View source for William Smithe

{{Short description|Premier of British Columbia from 1883 to 1887}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| name          = William Smithe
| image         = Smithe.jpg
| caption       = Hon. William Smithe
| order         = 7th [[Premier of British Columbia]]
| term_start    = January 29, 1883
| term_end      = March 28, 1887
| predecessor   = [[Robert Beaven]]
| successor     = [[Alexander Edmund Batson Davie]]
| monarch       = [[Queen Victoria|Victoria]]
| lieutenant_governor = [[Clement Francis Cornwall]]<br>[[Hugh Nelson (Canadian politician)|Hugh Nelson]]
| office1       = [[Legislative Assembly of British Columbia|MLA]] for [[Cowichan (electoral district)|Cowichan]]
| term_start1   = October 16, 1871
| term_end1     = March 28, 1887
| predecessor1  = first member
| successor1    = [[Henry Fry (politician)|Henry Fry]]
| alongside1    = [[John Paton Booth]], [[Edwin Pimbury]], [[Henry Croft]]
| birth_name    = William Smith
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1842|6|30|mf=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Matfen]], [[England]]
| death_date    ={{Death date and age|mf=yes|1887|3|28|1842|6|30}}
| death_place   = [[Victoria, British Columbia|Victoria]], [[British Columbia]]
| party         = None
| spouse        = Martha Kier
| religion      =
|}}
'''William Smithe''' (born '''William Smith'''; June 30, 1842 in [[Matfen]], Northumberland, England – March 28, 1887 in [[Victoria, British Columbia]]) was a [[British Columbia]] politician and the seventh [[premier of British Columbia]], from 1883 to 1887.

Smithe was born William Smith in [[England]] and moved to Canada in his youth, settling on [[Vancouver Island]] in 1862 as a [[farmer]]. In 1871, he ran and won a [[Legislative seat|seat]] in the new provincial [[legislature]]. There he added the final "e" to his name. [[Amor De Cosmos]], also then a member of the legislature, had likewise been born as "William Smith," but in a characteristically grand gesture had legally adopted instead a new name meaning "Love of the Universe."

By 1875 Smithe had become the informal [[Leader of the Opposition (British Columbia)|leader of the opposition]] to [[Premier]] [[George Anthony Walkem]]'s government, but yielded the leadership to [[Andrew Charles Elliott]]. Smithe was in Elliott's short lived [[Cabinet (government)|cabinet]] from 1876 to 1878 before returning to the [[parliamentary opposition|opposition]] benches and again became opposition leader.

In 1883, Smithe became the premier of British Columbia and initiated the ''Great Potlatch'' era in which governments made generous grants of public resources and land to private [[entrepreneur]]s. He also settled disputes with the federal government which had stalled the construction of the transcontinental [[Canadian Pacific Railway]]. Asked on one occasion whether he thought British Columbia should be annexed to the United States, he suggested instead that Washington and Oregon be annexed to British Columbia.  Smithe remained premier until he died in office in 1887.

== External links ==
*[http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=5834 Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'']
*{{find a Grave|6400}}

{{BCPremiers}}
{{Smithe ministry}}
{{Elliott ministry}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smithe, William}}
[[Category:1842 births]]
[[Category:1887 deaths]]
[[Category:Premiers of British Columbia]]
[[Category:English emigrants to pre-Confederation British Columbia]]
[[Category:Independent MLAs in British Columbia]]
[[Category:People from Matfen]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia]]