[5] He was elected to the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada in 1858 and 1864, and served as the last Commissioner of Crown Lands 30 March 1864 – 30 June 1867.

He later held a number of ministerial posts in the Cabinet of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald and was the sixth Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1887 to 1892.

[6] Historian Ged Martin discussed the reasons why Campbell never achieved first rank as a politician; he was lame and suffered from epileptic seizures, and his estranged wife was a certified lunatic (see Family section below).

[7] Campbell Crescent in Kingston, a street in the Portsmouth municipal district, is named in his honour.

[7] As Ged Martin has detailed in an article on Campbell's private life, the marriage was a failure and his estranged wife spent time in asylums as a certified lunatic.