Dictionary of Glengarry Biography

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====== Gardiner, James Garfield ====== 
 (30 Nov. 1883-12 Jan. 1962), eminent political figure (known politically as Jimmy Gardiner), and **Mrs Gardiner** (1894-27 Oct. 1944). James Gardiner was born at Farquhar, Ont. He spent part of his childhood in the United States, was a farm worker in Huron County, Ont., went on a harvest excursion, qualified as a teacher, graduated (B.A.) from Manitoba College, Winnipeg, and was a farmer. For many years he was a member of the Saskatchewan legislature. He was premier of Saskatchewan from 1926 to 1929 and again from 1934 to 1935. In 1935 he became minister of agriculture in Mackenzie King’s government, and he remained minister of agriculture for the next 22 years, which is to say until 1957. During all but the final years of this period, the “near Glengarrian” G.S.H. Barton was deputy minister of agriculture for Canada (deputy minister 1933 to 1953). Gardiner was also minister of national war services from 1940 to 1941. A monumental figure of the Liberal Party and a great power in the nation, Jimmy Gardiner was one of the high visibility Canadian public men of his time, perhaps best known to farmers.

<tab>He married at Craik, Sask., at the home of his bride’s parents, on 25 Dec. 1917, as his second wife, Christy Violet McEwan (Violet McEwen), who was born at Maxville or in nearby Roxborough Township. She was the daughter of John McEwen and his wife Ellen MacRae, who had farmed at McDonald’s Grove, near Maxville, and later lived in Ottawa and near Craik. Violet was the sister of Duncan MacRae MacEwen the mathematics professor, and was a a relative of Frank Henry MacDougall the chemist. When her husband became premier, it was reported that she was the youngest wife of any provincial premier in Canada. (//Glengarry News// 2 April 1926)

<tab>The Hon. J.G. Gardiner seems to have made a great impression when he spoke at Maxville (not his first speech there) in Sept. 1938 at the banquet of the Glengarry and East Stormont Plowmen’s Association, on the occasion of the plowing match held at the farm of Lyman McKillican north of Maxville. (//Standard Freeholder// 28 Sept. 1938; there is a warm letter of tribute to this speech by Arthur W. Campbell, of Moose Creek, one of the “good Tories,” //Glengarry News// 7 Oct. 1938) In 1941 Gardiner spoke at the St. Andrew’s Day concert in Alexandria. (//SFH// 28 Nov. 1941; has summary of speech). And about a month later, on 29 Dec., he spoke at a dinner in Alexandria inaugurating the curling season. On the latter occasion, he described Winston Churchill’s recent arrival in Ottawa and his own experiences of London in the blitz of October 1940. Among those attending the dinner were Bishop Brodeur and ex-Senator and prominent Glengarrian Dr W.L. McDougald. (//Glengarry News// 26 Dec. 1941, 2 Jan. 1942 ) Half a year later, Gardiner was an honorary pallbearer at the funeral of Dr McDougald, another honorary pallbearer being N. A. Timmins, Jr, himself of GC connections through the Hollinger corporation. (//SFH// 23 June 1942)

<tab>Crushed by the death of her son, John Edwin Gardiner of the RCAF, in the Dieppe Raid in August 1942, Violet Gardiner committed suicide in Ottawa a little more than two years later by drowning in the Rideau Canal. Another of their sons, Wilfrid, was later a member of the Saskatchewan Legislature and a provincial cabinet minister. John Edwin’s //Letters Home: The Wartime Correspondence and Diary//, ed. David E. Smith, was published 2004 by the Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina. The widowed J. G. Gardiner remarried in 1946, but his association with Maxville continued. He attended the funeral, 1947, of ex-MP Dr W. B. MacDiarmid. When Mackenzie King opened the Glengarry Highland Games at Maxville in 1948 Gardiner also came to Maxville. On that occasion he donated a band trophy in memory of his son John Edwin and of Violet, a native of Maxville. (//Glengarry News// 6 Aug. 1948) In 1951, Gardiner himself opened the Glengarry Highland Games at Maxville. Gardiner was an unsuccessful contender for the Liberal Party leadership in 1948. He died at Balcarres, Sask. A four-part CBC mini-series called //Prairie Giant: the Tommy Douglas Story//, of 2006, was withdrawn from circulation on DVD on recognition that its depiction of Gardiner was unfair.

<tab>For another GC wife of a Prairie Provinces premier, see [[reid_richard_gavin|Mrs R.G. Reid]]. See also for a state governor’s wife from Maxville [[pollard_mrs_violet_elizabeth|Mrs J.G. Pollard]]. For another GC connection with Gardiner, see [[mcrae_donald_alexander|Donald Alexander McRae]], singer.

<tab>Gardiner’s third wife, Maude Isabell Scott (d. 1964), was the widow of Dr Hugh Herbert Christie, a Glengarrian, and is buried with her first husband, Dr Christie, at the North Branch cemetery, Martintown, GC.


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<fs small>Norman Ward and David Smith, //Jimmy Gardiner: Relentless Liberal// (1990) * life of J.G. Gardiner in //MDict// , Johnson (1968), and Hurtig * Campbell, //MacDougalls// 379-386, 392-393 * //Maxville (1991) //287, 663 * marriage, //Glengarry News// 11 Jan. 1918 * speaks at Maxville, //Standard Freeholder// 26 Sept. 1934 * obituary of Mrs Gardiner, //SFH// 28 Oct. 1944; also on her, //GN// 2 April 1926, Winter //GN// 17 April 1996
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