[1] The elder W. A. Henry served as a cabinet minister in Nova Scotia in governments led by both the Liberals and the Conservatives.

[2] Henry was a strong believer in the benefits that could be derived from a British American union such as free trade and the construction of the Intercontinental Railway.

The Nova Scotia delegates voted to accept the Quebec Resolutions into the British North America Act, 1867 but Henry objected to the limitation on the number of Senate seats.

He also supported the unsuccessful efforts to have the existence of Roman Catholic separate schools entrenched in the Act.

[4] Although he was denied a judgeship in Nova Scotia, Henry was one of the first appointed to the newly created Supreme Court of Canada in 1875.