David Laird

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Laird

David Laird , PC (born March 12, 1833 in New Glasgow , Prince Edward Island , † January 12, 1914 in Ottawa ) was a Canadian politician and journalist . From 1873 to 1876 he was a liberal member of the lower house and during this time was a member of the federal government as interior minister. From 1876 to 1881 he served as Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories .

biography

The son of Alexander Laird, a shipbuilder and politician from Scotland , received his secondary education at the Central Academy in Charlottetown . He then studied at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Truro (Nova Scotia) . Instead of becoming a priest, Laird founded the newspaper Patriot in Charlottetown in 1859 , which became the leading liberal publication on Prince Edward Island. In the following years he held various offices at the local level. In 1864 he married the daughter of the then post minister Lemuel Owen .

In 1871 Laird was elected to the Prince Edward Island Parliament. In 1872 he was a member of the government for a short time, the following year he negotiated in Ottawa about the colony's accession to the Canadian state that was established in 1867. In September 1873, the citizens of Prince Edward Island first elected their representatives for the Canadian House of Commons . Laird ran for the Liberal Party and was elected in Queens County . After the Pacific scandal was exposed , the newly arrived MPs were responsible for the decision in the vote of no confidence in the conservative Prime Minister John Macdonald .

The new Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie took Laird on November 7, 1873 as Minister of the Interior in the Federal Cabinet; at the same time he also held the office of superintendent for Indian affairs. In 1874 he passed the Indian Act in parliament , which to this day regulates the legal situation of the First Nations . That same year he negotiated with the Cree and Saulteaux the contract no. 4 from which the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway paved the way.

On October 6, 1876, Laird resigned as MP and Minister. The following day he became Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories , the swearing-in was made by Governor General Lord Dufferin . In 1877 Laird determined Battleford as the new administrative seat of the Northwest Territories, which replaced Fort Livingstone . His most important tasks included the establishment of the education system, the construction of the infrastructure and the enforcement of law and order. His term of office lasted until December 3, 1881.

In 1882 Laird returned to Charlottetown and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the House of Commons; also in 1887 he was defeated. He also devoted himself to his newspaper Patriot until he moved to Winnipeg in 1898 after Wilfrid Laurier had appointed him Indian agent for the province of Manitoba . From 1903 to 1905 he presided over the Manitoba Historical Society . From 1909 he worked in Ottawa as an advisor to the Department of Indian Affairs .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Laird, David
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian politician
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH New Glasgow (Prince Edward Island)
DATE OF DEATH January 12, 1914
Place of death Ottawa