William Horace (Bill) Temple, nicknamed "Temperance Bill" or "Temperance Willie", was a Canadian socialist politician, trade union activist, businessman and temperance crusader. As a youth he worked for the railway. During World War I, and World War II he served in the Royal Naval Air Service and later on the Royal Canadian Air Force. Between the wars, he was a salesman, and then he started a clothing import business. He became a socialist during that period and joined the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) when it was formed. He ran for political office many times for the CCF, both federally and provincially. The highlight of his political career was in 1948, when he defeated the incumbent Ontario Permier George Drew in his own legislative seat, in the electoral district of High Park, even though Drew's party won the general election with a majority government. His tenure was relatively short, serving only one term, and was defeated in the 1951 provincial election, and went back into the clothing import business. In his later years, he successfully led the political fight to maintain the prohibition on selling alcohol in a section of Toronto's west end and won three referendums in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He died in the spring of 1988, a few months before another referendum on lifting the restrictions on alcohol in the area was again defeated, his "last" victory.
Temple at his campaign victory party in 1948
George Alexander Drew was a Canadian politician. He served as the 14th premier of Ontario from 1943 to 1948 and founded a Progressive Conservative dynasty that would last 42 years. He later served as leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party and Leader of the Official Opposition from 1948 to 1956.
George A. Drew
Drew (at the centre) at the Dominion-Provincial Conference on Reconstruction