The Ontario Temperance Act was a provincial law, passed in 1916 under Premier William Hearst, that banned the sale of liquor as a drink across Ontario, including Toronto. It received royal assent on April 27, 1916, took effect on September 16, 1916, and stayed in force until 1927, when the Liquor Control Act replaced it and created the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO). Ontario voters kept it in place in referendums in 1919 and 1921 and, by a very narrow margin, in a 1924 plebiscite.
The law was written as a wartime economy measure, not a permanent ban. Its history shows how a rule meant to last for the duration of the First World War ended up governing the province for eleven years.
Background: the temperance movement before 1916
Ontario had a long record of temperance campaigning before the war. Gerald Hallowell, in a 1972 study published by the Ontario Historical Society, describes decades of agitation by temperance workers that reached its peak in Ontario during the First World War and the years just after it. He notes that taverns were common in towns and cities, that a largely abstaining middle class blamed alcohol for poverty, vice, and crime, and that the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was one of the organizations pressing the case. He adds that the period was one of many “prohibitions”: rules in 1919 barred Sunday activities from buying a newspaper to playing golf, so the liquor ban sat inside a wider climate of moral regulation.
The war gave the movement its opening. Hallowell states that the 1916 act was intended as a wartime measure to promote economy and Ontario’s fighting ability, and that it was to last only for the duration of the war.
What the Act provided
According to Hallowell, the Act forbade selling liquor for beverage purposes, and forbade keeping, giving, or having liquor except in a private dwelling. Taverns, bars, and all liquor outlets were closed, with the exception of government dispensaries. Several exceptions kept the system from being absolute:
- A doctor could prescribe alcohol to any patient judged to need it. Hallowell notes that the usual lawful way for a man to obtain liquor was to be “ill” and hold a prescription.
- Native Ontario wines were exempt, because legislators feared harming the province’s grape-growing industry.
- Making alcohol was never forbidden. Brewers and distillers kept operating and sold to Quebec and the United States.
- Until a referendum in April 1921, a household could still order liquor from outside the province, for example from Montreal.
A local history built from period newspapers (Rye & Ginger) reports that the province named only three liquor vendors, in London, Toronto, and Hamilton. They could sell to doctors, dentists, veterinarians, druggists, and people who needed alcohol for religious or scientific purposes. The Deseronto Archives, quoting town council records, adds that a standard hotel could still sell non-intoxicating drinks.
September 16, 1916: the day the bars closed
The Act came into force on Saturday, September 16, 1916. The Rye & Ginger account says Ontario’s bars, clubs, and liquor shops stopped selling liquor as a beverage at 7 p.m. that day, that hotel keepers sold off stock before closing, and that the closing passed without disturbance. A Waterloo Region museum page is reported to give midnight instead, so sources differ on the exact hour. Toronto’s taverns and hotel bars closed along with the rest of the province.
Timeline of the Act
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| April 27, 1916 | Ontario Temperance Act passed | Deseronto Archives |
| September 16, 1916 | Ban on the sale of liquor as a drink takes effect | Rye & Ginger; Deseronto Archives |
| October 1919 | Referendum keeps the Act as a peacetime law | Hallowell; TVO |
| April 1921 | Referendum ends private importation of liquor from outside Ontario | Hallowell; TVO |
| 1923 | Amendments allow arrest without a warrant and seizure of vehicles used in bootlegging | TVO |
| October 23, 1924 | Non-binding plebiscite: 585,676 vote to maintain the Act, 551,645 for government-controlled sale | TVO |
| May 1925 | Legal beer raised from 2.5 percent to 4.4 percent alcohol | TVO |
| 1926 | Howard Ferguson’s Conservatives, who promised to end prohibition, win the provincial election | TVO; Hallowell |
| 1927 | Liquor Control Act replaces the Temperance Act; first LCBO stores open by June | Evans (LCBO archives); TVO |
The referendums
The Act was meant to last for the war, and a vote on its future followed. In October 1919 voters, including women who had recently gained the vote, chose to retain the law as a peacetime measure. Hallowell puts the winning majority at more than 400,000. TVO gives the figures for the repeal question as 772,161 against repeal and 369,434 for it, which agrees with that majority.
In April 1921 voters ended the private importation of liquor from other provinces. TVO notes that the margin was closer than in 1919. The plebiscite of October 23, 1924, asked about the Act and about government-controlled sale of beer and spirits in sealed packages. The result was 585,676 to maintain the Act and 551,645 for government control, a gap of about 3 percentage points. It was not binding, and TVO reports that the wet vote was concentrated in the cities and in northern Ontario.
Enforcement and bootlegging
Hallowell writes that a great deal of legally produced liquor flowed out of the province and back in, and that illicit stills and illegal drinking places multiplied. Enforcement from 1919 fell to the United Farmers of Ontario government under Premier E. C. Drury and Attorney General W. E. Raney, who in Hallowell’s words tried to enforce the liquor laws “resolutely and impartially.” In 1923 Attorney General W. F. Nickle amended the Act so that police could arrest suspected offenders without a warrant and seize vehicles used for bootlegging, according to TVO. The same source records the argument of critics that the Act encouraged bootlegging and sent money to criminals.
Toronto during prohibition
Toronto was one of the three places with a government liquor vendor, and the 1924 wet vote was strongest in cities. One Toronto business was shaped directly by the era: the Gooderham and Worts distillery. The Canadian Encyclopedia says it was converted during the First World War into a war industry, British Acetones, and was sold after the war, while prohibition continued, to Harry C. Hatch. In 1927, around the time Ontario’s prohibition ended, Hatch merged it with Hiram Walker of Windsor. The distillery’s longer story is told in the article on the Distillery District linked below.
Local rules could outlast the provincial Act. The Canadian Encyclopedia says Junction residents voted in 1903 to ban alcohol sales within the area’s boundaries, and that sales remained illegal in some parts of the Junction until 2000. Other accounts give different end dates, including a 1997 referendum, so the year the Junction returned to legal sales is disputed.
Why the Act ended in 1927
Three developments worked against the law: falling support in the referendums, a bootlegging trade that undermined respect for it, and a change of government. Ferguson campaigned in 1926 on ending prohibition and won. The Liquor Control Act of 1927 created the LCBO, and TVO reports that its first retail branches had opened by June 1927. Accounts differ on how many stores opened on the first day, so no figure is given here. Dave Evans, the LCBO’s corporate archivist, describes the board’s operations from 1927 as mandated under the Liquor Control Act.
Current rules for drinking in parks and on the Toronto Islands are set by municipal by-law, and the article on city by-laws linked below explains where to check them.
Frequently asked questions
When did the Ontario Temperance Act start and end?
It was passed on April 27, 1916, took effect on September 16, 1916, and was replaced by the Liquor Control Act in 1927.
Was it illegal to drink alcohol in Ontario under the Act?
Not entirely. The Act banned selling liquor as a drink and keeping it outside a private dwelling. A doctor’s prescription, native wines, and liquor kept at home remained lawful, and manufacture for export was never banned.
Why did the Ontario Temperance Act fail?
It lasted eleven years, so it did not fail at once. Support fell from a majority of more than 400,000 in 1919 to a margin of about 3 percentage points in the 1924 plebiscite, while critics argued that the law fed bootlegging. A government elected in 1926 on a promise to end prohibition replaced it.
Could people in Toronto still buy liquor legally between 1916 and 1927?
Yes, in limited ways. Toronto had one of three government vendors, and doctors could prescribe alcohol. The vendors served doctors, druggists, and people with religious or scientific needs.
Related reading
- Social movements in Toronto, including the Prohibition era
- The Distillery District and the Gooderham and Worts distillery
- Crime and organized crime in Toronto
- City by-laws on drinking in parks
- An overview of Toronto’s history
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Gerald A. Hallowell, Prohibition in Ontario, 1919-1923, Ontario Historical Society Research Publication No. 2, 1972 (preface)
- TVO, article on how Ontarians faced prohibition in the 1920s
- Rye & Ginger, “15-21 September 1916: Abstemious Ontario”
- Deseronto Archives, “100 years ago: Temperance Act affecting business”
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Distillery Historic District (Gooderham and Worts) National Historic Site” and “Toronto Feature: The Junction”
- Dave Evans, “From the LCBO Digitized Archives,” Ontario History 112, no. 2 (2020)
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). The Ontario Temperance Act of 1916 and Prohibition in Toronto. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/ontario-temperance-act-1916
MLA: “The Ontario Temperance Act of 1916 and Prohibition in Toronto.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/ontario-temperance-act-1916. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “The Ontario Temperance Act of 1916 and Prohibition in Toronto.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/ontario-temperance-act-1916.
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