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The Peoples, Their Places

David Laird

1833-1914

Newspaper editor, publisher, politician and civil servant, member of Treaty 8 Commission.

david laird

   
Born and raised in New Glasgow, Prince Edward Island (PEI), David Laird led a life of political and social activity befitting his family standing. David Laird was the son of Alexander Laird, a prominent fixture within the small community of New Glasgow as a farmer and a shipbuilder. His mother was Janet Orr, the daughter of one of the original proprietors on the island. Laird was raised as a devout Presbyterian and attended school on the island, eventually earning a position at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Truro, Nova Scotia, where he had hoped to join the ministry upon his graduation. However, shortly after graduation, Laird was pulled in a different direction, towards Charlottetown, where he founded and was editor and publisher of the Charlottetown Patriot. David Laird originally opposed Canadian confederation. However, in spite of this opposition, he was sent to Ottawa in 1873 to negotiate the admission of Prince Edward Island to the new Dominion.

David LairdDavid Laird sat on the Charlottetown City Council, its Board of Education, and Board of Works, and he was a Governor of the Prince of Wales College. Later, he represented the electoral district of Belfast in the Prince Edward Island Legislative Assembly from 1871 to 1873 and Queen's County in the Canadian federal House of Commons from 1873 to 1876. Regarded as the leader of the Prince Edward Island Liberal Members of Parliament, his refusal to support Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald during the "Pacific Scandal" helped bring down the Conservative government. Sir John's Liberal successor, Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, appointed David Laird Minister of the Interior, and he served in that capacity from 1873 to 1876. During the summer of 1874, he negotiated the Qu'Appelle Lakes Treaty with the Native population of that area. This treaty made way for the construction of the Dominion Telegraph and the Canadian Pacific Railway.

On the advice of Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie, David Laird was appointed lieutenant-governor of the Northwest Territories effective October 7, 1876. This appointment was made by the Earl of Dufferin, Governor General of Canada.

david lairdWith his secretary, Amédée E. Forget, who would later become lieutenant-governor of the Northwest Territories himself, and an escort of Northwest Mounted Police, David Laird spent his first winter in the Territories at Fort Livingstone which was located near the Manitoba border, approximately one mile northwest of present-day Pelly, Saskatchewan. In March, 1877, he presided over the first meeting of the Northwest Territories Council in a temporary building formerly occupied by the Northwest Mounted Police Commissioner. In 1879, he and his council moved to the new territorial capital of Battleford. David Laird served as lieutenant-governor of the Northwest Territories until his successor was appointed effective December 3, 1881.

Following the completion of his term as lieutenant-governor of the Northwest Territories, David Laird served as editor of the Charlottetown Patriot from 1881 to 1898. In 1898, he was appointed Indian Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, Manitoba, and Keewatin, a position he held until his death. In 1899, he negotiated Treaty 8 with the Native population of the vast Athabasca District north of Edmonton. After 1909, he served as an adviser to the Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa. He died on January 12, 1914, at Ottawa, Ontario, and was buried in the Sherwood Cemetery, a few miles northeast of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.