William Robinson was an Ontario

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....

 businessman and political figure. He represented Kingston

Kingston (electoral district)

Kingston was a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1925 and from 1953 to 1968. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867, and initially consisted of the city of Kingston, 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...

 as a Conservative member from 1871 to 1879.

He was born in Ballymoney

Ballymoney

Ballymoney is a small town in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 9,021 people in the 2001 Census. It is currently served by Ballymoney Borough Council....

, County Antrim

County Antrim

County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...

, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, in 1823. Robinson was president of the Kingston and Marmora Railway. He served on the town council for Kingston

Kingston, Ontario

Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...

 for 16 years and served as mayor from 1869 to 1870. He was later appointed a customs officer at Kingston. He married Margaret Dick, daughter of David Dick. She had come to Canada from County Down, Ireland in 1840 with her parents. On September 15, 1850. She was also an Irish immigrant. The wedding was officiated by Reverend Reid in Cooke’s Presbyterian Church. He had four sons and three daughters. He died on July 21, 1912. His obituary was published in the Daily British Whig on July 22, 1912.

He worked as a painter for over thirty years before retiring and taking an appointment as Clerk of the Division Court, where he stayed for eleven years. His son William then took over the post. He served on the City Council in several positions for over 38 years, including being the Alderman for the Rideau Ward, Mayor in 1869-70, and as the Alderman for the Cataraqui Ward in 1897. He was a member of the Ontario Legislature, first elected as an independent in 1870 and again as a Liberal in 1874. He elected as an independent was a notable historic occasion in Ontario’s history. He negotiated to the legislature on behalf of the Kingston and Pembroke Railway and secured a $121 000.000 bond toward the building of it.

Robinson was a Justice of Peace for over forty years, but when the Tories were brought into Toronto in 1905 they relieved him from the post.

While in office, he was responsible for exposing the corruption of the City Chamberlain and the Tax Collectors by exposing that a sun reaching nearly $16 000.00 was missing from city accounts.

Robinson once said that he had only cast one Tory vote in his life, and that was when two conservatives were running in Frontenac County. “Of two evils, I chose the lesser”.

External links

• Member's parliamentary history for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
• http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?doc=32952The Canadian parliamentary companion and annual register, 1878, CH Mackintosh
  Charles H. Mackintosh
  Charles Herbert Mackintosh was a journalist, mayor of Ottawa from 1879–1881, represented Ottawa City as a Liberal-Conservative in the Canadian House of Commons from 1882 to 1887, and from 1890 to 1893, and served as Lieutenant Governor of the Northwest Territories from 1893 to 1898.-Parentage and...
  
  ]