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William Andrew Cecil Bennett ( September 6, 1900 - February 23, 1979) was a Premier of the Canadian province of British ColumbiaBritish Columbia or simply B. French: la Colombie-Britannique is the westernmost of Canada's provinces. It was the sixth province to join the confederation of Canada (in 1871). As of 2004, the population was 4,168,123 British Columbians . Geography Its ca who was born in Hastings , New BrunswickNew Brunswick Nouveau-Brunswick ( In Detail) ( In Detail) Motto: Spem reduxit (Hope was restored CapitalLargest city Fredericton Saint John Area Total % fresh water 11th largest(8th lgst prov. 72 908 km² 2. 0% Population Total (2001) Density Ranked 8th 75, Canada. He is usually referred to as W. A. C. Bennett and both affectionately and mockingly by many as Wacky Bennett.

At the age of 18, Bennett moved to Edmonton, AlbertaEdmonton a Canadian city, is the capital of the province of Alberta. History Edmonton was founded in 1795 when a Hudson's Bay Company Trading Post was established with the construction of Fort Edmonton. John Rowand, a fur trader for the North West Company and eventually went to Kelowna, British ColumbiaKelowna ( 2001 population 96,288, metropolitan population 147,739) is a city on Okanagan Lake in the interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is the seat of the Central Okanagan Regional District. First settled by missionaries in 1859, Kelowna was officia and entered the retail hardware business. A successful merchant, he served as President of the Kelowna Board of Trade from 1937Events January January 1 Anastasio Somoza becomes President of Nicaragua January 11 The first issue of Look magazine goes on sale in the United States. January 19 Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, to 1939Events January-June January 2 End of term for Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Culbert Levy Olson. January 24 Earthquake kills 30. 000 in Chile about 50. 000 sq mi razed January 26 Falangists take Barcelona January 26. He entered provincial politics on October 21, 1941 when he was elected the Conservative Party member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly for South Okanagan. He was re-elected in 1946 and again in 1950.

He ran unsuccessfully for the provincial Conservative Party leadership in 1951, and became an Independent Member in 1951. In December of that year he announced membership in the Social Credit League. The party was elected with a minority government in the 1952 provincial election, using an Alternate Vote system but had no leader. In a vote of the newly elected caucus, Bennett defeated Philip Gaglardi for the position of party leader and premier-elect on July 15 1952.

On August 1, he was sworn in as Premier of British Columbia, an office he held for twenty years until 1972. Because Bennett only had a minority government, he engineered his own defeat with a school funding proposal, and forced an election in 1953. He was re-elected with a clear majority. Single Transferable Voting was not used in BC again. A conservative, he served also as the Minister of Finance, keeping tight control over government spending while leading his province into an era of modernization and prosperity.

Following his party's defeat in the 1972 election by Dave Barrett's revitalized NDP, he served as Leader of the Opposition until resigning his seat as Member for South Okanagan in June of 1973. His son, William R. Bennett won the South Okanagan by-election in September and W.A.C. Bennett retired as leader of the Social Credit Party on November 15th. William was elected leader of Social Credit Party on November 24, 1973 and in the provincial election of 1975 the Social Credit Party was re-elected with a majority and William R. Bennett became the new Premier of British Columbia.

W.A.C. Bennett died in 1979 and was interred in the Kelowna Municipal Cemetery, in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

In 1998, the Government of Canada honored W.A.C. Bennett with his portrait on a postage stamp of Canada. The W. A. C. Bennett Dam near Hudson's Hope, built under the Two River Policy is named after him. He was featured in Time Magazine on September 30, 1966.