Nicholas Flood Davin
| Nicholas Flood Davin | |
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| Member of the Canadian Parliament for Assiniboia West |
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In office 1887–1900 |
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| Preceded by | Electoral district created |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Walter Scott |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
January 13, 1840 Kilfinane (Republic of Ireland) |
| Died | October 18, 1901 (aged 61) Winnipeg, Manitoba |
| Political party | Liberal-Conservative |
Nicholas Flood Davin (January 13, 1840 – October 18, 1901) Nicholas Flood Davin was a lawyer, journalist and politician, born at Kilfinane, Ireland. The first MP for Assiniboia West (1887–1900), Davin was known as the voice of the North-West.
A spellbinding speaker, Davin founded and edited the Regina Leader, the first newspaper in Assiniboia. He tried to gain provincial status for the territory. Davin produced the Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds, otherwise known as The Davin Report, in which he advised the federal government to institute residential schools for native youth; a recommendation that decimated Canadian Aboriginal families.
Davin was a parliamentary and war correspondent in England before arriving in Toronto in 1872, where he wrote for The Globe. Although a fully qualified lawyer, Davin practised little law. The highlight of his legal career was his 1880 defence of George Bennett, who murdered George Brown.
A chance visit to the West in 1882 determined his future. In 1883, he founded and edited the Regina Leader, the first newspaper in Assiniboia; the paper carried his detailed reports of the 1885 trial of Louis Riel. A spellbinding speaker and Conservative MP for Assiniboia West from 1887–1900, Davin tried to gain provincial status for the territory, economic and property advantages for the new settlers–even the franchise for women–but he never achieved his ambition to be a Cabinet minister. A mercurial personality, he became depressed by the decline of his political and personal fortunes and shot himself during a visit to Winnipeg on October 18, 1901. Davin wrote The Irishman in Canada (1877), as well as poetry, and an unpublished novel.
He had an interesting, oft-times illustrious career and upon his death, he was so well-thought of, his colleagues in Ottawa had his body sent from Winnipeg to Ottawa to be buried in Beechwood National Cemetery. It is one of the largest grave sites in the section in which he is buried, towering over the smaller graves surrounding it. The epitaph, carved in stone beneath a plinth upon which his bust in bronze is ensconced, reads: This monument has been erected by his former parliamentary associates and other people as a lasting proof of the esteem and affection which they entertained (sic) on one whose character was strongly marked by sincerity and fearlessness, whose mind by vivacity and clearness of comprehension and whose classical scholarship and wide culture united to his brilliant oration and singular wit made him intent in debate and delightful in society.
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