William Gilbert Weir was a Canadian politician and was the longest serving Liberal-Progressive

Liberal-Progressive

Liberal-Progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1926 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics, there was no formal Liberal-Progressive party, but it was an alliance between two separate parties...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 in Canadian history sitting in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 for 27 years.

Born in Port Perry

Port Perry, Ontario

Port Perry is a community located in Scugog Township, Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. The town is located east of Uxbridge and southwest of Peterborough. Many residents commute to Toronto on a daily basis. Port Perry's municipal website reported a population of just over 9,500 in 2010.Port Perry...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Weir was a farmer by occupation. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 representing the riding of Macdonald

Macdonald (electoral district)

Macdonald was a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1892 to 1949.This riding was created in 1892 from parts of Marquette ridings....

, Manitoba

Manitoba

Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...

 defeating his sole rival by 499 votes, Conservative candidate John Woods, in the 1930 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1930

The Canadian federal election of 1930 was held on July 28, 1930 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 17th Parliament of Canada...

. He was re-elected in 1935

Canadian federal election, 1935

The Canadian federal election of 1935 was held on October 14, 1935 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 18th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of William Lyon Mackenzie King won a majority government, defeating Prime Minister R.B. Bennett's Conservative Party.The central...

 against a wide field including a straight Liberal

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 candidate, Anthony Messner, in what would be his only election facing a Liberal candidate. Subsequently, the Liberals did not oppose him.'

In 1949

Canadian federal election, 1949

The Canadian federal election of 1949 was held on June 27 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 21st Parliament of Canada. It was the first election in Canada in almost thirty years in which the Liberal Party of Canada was not led by William Lyon Mackenzie King. King had...

, Weir moved to the new riding of Portage—Neepawa

Portage—Neepawa

Portage—Neepawa was a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1949 to 1968.This riding was created in 1947 from parts of Macdonald, Neepawa and Portage La Prairie ridings....

 and would continue to win re-election until his defeat in the 1957 general election

Canadian federal election, 1957

The Canadian federal election of 1957 was held June 10, 1957, to select the 265 members of the House of Commons of Canada. In one of the great upsets in Canadian political history, the Progressive Conservative Party , led by John Diefenbaker, brought an end to 22 years of Liberal rule, as the...

, the first in which he shed the Liberal-Progressive label and ran as a straight Liberal.

Though retaining the Liberal-Progressive designation, Weir supported the Liberal government when it came to power in 1935 and subsequently sat with the Liberal Party caucus

Caucus

A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...

. He served as Chief Government Whip from 1945 to 1957 as well as parliamentary assistant to Prime Minister

Prime Minister of Canada

The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

 Louis St. Laurent

Louis St. Laurent

Louis Stephen St. Laurent, PC, CC, QC , was the 12th Prime Minister of Canada from 15 November 1948, to 21 June 1957....

from 1953 to 1957.