John Ross Robertson

Who was John Ross Robertson?

John Ross Robertson was a Canadian newspaper publisher, politician, and philanthropist in Toronto, Ontario.

Born in Toronto, the son of John Robertson and Margaret Sinclair, Robertson was educated at Upper Canada College, a private high school in Toronto. As a young man, he started a newspaper at UCC called Young Canada and a satirical magazine, The Grumbler.

He was hired as a reporter and then city editor at The Globe in Toronto, but left The Globe to found The Telegraph in 1866. That paper lasted five years, and Robertson went to England as a reporter for The Globe. He returned to Toronto in 1876 to launch the Toronto Evening Telegram, which became the voice of working class, conservative, Orange Toronto.

He was elected to the Canadian House of Commons for the electoral district of Toronto East in the 1896 federal election defeating the incumbent Conservative MP, Emerson Coatsworth. An Independent Conservative, he did not run for re-election in 1900.

The world of sports was also a focus for Robertson’s public-spiritedness.