Date Published:
July 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Michael Hamilton Foley

Foley, Michael Hamilton (1820-1870), postmaster-general of Canada (1858, 1862-3, and 1864), was born in Sligo, Ireland, in 1820. His parents emigrated to Canada in 1822, and he was educated at Port Colborne, Upper Canad . He became a journalist, and between 1845 and 1853 he was successively editor of the Simcoe Advocate, the Norfolk Messenger, and the Brant ford Herald. From 1854 to 1864 he represented North Waterloo in the Legislative Assembly of Canada. He was postmaster-general in the shortlived Brown-Dorion administration of 1858, and again in the Macdonald- Sicotte administration of 1862-3. In 1863 he went with D'Arcy McGee and L.-V. Sicotte into opposition; and in 1864 he became postmaster-general in the second Taché-Macdonald government. He failed, however, to secure his re-election; and, in the formation of the Great Coalition, he made way for a supporter of George Brown. In 1864 he was admitted, by special Act of parliament, to practice as a barrister in Upper Canada. He died at Simcoe, Ontario, on April 8, 1870.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 356-357.