Sydney Arthur Fisher

Sydney Arthur Fisher, (June 12, 1850 – April 9, 1921) was a Canadian politician, who served as Minister of Agriculture during the regime of Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier from 1896-1911.

Born in Montreal, Canada East, he was educated at the High School of Montreal, McGill University, and finally Trinity College, Cambridge.

A farmer, he first ran for the House of Commons of Canada in an 1880 by-election for the riding of Brome, for the Liberals, following the death of Edmund Leavens Chandler. Although defeated by Liberal-Conservative David Ames Manson, he was elected in 1882 (when Manson was not a candidate) and again in 1887. In the 1891 election, he lost to Conservative candidate Eugène Alphonse Dyer by 3 votes. When Dyer's win was challenged, he did not run in the subsequent by-election in 1892 when Dyer was acclaimed. However, he was elected again in the pivotal 1896 election, and re-elected in 1900, 1904, 1908 elections, where he was a key member of the Wilfrid Laurier Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture. He was defeated in the 1911, that also saw the end of the Laurier government, and then in a 1913 by-election in Chateauguay, following the death of his former colleague James Pollock Brown, when he lost to James Morris.

There is a Sydney Arthur Fisher fonds at Library and Archives Canada.

He was the uncle of Philip Sydney Fisher (1896-1983), who became President of the Southam Inc. Publishing chain, and married the granddaughter of founder William Southam.

Electoral record

By-election: On Mr. Brown's death, 30 May 1913