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Will Ferguson (Ontario politician)

Canadian politician (1954–2011)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ8003948 ↗
Source-derived summary

Willard Gerard Ferguson or William A. Ferguson (February 13, 1954 – July 22, 2011) was a Canadian politician in Ontario. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1990 to 1994, and served as Minister of Energy in the government of Bob Rae.

Background

Ferguson was born in Kitchener. He was a male child in a set of fraternal triplets along with two sisters. His mother, Mary Ferguson had also given birth to twins two years earlier. He attended Conestoga College where he earned a diploma in social work. He worked at the Grandview girls' reform school in the 1970s, and was involved with the Big Brothers Association of Kitchener in 1982–83. He then worked as an employment Councillor at The Working Centre from 1984 to 1988, and was Director of Administration at Dusty's Disposal from 1989 to 1990.

Ferguson competed as an amateur boxer and earned a silver medal in the middle-weight division at the Ontario Winter Games in 1970. His first marriage was to Jeanette with whom he had a son.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Will Ferguson (Ontario politician)” as canadian politician (1954–2011). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Will, Ferguson and Ontario.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1954, 2011, 1990, 1994—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1954-02-13. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Will, Ferguson and Ontario providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Will Ferguson (Ontario politician)”, the useful work is to connect “canadian politician (1954–2011)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8003948. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954, 2011, 1990 and 1994.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Will Ferguson (Ontario politician)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Will Ferguson (Ontario politician) primary sources, Will Ferguson (Ontario politician) archive and Will research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Will Ferguson (Ontario politician)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Will Ferguson (Ontario politician)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.