Keefer, Francis Henry

DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Jamie Benidickson, “KEEFER, FRANCIS HENRY,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/keefer_francis_henry_15E.html
DCB profile notes:
- Lawyer, politician, and office holder; b. 24 July 1860 in Strathroy, Upper Canada, son of James Keefer, a merchant and village reeve, and Maria Cook; m. first January 1884 Annie Frances Daby (Daley, Davey) (d. 1915), and they had two daughters, one of whom died young, and two sons; m. secondly 15 Aug. 1917 Margaret Wilhemina Keefer in Toronto; d. there 4 Dec. 1928.
- rank Keefer received his early education at Strathroy Grammar School and Upper Canada College before attending the University of Toronto (ba 1881; ma, llb 1882). In 1883 he moved to Prince Arthur’s Landing (Port Arthur, now Thunder Bay), where the Weekly Herald and Lake Superior Mining Journal described him as a metallurgist. After his call to the bar in 1884 he joined the law practice there of his brother Thomas Alexander Keefer and Edward Robert Cameron, who soon left. The brothers combined their legal work with an interest in mining. In 1889 Frank also assumed the responsibilities of solicitor for Port Arthur, a position he would hold until 1910. .
- He eventually sat as the Unionist–Conservative mp for Port Arthur and Kenora from 1917 to 1921. While in Ottawa, Keefer acted as counsel and adviser to the federal Food Board and, from 1918 to 1920, he was parliamentary under-secretary of state for external affairs. During the House of Commons’ consideration of margarine as a wartime substitute for butter, Keefer, reflecting perhaps an understanding acquired at the Food Board, advanced the strongest pro-margarine position against the protests of the dairy industry. The representative of a riding that accommodated three transcontinental railways and nine railway divisional points, he also championed the adoption by the government railways of workers’ compensation provisions equivalent to those in effect on private lines.
- As early as November 1920 Keefer was openly advocating the formation of a new northwestern province, Superior. It may have been his willingness to defend northern interests against his own government’s policy that attracted the attention of Ontario Conservative leader George Howard Ferguson, who recruited the former mp for the provincial election of June 1923, which the Tories swept. Returned in Port Arthur, Keefer would represent the riding until his defeat in 1926. A month after the contest he was made legislative secretary for northern Ontario, and he eventually succeeded in having Port Arthur made the northwest headquarters of the Department of Lands and Forests. These achievements no doubt provided some satisfaction to a man who had once remarked that “we in the North country are fighting against the difficulties of nature, and I feel that in this matter we should receive the most sympathetic consideration.”
- Keefer acted as a watchdog for Ontario on matters connected with the St Lawrence. This responsibility, though consistent with his commitment to a deep waterway system, produced some friction with Premier Ferguson, who did not wish to see Ontario’s hydroelectric plans encumbered by a canal proposal. Attention to the St Lawrence also saw Keefer continue his efforts against “the Chicago steal” – the unauthorized diversion of Lake Michigan waters to the Gulf of Mexico. He monitored Chicago’s machinations with particular reference to the interests of the Great Lakes Harbours Association of Canada and the United States, and repeatedly advised senior political figures in Ottawa that the development of the St Lawrence was the key to creating Canadian–American alliances capable of resolving the Chicago situation.
Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=4367
Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39968451/francis-henry-keefer