death_date death_place birth_place imagesize party office term term_start birth_date image article_title term_end name
17 may 1967 greencastle , indiana ameliasburgh , ontario 180px liberal independent speaker grey south of the legislative assembly of ontario mpp for 1914 -- 1923 1920 11 march 1877 nelson parliament.jpg nelson parliament
 1923 nelson parliament
nelson parliament

nelson parliament -lrb- march 11 , 1877 -- may 17 , 1967 -rrb- was speaker of the legislature of ontario from 1920 to 1923 .
he was first elected as a liberal mla for prince edward in the 1914 provincial election and served in the assembly until 1923 .
born in ameliasburgh , ontario .
he was educated at albert college in belleville and went on to farm in prince edward county .
the united farmers of ontario won the 1919 general election with a caucus made up entirely of newcomers .
without any experienced member who could serve as speaker , the new premier , e.c. drury , turned to the opposition benches and asked parliament to take on the position .
as a result , parliament resigned from the ontario liberal party and took the speaker 's chair as an independent .
while it is the practice in the british house of commons for the speaker to resign his or her party affiliation , nelson parliament is the only speaker in the history of the ontario legislature to shed his party affiliation .
he was defeated when he ran for reelection in 1923 .
after leaving politics , parliament became a behind-the-scenes organizer for the liberal party .
he later moved to indiana , where he operated a business in partnership with his nephew .
he died in greencastle , indiana in 1967 .
