Date Published:
July 2005

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

William Alexander Foster

Foster, William Alexander (1840-1888), lawyer and nationalist, was born in Toronto on July 16, 1840, the son of James Foster and Mary Morrison. He was educated at the University of Toronto (LL.B., 1860), and was called to the Ontario bar in 1861. He was one of the chief founders of the "Canada First" movement in 1868-75; and his pamphlet, Canada first (Toronto, 1871), provided the Canadian nationalists of that time with a rallying-point. He was one of the founders of the Nation (1874-6), and of the National Club in Toronto. He died in Toronto on November 1; 1888. In 1877 he married Margaret, daughter of John George Bowes, of Toronto ; and by her he had three children, of whom two survived him. See Canada first: A memorial of the late William A. Foster, Q.C., with introduction by Goldwin Smith (Toronto, 1890) ; G. T. Denison, The struggle for imperial unity (Toronto, 1909), and W. S. Wallace, The growth of Canadian national feeling (Can. Kist. rev., 1920).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 381.