The United Farmers of Ontario (UFO) was an agrarian and populist provincial political party in Ontario, Canada. It was the Ontario provincial branch of the United Farmers movement of the early part of the 20th century.
History
Foundation and rise (1914–1919)
The UFO was founded in 1914 by the union of various farmers' organizations that had been created over the previous fifteen years. James J. Morrison was the leading figure in the party, serving as its general secretary and secretary of the United Farmers Co-operative Company Ltd. (the purchasing co-operative the UFO operated on behalf of its members). The organization grew rapidly and by 1917 it had 350 local clubs and 12,000 members. The UFO had a comprehensive farmer's platform that called for the nationalization of railways, progressive taxation, and legislation that would facilitate the operation of co-operatives. In 1917, supporters of the UFO formed the Farmers' Publishing Company and purchased The Weekly Sun renaming it The Farmer's Sun to act as the organ of the UFO.
The UFO entered politics by contesting and winning a by-election in Manitoulin in 1918, in which Beniah Bowman was elected as the party's first Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). In the 1919 provincial election, with over 50,000 members, the party sought to hold the balance of power so it could introduce legislation friendly to farmers. It co-operated with the Independent Labour Party with the two organizations not running candidates against each other - the UFO contested rural ridings and the ILP stood candidates in urban areas. In total there were 64 UFO candidates, 20 ILP candidates and 10 Farmer-Labour candidates in the 1919 provincial election. The UFO platform called for the abolition of political patronage, better educational opportunities in rural areas, cheap electric power, conservation of forests, proportional representation and "direct legislation". The UFO also favoured prohibition and budgetary restraint, two platform planks that were at odds with the views of urban Labour supporters. To the shock of everyone, including itself, it won 45 seats and formed a coalition government with the support of Labour MLAs in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario despite having no leader.
As the United Farmers began as a single-issue party, Morrison opposed forming a government, believing that the party should concern itself solely with agricultural issues and that it would not be able to represent the entire province. Furthermore, he viewed the Independent Labour Party as inimical to farmers' interests and opposed a coalition with them to form a majority government. Morrison was offered the position of UFO caucus leader and Premier of Ontario following the election but declined as did Sir Adam Beck; the position instead went Ernest C. Drury.
Government of Ontario (1919–1923) Despite Morrison's objections, the UFO joined with other MLAs to form a coalition government. He had the UFO join with 10 Independent Labour Party MLAs (an 11th ILP MLA, Morrison MacBride, broke with his colleagues and sat in Opposition). Three Independent MLAs also joined the coalition government. Drury was Premier and two of the ILP MLAs were in the cabinet.
The government under Drury tried to be a "people's government" rather than a "class government." Drury himself called for the coalition government to be termed a "People's Party."
Drury's Farmer-Labour government created the first Department of Welfare for the province and brought in allowances for widows and children, a minimum wage for women and standardized adoption procedures. His government also expanded Ontario Hydro and promoted rural electrification. It created the Province of Ontario Savings Office - a provincially owned bank that lent money to farmers at a lower rate, along the lines of "Social credit".
It began the first major reforestation program in North America, and began construction of the modern highway system. The government was also a strict enforcer of temperance measures, Prohibition being law in Ontario from 1916 to 1927. Drury also arranged for a grant for then-unknown researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best who, with Dr. James Collip, later discovered insulin.
The UFO grew quickly to 1,500 clubs and 60,000 members by 1920.