Text from the Plaque
Ontario's eleventh prime minister was born in nearby Yarmouth Township and educated at St. Thomas Collegiate. After serving in World War I, he was elected to the federal parliament in 1926 as member for Elgin West. In 1930 he was named leader of the Ontario Liberal party and resigned his federal seat in 1934 to become prime minister of Ontario. His administration established pensions for the blind and the aged, compulsory pasteurization of milk, a Department of Municipal Affairs and, on the Grand River, the first provincial water control programme. Mitchell Hepburn resigned as prime minister in 1942 and, in 1945, retired to his farm near St. Thomas.
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