Article

William Duncan Herridge

Published Online November 29, 2007

Last Edited December 16, 2013

William Duncan Herridge, lawyer (b at Ottawa 18 Sept 1888; d there 21 Sept 1961). Herridge was the brother-in-law of Prime Minister R.B. BENNETT, his minister to the US from 1931-35, and one of his key advisers. He served with distinction in WWI, winning both the DSO and MC.

Herridge, William Duncan

William Duncan Herridge, lawyer (b at Ottawa 18 Sept 1888; d there 21 Sept 1961). Herridge was the brother-in-law of Prime Minister R.B. BENNETT, his minister to the US from 1931-35, and one of his key advisers. He served with distinction in WWI, winning both the DSO and MC. He came to political prominence during the election of 1930, when he wrote speeches for Bennett and helped formulate Conservative strategy. While in Washington he was impressed by F.D. Roosevelt's activist philosophy of government, and he played a prominent role in convincing Bennett to bring a version of the New Deal to Canada in 1935 (seeBENNETT'S NEW DEAL). In 1939 the mercurial Herridge launched New Democracy, a short-lived political movement advocating monetary reforms and far-reaching government intervention in the economy.