Arthur Sturgis Hardy, member of the Ontario Parliament and Provincial Secretary and Registrar, is a son of Russell and Juletta (Sturgis) Hardy, and was born at Mount Pleasant, County of Brant, December 14, 1837, both parents being descended of United Empire Loyalists. Russell Hardy, formerly a merchant in Brantford, is a native of Canada as was also Mr. A. S. Hardy’s mother. Both families came to Canada nearly one hundred years ago. Our subject was educated in the Brant County Grammar School, and at Rockwood Academy, near Guelph; studied law at Brantford and afterwards completed his studies in Toronto under the late Chief Justice Harrison, and Thomas Hodgins, LL.B., Q. C.; was called to the Bar at Easter term, 1865; has been in practice at Brantford since that time, and for some years has been at the head of the Brant County Bar. Since 1867 he has been City Solicitor; he was elected a Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario in 1875, and created a Queen’s Counsel in 1876.
Mr. Hardy is the senior member of the firm of Hardy, Wilkes, and Jones, who do an extensive common law and chancery business, and are the leading firm of the kind in the city. Mr. Hardy is a fluent, animated, and eloquent speaker, a clear reasoner, a powerful logician, and one of the most successful jury lawyers in Western Ontario. Few men of his profession and his age in this part of the Province, have a more brilliant record. He has also acquired a reputation in the western section of the Province as a very able and successful advocate in criminal cases. Mr. Hardy was first elected to Parliament for his present seat (South Brant) in April, 1873, on the resignation of the sitting member, the Honorable Edmund Burke Wood, now Chief Justice of Manitoba; was elected by acclamation at the general election in January, 1875; entered the Provincial Government, and was appointed Provincial Secretary and Registrar in March, 1877, and was again re-elected by acclamation; and after an unusually spirited contest, was re-elected a third time in June, 1879, by a large majority.
The politics of Mr. Hardy are Liberal or Reform, and he is a leading man in his party in the Province. His Christian membership is in the Church of England.
The wife of Mr. Hardy is Mary, daughter of Hon. Justice Morrison, of Toronto, one of the Judges of the Court of Appeal of Ontario, they having been married on the 19th of January, 1870. They have three children.