John Hugill

John William Hugill (October 3, 1881 – January 13, 1971) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as Attorney General of Alberta from 1935 until 1937. Born in England, he came to Canada and studied law before setting up a practice in Calgary. He became a prominent resident of that city, and served two years on its city council. In the early 1930s, he was one of the few prominent Calgarians with mainstream respectability to support William Aberhart's Social Credit League. He was elected as a candidate for it in the 1935 provincial election and, when it formed government, was named Attorney General by Aberhart.

Hugill's time as Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) was dominated by differences of opinion with Aberhart. Hugill did not believe that social credit could be legally implemented by a provincial government and did not support the Aberhart's attempts to do so. When asked by Lieutenant Governor John Campbell Bowen whether he considered three of the government's acts to be constitutional, he replied honestly that he did not; this prompted Aberhart to demand his resignation as Attorney General. Thereafter Hugill was an outspoken opponent of the Aberhart government, though he did not seek re-election in the 1940 election. He retired from the practice of law in 1949, and died in 1971. Provided by Wikipedia