William McCartney Davidson (November 12, 1872 – March 23, 1942) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

journalist, politician, and author.

Early life

Born in Hillier,

Prince Edward County, Ontario Prince Edward County (PEC) is a municipality in southern Ontario, Canada. Its coastline on Lake Ontario’s northeastern shore is known for Sandbanks Provincial Park, sand beaches, and limestone cliffs. The Regent Theatre, a restored Edwardian ...

, the son of James C. Davidson, a farmer, and Sarah McCartney Davidson, Davidson was educated at the public school of his district, Picton High School, St. Catharines Collegiate Institute, and the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1893. He started working as a reporter for ''

The Toronto World ''The Toronto World'' was a newspaper based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It existed between 1880 and 1921, and a Sunday edition operated from 1891 to 1924. Founded by William Findlay "Billy" Maclean, it was popular among Toronto's working class a ...

'' and soon joined the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

''. He would report from the Ontario legislature for seven years.

The Albertan

In 1902, Davidson founded '' The Albertan'', a daily newspaper published in the Calgary region that would become the

Calgary Sun The ''Calgary Sun'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is owned by Postmedia. First published in 1980, the tabloid-format daily replaced the long-running tabloid-size newspaper ''The Albertan'' soon after it was ...

, it was printed and published by his company The Albertan Pub. Co. His newspaper was among the many institutions calling for reform of the First past the post system, which eventually resulted in the United Farmers government bringing in

Single transferable voting Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

and Alternative Voting in 1924. By this time, he was not in favour of STV though."An Uneventful Session",

Calgary Albertan The ''Calgary Sun'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is owned by Postmedia. First published in 1980, the tabloid-format daily replaced the long-running tabloid-size newspaper ''The Albertan'' soon after it was ...

, April 15, 1924

Political career

Davidson was elected to the Alberta Legislature in the

1917 Alberta general election The 1917 Alberta general election was held on 7 June 1917 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Liberals won a fourth term in office, defeating the Conservative Party of Edward Michener. Because of World War I, eleven Me ...

as a Liberal. He defeated Conservative incumbent Samuel Bacon Hillocks by a comfortable margin to win to represent the North Calgary electoral district. He did not run for re-election. Davidson ran for election again as an Independent in a Calgary electoral district provincial by-election on January 15, 1923, held after the death of MLA Robert Edwards. He defeated Liberal candidate Clinton J. Ford to win. He did not run for re-election. He ran in the

1925 Canadian federal election The 1925 Canadian federal election was held on October 29, 1925 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 15th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative party took the most seats in the House of Commons, although not a majority. Pr ...

Calgary East Calgary East was a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1917 to 1953, 1979 to 1988, from 1997 to 2015. It was a lower income urban riding in Calgary, with a sizable visible min ...

. He was badly defeated, finishing a distant last behind Conservative Fred Davis, the winner, and Labor candidate William Irvine.

Published works

After he retired from provincial politics Davidson spent 2 years from 1926 to 1928 researching

Louis Riel Louis Riel (; ; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first ...

. As a result, he wrote 2 biographical books on the man - ''Louis Riel, 1844-1885 : a biography'' and ''The life and times of Louis Riel''. The second book was published as a condensed form of the first. Both books were published through his company The Albertan Pub. Co.

References

;Works cited *

External links

*
Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
1872 births 1942 deaths Alberta Liberal Party MLAs Canadian biographers Canadian male non-fiction writers Male biographers Independent Alberta MLAs Candidates in the 1925 Canadian federal election People from Prince Edward County, Ontario University of Toronto alumni Liberal Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons {{Alberta-politician-stub