John Roaf Barber (July 5, 1841 – March 3, 1917) was a Canadian businessman and politician, who represented Halton in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1898 to 1904.

[a] The only other paper product supplier in Canada in the 1870s was owned by Alexander Buntin in Valleyfield, Quebec,[2] from which Barber saw an opportunity to expand.

In 1881, he helped establish Toronto Paper Manufacturing Company Limited and set up a mill at Cornwall, Ontario.

[6] He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal in 1898,[7] but was unseated in November 1898 because of charges of vote buying by his agents.

[11] He lived in a grand mansion, Berwick Hall, which was designed by the architect E. J. Lennox He retired from business in 1912 following a heart attack the year before.