William Steeves
William Henry Steeves (
May 20,
1814 -
December 9,
1873) was a merchant, lumberman, politician and
Father of Canadian Confederation.
Born and raised in Hillsborough,
New Brunswick, Steeves was educated in public school and began his career running a small store before becoming a partner in Steeves Brothers, a family mercantile and lumber exporting business. Steeves moved to
Saint John, New Brunswick in order to further the business and became a leader in the city's financial community.
Steeves was elected to New Brunswick's colonial
House of Assembly in 1846 and was an advocate of governmental reform and the election of all members of the
Legislative Council. He was appointed to the Legislative Council (the
upper house) in 1851. In 1854, the
compact government that had ruled the colony was finally defeated by a reform administration and Steeves became Surveyor General in the new government. He resigned the appointment later that year due to opposition to an unelected person from the Legislative Council being appointed rather than an elected member of the House of Assembly.
In 1855, Steeves became the first chairman of the Department of
Public Works. He left government in 1856 when the reform administration of
Samuel Leonard Tilley was defeated over
prohibition, but he returned to office with Tilley in 1857 and remained commissioner of public works until 1861. He continued in Tilley's government as
minister without portfolio until 1865 when the government fell due to its support for
Canadian Confederation.
Steeves was a supporter of Confederation and was one of New Brunswick's delegates to the
Charlottetown Conference and the
Quebec Conference of 1864. He was appointed to the
Canadian Senate as a
Liberal when the chamber was created in 1867. In that body, he acted as an advocate for the better care of the
mentally ill. He served in the Senate until his death in 1873. He is interred in the
Fernhill Cemetery in
Saint John, New Brunswick.
Steeves was the great-great-uncle of
New Democratic Party leader
Jack Layton.
*
Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online*
Steeves Museum
