William Lyon Mackenzie King (Prime Minister; President of the Privy Council; Secretary of State for External Affairs)
Liberal
Right Hon. W. L. MACKENZIE KING (Prime Minister):
Mr. Speaker, for the third time, within less than a month, it is my painful duty to be called upon to refer at the opening of Monday's proceedings, to the removal by the hand of death, during the brief adjournment over the week-end, of an hon. member of this House.
Three weeks ago it was hon. members on this side of the House who were bereaved of one of their numbers; last week, it was hon. gentlemen immediately opposite; to-day it is the leader and members of the Progressive party. In each instance, death followed swiftly upon a brief illness.
John Douglas Fraser Drummond, who died in this city yesterday afternoon, was the member for West Middlesex, in this province. He was in his sixty-sixth year. Mr. Drummond was one of the best-known farmers of western Ontario. He started farming as a boy on his father's farm in Middlesex, and attained marked success in mixed farming and in the raising of grade Durham cattle. He became actively identified with the United Farmers' movement when it took its rise in the province a few years ago, and at the last general election was returned to this parliament, defeating nominees of both the Liberal and Conservative parties.
Mr. Drummond's life rvas continuously associated with the interests of agriculture and the county he represented, which was also the county of his birth. Before entering federal politics he had during a period of thirty years, been successively councillor, reeve and clerk of his native township, having held the latter office for sixteen years.
Greatly respected by all who knew him, and especially by hon. members of this House, the country loses in the death of the hon. member a well-informed and faithful representative of its agricultural interests in parliament, and the constituency of West Middlesex one of her best-known and most devoted sons. '
The sympathy of hon. members of this House will go out in fullest measure to the widow and others of the family of our late fellow-member who have been so suddenly and so greatly bereaved.