Christopher Finlay Fraser
Encyclopedia
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
lawyer and political figure. He represented Grenville South
Grenville South
Grenville South was a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1904. It was located in the province of Ontario...
in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
The Legislative Assembly of Ontario , is the legislature of the Canadian province of Ontario, and is the second largest provincial legislature of Canada...
from 1872 to 1879 and Brockville
Brockville (electoral district)
Brockville was a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1917. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867....
from 1879 to 1894.
He was born in Brockville
Brockville, Ontario
Brockville is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Though it serves as the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, Brockville is politically independent and is grouped with Leeds and Grenville for census purposes only.Known as the "City of the 1000...
in Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...
in 1839. He worked as an apprentice at the Brockville Recorder while younger, then articled in law, was called to the bar in 1864 and set up practice in Brockville. He was elected on the city council and also served as a lieutenant in the local militia. He was a member of the board of directors for the Ontario Bank
Ontario Bank
Ontario Bank was an early bank operating in Toronto, Ontario in 1860. It was last listed as a member of the Canadian Bankers Association in 1901. The bank and its 30 branches across the province were absorbed into the Bank of Montreal in the fall of 1906, after its general manager Charles McGill...
and helped reorganize the finances of the Brockville and Ottawa Railway. He was a founding member of the Ontario Catholic League in 1869. He was named provincial secretary in 1873 and promoted to commissioner of Public Works the following year. In 1876, he was named Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
. Fraser administered the rebuilding of the provincial parliament buildings at Queen's Park completed in 1894. During his time in office, Fraser served as a representative for Roman Catholic voters in the government of Oliver Mowat
Oliver Mowat
Sir Oliver Mowat, was a Canadian politician, and the third Premier of Ontario from 1872 to 1896, making him the longest serving premier of that province and the 3rd longest in all of Canadian history...
, defending their interests when he could and soothing their resentment when he couldn't.
He died in Toronto in 1894 after suffering a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
.