WINTER, Sir James Spearman

Sir James Spearman Winter served as Premier of Newfoundland from 1897 to 1900, the first premier born in one of the island’s outports. His twenty-seven-year career in the House of Assembly took him through three legal-officer portfolios, the Speaker’s chair, two changes of constituency, and the 1897 Tory Party victory that put him at the head of government.

Early life and legal training

Winter was born at Lamaline, on the Burin Peninsula, on 1 January 1845. Lamaline was a classic Newfoundland outport — an inshore cod-fishing community dependent on the Grand Banks trade. His parents sent him to Toronto for part of his schooling. He returned to St. John’s to article in law with Hugh Hoyles, who would himself serve as Premier of Newfoundland in the 1860s. Winter was called to the Newfoundland bar in 1867.

He married Emily Julia Coen.

The Harbour Grace Affray and Winter’s early career

Winter was first elected to the Newfoundland House of Assembly in 1873 as the member for Burin, the district that contained his native Lamaline. He held the seat through four general elections until 1885.

Between 1877 and 1879 he held the Speaker’s chair of the House of Assembly. In that same 1877–1879 period the Tory government of Sir William Whiteway first brought him into its legal ranks; he became Solicitor General in 1882 under Whiteway and later Attorney General in the Thorburn ministry.

In 1884 the Harbour Grace Affray — the 26 December 1883 clash between Orangemen and Catholic Riverhead residents at Harbour Grace, in which four men were killed and seventeen injured — came to trial at the Assizes, and Winter appeared as counsel in the proceedings. In the general election the following year he switched constituencies, standing for Harbour Grace itself as the New Party (Thorburn) candidate. He held that seat for the next fifteen years.

Premier of Newfoundland, 1897–1900

Winter led the Tory Party into the 1897 general election on a Protestant-rights platform that drew the Orange constituency in the Avalon Peninsula and the south-east coast. The Tories won, and Winter was sworn in as Premier.

His three years in office saw the completion of the Newfoundland Railway to Port aux Basques, the 1898 Reid Contract that transferred large Crown land concessions to the railway-builder Robert Reid in exchange for operating and shipping commitments, and mounting controversy over those concessions. The 1900 general election returned the Liberals under Sir Robert Bond, who campaigned against the Reid deal. Winter lost his own seat in Harbour Grace and his government fell.

He was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 1898 during his premiership.

Retirement and death

Winter retired from active politics after 1900 and moved to Toronto. He died there on 6 October 1911, at the age of sixty-six.