John A. Simpson

John Adrian Simpson (August 20, 1854 – September 11, 1916) was a Canadian politician and businessman. Born in Peel County, Canada West, he came west in 1890 and eventually settled in Innisfail, where he opened a lumberyard. He served on Innisfail's first town council, and also in the legislative assemblies of the Northwest Territories and later Alberta; in the last, he acted as deputy speaker.

Early life John Simpson was born in 1854 in Peel County, Ontario. He married Anna Proudfoot in 1879, before coming west to Calgary in 1890. Shortly after, he moved to the Olds area, and in 1891 he settled in Innisfail where he started a lumberyard the next year.

Political career Besides being a member of Innisfail's first town council, In the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Simpson served as deputy speaker. During the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal, he remained loyal to the government of Premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford in the face of a rebellion from Liberal insurgents. There was some concern on the government side that the speaker, Charles W. Fisher, would resign to support the insurgents; Simpson's elevation to speaker, a position which was expected to remain impartial, would rob the government of a crucial vote. After Rutherford's government fell, Simpson supported the successor government of Liberal Arthur Sifton, though its stance on the issue that had toppled Rutherford's government—the construction of the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway—was in many respects diametrically opposed to Rutherford's.

Though he was re-elected in the 1909 election,

Electoral record