Abbott, Sir John Joseph Caldwell, lawyer, professor, politician, prime minister (b at St Andrews East [St-André-Est], Lower Canada 12 Mar 1821; d at Montréal 30 Oct 1893). A graduate of McGill College, he was admitted to the bar 1847 and taught at McGill from 1853, serving as dean of the law faculty 1855-80. Although he signed the Annexation Manifesto in 1849, he quickly recanted and during the TRENT AFFAIR of 1861 he raised and commanded a militia force to patrol the border with the US. He sat in the legislative assembly, and later in the House of Commons from 1857 until he was appointed to the Senate in 1887, except for the period 1874-80. 

Solicitor general for Canada East in the short-lived administration of J.S. MACDONALD and L.V. SICOTTE 1862-63, he entered the federal Cabinet in 1887 as government leader in the Senate and minister without portfolio. (He was also mayor of Montréal 1887-89.) In 1891 he succeeded Sir John A. MACDONALD as PM. His was largely a caretaking administration and in 1892 he turned over the government to Sir John S.D. THOMPSON. 

AUTHOR: CARMAN MILLER
READING: C. Ondaatje and D. Swainson, The Prime Ministers of Canada 1867-1968  (1968).

Courtesy The Canadian Encyclopedia