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{{Short description|Australian politician (1882–1957)}}
{{For|his son|John Cain (41st Premier of Victoria)}}
{{for multi|his son|John Cain (41st Premier of Victoria)|his grandson|John Cain (lawyer)|other people|John Cain (disambiguation){{!}}John Cain}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2007}}
{{Use Australian English|date=OctoberAugust 20132021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=OctoberAugust 20132021}}
{{Infobox Premier
| honorific-prefix = [[The Honourable]]
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| spouse = Dorothea Vera Marie Grindrod (m. 1926)
| children = 2, including [[John Cain (41st Premier of Victoria)|John Cain]]
| relatives = [[John Cain (lawyer)|John Cain]] (grandson)
| profession = Fruiterer, clerk and organiser
| signature =
| footnotes =
}}
{{John Cain Sr sidebar}}
 
'''John Cain''' (19 January 1882 – 4 August 1957) was an Australian politician, who became the 34th [[premier of Victoria]], and was the first [[Australian Labor Party (Victorian Branch)|Labor Party]] leader to win a majority in the [[Victorian Legislative Assembly]]. He is the only premier of Victoria to date whose son has also served as premier.
 
==Early life==
Cain was born, oneoldest of 1813 siblings, in [[Greendale, Victoria]], near [[Bacchus Marsh, Victoria|Bacchus Marsh]]. His father, Patrick KaneCane, was an Irish-born [[Roman Catholic]] who worked as a small farmer and contractor. His birth (number 3094 of 1882) was registered as John Caine, son of Patrick Caine and Julia Brannen at Greendale. His siblings were variously registered with the surnames Cane and Cain. (n.b. unusual mis-spelling of his mother's surname)
 
As a young man John KaneCaine changed the spelling of his surname and converted to [[Anglicanism]]. He left no personal papers, and very little is known about his youth (so little, indeed, that reference works published during his lifetime, and shortly after his death, continued to give the year of his birth as 1887). Nevertheless it is certain that heHe had veryextremely limited formal educationschooling, and that he worked from an early age as a farm labourer in the Goulburn Valley. By 1907 he had moved to [[Melbourne]], where he workedwas employed as a fruiterer in the suburb of [[Northcote, Victoria|Northcote]].
 
==Political career==
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In 1926 Cain married Dorothea Grindrod, with whom he had two children. His son [[John Cain II|John Cain]] was born in 1931, when he was already nearly 50. He sent his son to [[Northcote High School]] and later [[Scotch College, Melbourne]], an unusual choice for a Labor politician at that time.
 
Cain was elected in 1917 to the [[Victorian Legislative Assembly]] as MLA for Jika Jika, which was renamed [[Electoral district of Northcote|Northcote]] in 1927, a seat he held for 40 years.<ref name=ANU_AustralianDictionaryofBiographyOnline_JohnCain>{{cite AuDB | first = Robert | last = Murray | first2 = Kate | last2 = White | title = Cain, John (1882–1957) | volume = 13 | year = 1993 | id2 = cain-john-9661}}</ref> Victoria was Labor's weakest state, and there had never been a majority Labor state government. This was partly because of Labor's weakness in rural areas (dominated by the [[National Party of Australia – Victoria|Country Party]]) and partly because of the strength of [[Alfred Deakin|Deakinite]] liberalism among middle-class voters in Melbourne. Most notably the lack of a Labor majority government was however due to the high degree of rural malapportionment existing in the state's electoral system, strongly favouring the rural electorates to the disenfranchisement of inner-city electorates, where Labor's vote was centralised.
{{cite AuDB
| first = Robert | last = Murray
| first2 = Kate | last2 = White
| title = Cain, John (1882–1957)
| volume = 13
| year = 1993
| id2 = cain-john-9661
}}</ref> Victoria was Labor's weakest state, and there had never been a majority Labor state government. This was partly because of Labor's weakness in rural areas (dominated by the [[National Party of Australia – Victoria|Country Party]]) and partly because of the strength of [[Alfred Deakin|Deakinite]] liberalism among middle-class voters in Melbourne. Most notably the lack of a Labor majority government was however due to the high degree of rural malapportionment existing in the state's electoral system, strongly favouring the rural electorates to the disenfranchisement of inner-city electorates, where Labor's vote was centralised.
 
Cain was assistant minister for agriculture in the short-lived minority Labor government of [[George Prendergast]] in 1924, a minister without portfolio in the first minority Labor government of [[Edmond Hogan]] (1927–28), and minister for railways and for electrical undertakings in the second Hogan government (1929–32).
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===First Cain government ===
[[File:Johncainsenior.jpg|thumb|left|John Cain during the 1940s]]
In September 1943, Dunstan resigned, when his government lost a [[Motion of no confidence|vote of no confidence]] in the [[Victorian Legislative Assembly]], the [[Lower house]] of the Victorian Parliament. Cain became Premier forand fourLabor daysformed whilea theminority conservativegovernment partieson composed14 theirSeptember.<ref>{{cite differencesnews |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2649189 Dunstan|title=LABOUR thenMINISTRY resumedIN officeVICTORIA. and|newspaper=[[The retainedCanberra itTimes]] with|date=15 LaborSeptember support1943 until|accessdate=27 NovemberMarch 1945,2011 when|page=2 he|publisher=National againLibrary resigned.of Australia}}</ref><ref name=ANU_AustralianDictionaryofBiographyOnline_JohnCain/>▼
The first Cain government lasted only 4 days, from 14 to 18 September 1943.<ref name=ANU_AustralianDictionaryofBiographyOnline_JohnCain/>
 
▲In September 1943 Dunstan resigned, when his government lost a [[Motion of no confidence|vote of no confidence]] in the [[Victorian Legislative Assembly]], the [[Lower house]] of the Victorian Parliament. Cain became Premier for four days while the conservative parties composed their differences. Dunstan then resumed office and retained it with Labor support until November 1945, when he again resigned.
The [[First Cain Ministry|first Cain government]] lasted only 4 days, from 14 to 18 September 1943. On 15 September, barely 24 hours after [[Governor of Victoria]] [[Winston Dugan, 1st Baron Dugan of Victoria|Sir Winston Dugan]] had sworn-in the cabinet, the government was defeated in the Legislative Assembly. Cain's motion to adjourn the parliament for over a week was defeated by the Country Party and the [[United Australia Party]] (UAP), and Dunstan moved that Parliament resume the next day, giving notice that he would move a motion of no confidence against Cain's government, confident it would be carried by the CP–UAP alliance.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17863065 |title=CAIN MINISTRY DEFEATED. |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |date=16 September 1943 |accessdate=27 March 2011 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia |archive-date=17 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240417035716/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/17863065 |url-status=live }}</ref> Cain indicated that he would request a dissolution of parliament from the Governor, but if his request was refused, he would resign as Premier.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42399067 |title=SHORT LIFE. |newspaper=[[The Cairns Post]] |location=Qld. |date=16 September 1943 |accessdate=27 March 2011 |page=5 |publisher=National Library of Australia |archive-date=17 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240417035732/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/42399067 |url-status=live }}</ref> On 17 September, Cain visited the Governor who refused his request for a dissolution, Cain then resigned and the Governor commissioned Dunstan to form a coalition government with the UAP, which was sworn in on Saturday 18 September.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article42399294 |title=DISSOLUTION REFUSED. |newspaper=[[The Cairns Post]] |location=Qld. |date=18 September 1943 |accessdate=27 March 2011 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia |archive-date=17 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240417035728/https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/42399294 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite AuDB |id2=dunstan-sir-albert-arthur-6055 |title=Dunstan, Sir Albert Arthur (1882 - 1950) |access-date=13 January 2011}}</ref>
 
===Second Cain government===
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==Cain and the Labor split==
The [[Australian Labor Party split of 1955]] started in October 1954 after the federal leader, [[H.V. Evatt|Dr H. V. Evatt]], blamed [[B. A. Santamaria]] and his supporters in the Victorian Labor Party for Labor's loss of seats at the [[1954 Australian federal election|1954 federal election]]. Santamaria exercised strong influence in the Cain government through "Movement" linked ministers such as [[Bill Barry (politician)|Bill Barry]] and [[Frank Scully (politician)|Frank Scully]]. Protestant and left-wing ministers strongly opposed the Movement faction. In December 1953 the Lands Minister, [[Robert Holt (politician)|Robert Holt]], resigned rather than introduce a Santamaria-influenced bill which would have promoted the settlement of Italian immigrants as small farmers in [[Gippsland]] (a favourite Santamaria scheme which was seen as a plot to create a Catholic peasantry).
 
In early 1955 the Labor Party's federal executive dissolved the state executive and began to expel Santamaria's supporters from the party. The Victorian branch of the Labor Party then split between pro-Evatt and pro-Santamaria factions, and in March the pro-Evatt State Executive of the party suspended the membership of 24 members of State Parliament suspected of being Santamaria supporters. Four ministers were forced to resign from the government.
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==Notes==
<sup>1</sup> John Cain (1882–1957) was the father of [[John Cain (41st Premier of Victoria)]] (1931–2019), who also has a son named John Cain<ref name="ABC_TheWorldToday_18Jun2004_LawInstituteofVictoria_CEOJohnCainJr">{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1135165.htm|title= Melbourne lawyer caught up in gangland war|last=Cabonell|first=Rachel|date=18 June 2004|publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]|access-date=24 January 2009|archive-date=12 October 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081012140752/http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1135165.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> who in 2019 became [[Coroners Court of Victoria|State Coroner of Victoria]].<ref>[{{Cite web |url=https://premier.vic.gov.au/appointment-of-new-state-coroner-2/ |title=Government of Victoria,"Appointment of New State Coroner"] |access-date=23 December 2019 |archive-date=23 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191223224602/https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/appointment-of-new-state-coroner-2/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
 
==References==
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[[Category:Premiers of Victoria]]
[[Category:Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly]]
[[Category:Vice-Presidents of the Board of Land and Works]]
[[Category:Treasurers of Victoria]] ▼
[[Category:Australian people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:Converts to Anglicanism from Roman Catholicism]]
[[Category:Leaders of the Opposition in Victoria (Australiastate)]]
▲[[Category:Treasurers of Victoria]]
[[Category:Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria]]
[[Category:20th-century Australian politicians]]
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