Wilfrid Heighington

Background Heighington attended Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario, leaving in 1915 to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force in World War I. He was twice wounded in and twice mentioned in dispatches. He was re-elected in 1934 despite the province wide landslide that brought the Ontario Liberal Party to power under Mitchell Hepburn.

He was a candidate in the 1936 Conservative leadership election, placing fifth. The following year he narrowly lost his seat in the legislature in the 1937 Ontario general election. Despite being out of the legislature, Heighington ran again for the party leadership in 1938, and came in third, but with fewer votes (only 41). George Drew won the leadership on the first ballot.

Later life Heighington was a prolific writer authoring articles and poems for Saturday Night, The Star Weekly and other periodicals, many of which were reissued in a book, Whereas and Whatnot (1934). In 1943, he published the war novel The Cannon's Mouth.

He was still active with the military when he was hospitalized on 17 March 1945. He died due to complications from pneumonia at St. Michael's hospital on the evening of 23 March.