John Simpson (Lower Canada politician)

John Simpson (1788 – April 21, 1873) was a government official and political figure in Lower Canada (now Quebec).

Unsuccessful as a farmer and a merchant, in 1815 Simpson emigrated to Upper Canada (now Ontario) with his wife, and probably with all six of his step-sons.

Although he had only been in the area for two years, Simpson had gained considerable popularity with the French-Canadian community in the district and was elected to the Assembly, representing York County.

[1][2][3][4] During the heated politics of the 1830s, Simpson favoured the moderate reform cause, influenced in part by one of his step-sons, John Arthur Roebuck, who was the agent for the Lower Canada Assembly in Britain, and at some points was a member of the British House of Commons.

On the outbreak of the Lower Canada Rebellion in 1837, Simpson organized volunteers from the area to prevent the fort at Coteau-du-Lac from falling into the hands of the Patriotes.

Girouard publicly recognised Simpson for "the generous and prudent treatment of the persecuted Canadians which he ensured in his area.

When the British government overturned Durham's order and pardoned the eight, Simpson sent them £100 to cover the expenses for their return to Lower Canada.

When his generosity and care for the exiles became known, Simpson was criticised by the Montreal Herald as "a notoriously bad character", but he earned respect from French-Canadians.

John Neilson, a leader of the French-Canadian Group, introduced a motion condemning the way the union had been imposed on Lower Canada.

[11] In the major dispute over responsible government in the 1843 session, Simpson voted in support of the Governor General, and opposed the position of Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin.

His stepson, John Arthur Roebuck, summed up Simpson: "He was a daring and sanguine man and indulged in schemes that would have terrified a more sober-minded one.