Sir William Wilfred Sullivan | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Sir William Wilfred Sullivan

Sir William Wilfred Sullivan, journalist, lawyer, politician, premier of PEI 1879-89, judge (b at Hope River, PEI 6 Dec 1843; d at Memramcook, NB 30 Sept 1920).

Sullivan, Sir William Wilfred

Sir William Wilfred Sullivan, journalist, lawyer, politician, premier of PEI 1879-89, judge (b at Hope River, PEI 6 Dec 1843; d at Memramcook, NB 30 Sept 1920). Appointed assistant editor of the Charlottetown Herald in 1864, Sullivan was elected, initially as a Liberal, to the PEI Legislative Assembly in 1872 and thereafter until he resigned in 1889. Elected leader of the Opposition in 1877, Sullivan, a Catholic, formed a Conservative government in 1879. Premier for over 10 years, a strong advocate of the Island's rights, Sullivan was appointed chief justice in 1889 and created a knight bachelor in 1914, 3 years before he retired from the bench.