Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician who serves as the fourth prime minister of Canada
1845 CE
to 1894 CE
Sir John Sparrow David Thompson PC KCMG QC (November 10, 1845 – December 12, 1894) is a Canadian lawyer, judge, and politician who serves as the fourth prime minister of Canada, in office from 1892 until his death.
He had previously been premier of Nova Scotia for a brief period in 1882.
Thompson was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
He trains as a lawyer, and is called to the bar in 1865.
Thompson is elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in 1877 as a representative of the Conservative Party.
He becomes the provincial attorney general the following year, in Simon Holmes' government, replaces Holmes as premier in 1882.
However, he serves for only two months before losing the 1882 general election to the Liberal Party.
After losing the premiership, he accepts an appointment to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
In 1885, Thompson enters federal politics at the personal request of Sir John A. Macdonald, becoming Minister of Justice.
In this role he is the driving force behind the enactment of the Canadian Criminal Code.
Thompson becomes prime minister in 1892, following the retirement of John Abbott.
He is the first Roman Catholic to hold the position.
On a trip to England in 1894, Thompson unexpectedly suffers a heart attack and dies, aged forty-nine.
He is the second and most recent Canadian prime minister to have died in office, after Sir John A. Macdonald.
