became best known for what has been described as his 'zealous' application of Ontario's prohibition laws. However, when one of his alcohol inspectors, the Reverend J O L Spracklin, was tried for manslaughter (Spracklin shot and killed a man who was engaged in the illicit liquor trade and was later acquitted of manslaughter), the Government's and Raney's administration of the Province's liquor laws came under significant scrutiny. The Government's strict enforcement of the Ontario Temperance Act served to alienate voters from the cities, who largely felt that the party was too inclined towards rural causes and hostile towards urban issues.