Arthur Rankin

Arthur Rankin (1816 – March 13, 1893) was a surveyor, entrepreneur, militia officer, and political figure in Canada West.

Rankin was born in Montreal in 1816, the son of Irish immigrants. He ran away from home at the age of 15, and became a cabin boy on a New York-to-London packet boat. In 1835, he returned to Canada and apprenticed with his brother, Charles Rankin, to be a surveyor in the Windsor area.

In 1837, Rankin moved to Toronto where he received a commission as an ensign for the 2nd Queen's Light Infantry. While on leave in Ohio, Rankin attacked two bounty hunters who had captured an escaped slave from Kentucky. Rankin smuggled the man from Cleveland, Ohio, to Toronto. He sold his show to George Catlin in 1844 and returned to Canada where he established the Sandwich Wester Standard and Western District General Advertiser with himself as publisher and editor.

In 1851, Rankin ran for a seat in the Legislative Assembly in Kent but was defeated by George Brown. He was elected to the 5th Parliament of the Province of Canada in Essex in 1854. He was implicated in an 1857 scandal involving the construction of a new railway line in south-western Canada West; Rankin was defeated in the election that followed.