Francis Cochrane

Francis Cochrane
MPP for Nipissing East
In office 1905–1908
Preceded by	Charles Lamarche
Succeeded by	riding dissolved
MPP for Sudbury
In office 1908–1911
Preceded by	first member
Succeeded by	Charles McCrea
MP for Nipissing
In office 1911–1917
Preceded by	George Gordon
Succeeded by	Charles Robert Harrison
MP for Timiskaming
In office 1917–1919
Preceded by	first member
Succeeded by	Angus McDonald
Personal details
Born	November 18, 1852 Clarenceville, Quebec
Died	September 22, 1919
Political party	Conservative
Residence	Sudbury, Ontario
Occupation	merchant

Francis Cochrane, PC (November 18, 1852 – September 22, 1919) was a Canadian politician.

A prosperous hardware merchant in Sudbury, Ontario, he was the first president of the town's board of trade and later served as mayor of the town in 1897, 1898 and 1902 after winning a council seat in 1896.

Along with local businessman William McVittie, he subsequently invested in the Wahnapitae Power Company, which was contracted to provide the town's hydroelectricity services until it was sold to the Hydroelectric Power Commission of Ontario in 1929. Cochrane and McVittie also ventured into prospecting, developing the Frood Extension property in 1908.

Cochrane first ran for provincial office in 1902 as the Conservative Party candidate in Nipissing West in the 1902 election, but was defeated by Joseph Michaud. He did not run in the 1905 election, although Premier James P. Whitney nonetheless announced an intention to give him a cabinet portfolio. This appointment was delayed when Cochrane slipped while boarding a moving train in Sudbury and lost part of his right leg, but in May of that year, Whitney transferred the Crown lands portfolio to a new Ministry of Lands, Forests and Mines and appointed Cochrane as the new minister. Cochrane was then acclaimed into office in a by-election in Nipissing East, succeeding Charles Lamarche.

He was reelected in the 1908 election in the new electoral district of Sudbury.

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