Page "William Ralph Meredith" Paragraph 4

Meredith had entered into politics in 1872 as a Conservative, when he succeeded Sir John Carling ( whose daughter, Jessie, married his brother, Thomas ) as London's representative to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

He was considered a radical by many Tories, but this didn't prevent him being named Deputy Leader of the Party in 1878 and after the retirement of John Hillyard Cameron the following year, without even the formality of a ballot, he was chosen as the Party's Leader.

Charles Biggar, the biographer of Meredith's chief political rival, Sir Oliver Mowat, wrote,