Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Martin Henry Dawson was grandson of Independent MLA, John Barnhill Dickie

I was bemused to see John Barnhill Dickie's name re-emerge as one of Nova Scotia's relatively rare number of  MLAs who jumped the party they were elected under, to sit as an Independent or join another political party .

He represented Colchester County.

The same county represented by the province's newest ship-jumper, former Conservative Party leader (pro temp), Karen Casey.

Dickie is usually remembered today, if at all, because his inept actions as Speaker of the Nova Scotia legislature 125 years ago resulted in a very rare move by the legislature members to dump their Speaker.

He should be remembered, as well, as a very
successful businessman.

He moved from farming and schoolteaching into shipbuilding and then into banking and insurance -- all this success fueled by his extraordinary facility with mathematics.

Point of fact, he was one of the very,very first employees of the Royal Bank of Canada, aka RBC, (my bank) the largest bank in Canada and one of the largest in the world.

In addition,of course, he was the grandpa of the subject of this blog - Martin Henry Dawson  - who perhaps inherited some his scientific abilities from his grandfather....

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