John Hart (premier)

John Hart (Mohill, County Leitrim, Ireland March 31, 1879-April 7, 1957, Victoria, British Columbia) was premier of British Columbia, Canada, from December 9 1941 to December 29 1947.

Hart worked in the finance industry and founded his own firm in 1909. He entered politics in the 1916 election, elected to the provincial legislature as a Liberal member from Victoria City. He served as minister of finance from 1917 to 1924, and from 1933 to 1947.

Hart became premier following the 1941 election when Pattullo's Liberals failed to win a majority. Unlike Pattullo, Hart was willing to form a coalition government with the Conservative Party. This allowed the Liberal-Conservative coalition to govern with a majority, and to block the rise of the socialist Cooperative Commonwealth Federation.

From 1941 to 1945, Hart governed at a time of wartime scarcity, when all major government projects were postponed. Hart's coalition government was re-elected in the 1945 election by a decisive margin. In that contest, Liberals and Conservatives ran under the same banner for the first time in BC history.

After 1945, Hart undertook an ambitious program of rural electrification and highway construction. He established the BC Power Commission, a forerunner of BC Hydro, to provide power to smaller communities that were not serviced by private utilities. Hart's most significant project was the construction of Highway 97 to northern British Columbia, which is named in his honour. In December 1947, he retired as both finance minister and premier, and returned to business.

Hart was one of the few BC premiers who left office neither defeated nor under a cloud. He died in Victoria in 1957, aged 78 years, having led a distinguished life of public service. He is interred in the city's Royal Oak Cemetery.