A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography: Brief biographies of persons distinguished in the professional, military and political life, and the commerce and industry of Canada, in the twentieth century
History
A Cyclopædia of Canadian Biography: Brief biographies of persons distinguished in the professional, military and political life, and the commerce and industry of Canada, in the twentieth century
Canada -- Biography
=Beith, Hon. Robert= (Bowmanville, Ont.), was born on May 17, 1843, of
Scotch parentage, and is the son of Alexander Beith and Catharine
McTaggart, of Argyllshire, Scotland, who migrated to Bowmanville many
years ago. He was educated at the public and private schools of that
town and later took a commercial course at Day’s College, Toronto. After
receiving his education he started business life as a farmer, later
becoming one of the largest stock breeders in Ontario, and has imported
much of the finest breeding stock in the country during the past
thirty-five years. As a citizen and public man he is held in the highest
esteem, and has received the highest honors to be had from his home town
and surrounding localities. Having ambitions other than business, he
drifted into public life, and received the nomination as the Liberal
candidate for the House of Commons for West Durham in 1891 and was
elected; was re-elected in 1896, and defeated in 1900. In the
by-election of 1902 he was again elected, and retained his seat up to
1904, when he voluntarily retired. West Durham has been the scene of
many hard fought political battles, and at times was contested by men
high up in the ranks of both political parties, brought in from outside
places, among whom were the late Hon. Edward Blake and Mr. George Tate
Blackstock, one of the most learned legal lights in Canada. It has
always been conceded that Robert Beith was the one man who could win
West Durham for the Liberal Party. On January 15, 1907, he was summoned
to the Senate by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, and is recognized as an able
Senator. He is a bachelor, and in religion a Presbyterian. On all
occasions, during the world-wide war, he was ready to help Canada do her
share, and contributed in many ways that will never be known to the
public at large, in helping the Motherland and her Allies to keep flying
the flags that stand for freedom against Prussianism.
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