Simon James Dawson (June 13, 1818 – October 30, 1902) was a

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civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

Career

Born in Redhaven,

Banffshire Banffshire (; ; ) is a historic county in Scotland. The county town is Banff, although the largest settlement is Buckie to the west. The historic county ceased to be used for local government purposes in 1975. Since 1996 the area has been spli ...

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, Dawson emigrated to Canada as a young man and began his career as an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

. In 1857, as a member of a

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expedition, he surveyed a line of road from Prince Arthur’s Landing (later Port Arthur, now part of

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario. Its population i ...

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) to Fort Garry and further explored that area in 1858 and 1859. His report greatly stimulated Canadian interest in the West. In 1868, he was placed in charge of construction of a wagon and water route following his earlier survey by the newly formed federal Department of Public Works. The Dawson road was traversed in 1870 by the Wolseley Expedition under the command of

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Garnet Wolseley sent to preserve order during the first Riel uprising, the

Red River Rebellion The Red River Rebellion (), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by Métis leader Louis Riel and his f ...

. Dawson represented Algoma in the

Legislative Assembly of Ontario The Legislative Assembly of Ontario (OLA; ) is the legislative chamber of the Canadian province of Ontario. Its elected members are known as Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). Bills passed by the Legislative Assembly are given royal as ...

from 1875 to 1878 and Algoma in the

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from 1878 to 1891. As a politician, he was a consistent advocate for native rights. In 1875, he proposed that the riding of Algoma, then the only riding in the region of

northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on p ...

, become a separate territory, until it had enough population for provincial status. As a Scottish Roman Catholic, he was an anomaly in Protestant Ontario where most Scots were Presbyterian. His brother William McDonell Dawson served as Crown Lands agent at Ottawa and was superintendent of the woods and forests branch in the Crown Lands department from 1852 to 1857. In 1858, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for Trois-Rivières; he was defeated there but elected for the County of Ottawa in the 1861 general election. Another brother was the Roman Catholic priest Aeneas McDonell Dawson. He died in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

in 1902, virtually forgotten.

Electoral history

References

External links

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Ontario Plaques – Simon James Dawson

Plan of Mr. Dawson's Road from Thunder Bay to Lake Shebandowan 1871
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Simon James 1818 births 1902 deaths Canadian civil engineers Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs Immigrants to Upper Canada Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Ontario Liberal Party MPPs People from Banffshire Politicians from Thunder Bay Politicians from Ottawa Pre-Confederation Ontario people Scottish civil engineers Scottish emigrants to pre-Confederation Ontario Scottish Roman Catholics 19th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 19th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

Career

Electoral history

References

Archives

Further reading

External links