It was formed following the 1900 general election, in which the incumbent premier, Joseph Martin, failed to gain a majority; he subsequently recommended Dunsmuir as the next government leader.

[1] On November 21, 1902, Dunsmuir submitted his resignation to Lieutenant Governor Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière and recommended Edward Gawler Prior as his successor.

[2] On September 3, 1901, finance minister John Herbert Turner resigned in order to become the province's agent general in London and was succeeded by James Douglas Prentice; Prentice, the provincial secretary and education minister, was in turn succeeded by John Cunningham Brown.

[5] Two weeks later, on October 4, Brown resigned from cabinet, and Prentice regained the portfolios while also remaining minister of finance and agriculture.

[6] On March 6, 1902, Edward Gawler Prior joined cabinet as minister of mines, filling the absence left by McBride.