William Atcheson Stewart

William Atcheson Stewart (February 26, 1915 – December 8, 1990) was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1957 to 1975 who represented the southwestern Ontario riding of Middlesex North. He served as a cabinet minister in the governments of Leslie Frost, John Robarts, and Bill Davis.

Stewart was a cattle farmer in Denfield, Ontario.^[1] He married Edythe Jones and together they raised four daughters.

In 1957, Stewart was elected in a by-election in the riding of Middlesex North to replace Thomas L. Patrick who had died that year. He defeated Liberal candidate A.E. Smith by 3,134 votes.^[2] He was re-elected in 1959, 1963, 1967, and 1971. In 1960, Leslie Frost appointed him to cabinet as a Minister Without Portfolio. In 1961 he was appointed by new Premier, John Robarts as Minister of Agriculture.^[3] He retained the cabinet position for 15 years until his retirement in 1975.^[4]

In 1983, he was appointed the fourth chancellor of the University of Guelph.^[5] In 1976, he was awarded an honorary LL.D. from the University of Guelph. He was elected to the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1988.

• Ontario Legislative Assembly parliamentary history
• "Agriculture Hall of Fame profile" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2012-10-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
• "Honorary Degree Recipients". University of Guelph.