Leverett George DeVeber
The Honourable Leverett George DeVeber | |
---|---|
Lethbridge | |
Personal details | |
Born | February 10, 1849 Lethbridge, Alberta |
Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania |
Occupation | Medical doctor |
Leverett George DeVeber (sometimes spelled De Veber
Early life
DeVeber was born February 10, 1849, in
He studied for a year at
In 1885 DeVeber married Rachael Ann Ryan, who was born in Melbourne where her father was posted with the British Army. The pair had two children: Marion Frances DeVeber, who married shipbuilder Francis Dunn and moved to England, and Leverett Sandys DeVeber, who worked in Toronto for the Bank of Montreal.[4]
DeVeber moved to
Political career
Territorial and provincial service
DeVeber was acclaimed to the
After Alberta's two most prominent Liberals,
Once it became clear that he was not to become premier, DeVeber turned his ambitions towards the
Senator
DeVeber did not serve long either as minister or Member of the Legislative Assembly: having received word that he was to be appointed to the Senate, he resigned from cabinet on March 1, 1906—exactly four months after his appointment—and from the legislature March 7. He formally began his term as Senator the next day.[14] His time as an MLA was so short he did not sign the rolls in the Alberta Legislature and was never sworn in.[15]
While in the Senate, DeVeber chaired the Standing Committee on Public Health and Inspection of Foods. One issue examined by this committee was water pollution: beginning in March 1909 and for nearly a year afterwards, it studied the question in view of the increasing mortality from typhoid fever, and concluded, in the words of the University of Michigan's Jennifer Read, "that the country required some form of legislation to manage the problem. However, it was at a loss about the form it should take and from what body it should emanate."[16] As chair of the committee, DeVeber attended an October 1910 federal-provincial conference in Ottawa called to attempt to coordinate all Canadian jurisdictions' responses to water pollution.[16] Besides recommending that provincial governments use their constitutional authority over health and municipal government to prevent undue water pollution from municipal sewage systems, it advised the federal government to use its authority over navigable waterways to prohibit the dumping of most waste into them; DeVeber supplied a draft bill for Parliament's consideration.[17]
At the same time, DeVeber's colleague Napoléon Belcourt was championing a similar measure in the Senate (as an Ottawa resident, Belcourt was disturbed by the effect on the city's water supply by the dumping of waste upstream, in Aylmer, Quebec),[16] and while doing so he quoted extensively from the report of DeVeber's committee. When Belcourt's bill came up for debate, DeVeber scolded him on the floor of the Senate for misrepresenting the committee's report as being much more supportive of the bill than it actually was; in the estimation of University of Ottawa law professor Jamie Benidickson, DeVeber's comments assured the bill's defeat.[1]
DeVeber remained a Senator until his death in 1925.[14] Alberta's Mount DeVeber, located in Willmore Wilderness Park, is named in his honour.[18]
Electoral record
1905 Alberta general election results (Lethbridge)[13] | Turnout N.A. | |||
Liberal | Leverett G. DeVeber | 639 | 56.55% | |
Conservative | William Carlos Ives | 491 | 43.45% | |
Lethbridge)[9]
|
Turnout N.A. | |||
Leverett George DeVeber | 264 | 53.99% | ||
Henry Bentley | 225 | 46.01% | ||
Lethbridge)[9]
|
Turnout N.A. | |||
Leverett George DeVeber | Acclaimed |
References
- Benidickson, Jamie (2007). The culture of flushing: a social and legal history of sewage. ISBN 978-0-7748-1291-7.
- Blue, John (1924). Alberta: Past and Present, Historical and Biographical. Vol. 2. Chicago, Illinois: Pioneer Historical Publishing Co.
- Jamieson, Heber (April 1938). "The Early Doctors of Southern Alberta". Canadian Medical Association Journal. 38 (4). PMC 536486.
- Obee, Dave (1999). Lethbridge 1891: A settlement becomes a town. ISBN 0-9685026-2-8.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - Read, Jennifer (1998–1999). "A sort of destiny': The Multi-Jurisdictional Response to Sewage Pollution in the Great Lakes, 1900–1930" (PDF). Scientia Canadensis: Canadian Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. 22 (51): 103–129. PMID 11624112. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- Thomas, Lewis Gwynne (1959). The Liberal Party in Alberta. Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press.
Notes
- ^ a b Benidickson 178
- ^ Jamieson 396
- ^ Blue 267
- ^ a b c d e f g h Blue 268
- ^ Blue 269
- ^ Jamieson 396–397
- ^ Jamieson 397
- ^ Obee 13, 28
- ^ a b c "Territories" (PDF). Saskatchewan Archives Board. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2010-03-23.
- ^ a b c Thomas 22
- ^ Thomas 17–18
- ^ a b Thomas 18
- ^ a b "Election results for Lethbridge, 1905". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-03-22.
- ^ a b Leverett George DeVeber – Parliament of Canada biography
- ^ Kowalski, Ken, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta (November 19, 2008). "MLA Oath of Allegiance" (PDF). Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 27. Legislative Assembly of Alberta. p. 1947.
- ^ a b c Read 111
- ^ Read 112
- ^ "Mount de Veber". Bivouac.com. Retrieved 2010-03-30.