The decade of political turmoil that followed resulted in greater democratic government at the local and provincial levels, as Oxford repeatedly elected Reformers to serve as the county's representative in the legislative assembly. They included a Prime Minister (Sir Francis Hincks) and two Fathers of Confederation (George Brown and Sir Oliver Mowat). Enormous growth in the 1840s to the 1860s also became a cure for past grievances. The population chart tells the story and shows the county eventually reached a population plateau in the 1870s that continued well into the first half of the 20th century.