Albert James Smith

Hon. Sir Albert James Smith, April 1868

Sir Albert James Smith, PC, QC, KCMG (March 12, 1822 – June 30, 1883) was a New Brunswick politician and opponent of Canadian confederation. Smith's grandfather was a United Empire Loyalist who left Massachusetts to settle in New Brunswick after the American Revolution.

A. J. Smith's legacy paid for this house, the residence of his grandson J. W. Y. Smith, called Younglands, on Shediac Bay, New Brunswick. Built in 1927, it is now owned by a Catholic order.

Smith entered politics in 1852 entering the House of Assembly as an opponent of the Tory compact that ran the colony and became a leading reform and advocate of responsible government which was granted to the colony in 1854. Smith became a member of the reform government that took power that year and went on to become Attorney-General in 1861 under Premier Samuel Leonard Tilley. Smith split with Tilley over railway policy and Canadian confederation with Smith becoming leader of the Anti-Confederates winning the 1865 election but was forced from office the next year by the lieutenant-governor.

He was Created a QC in 1862.

Smith reconciled with Confederation after it became a fact and became minister of fisheries in the Liberal government of Alexander Mackenzie in 1873. He died in 1883, and was interred in Dorchester Rural Cemetery.

Further reading

• J. E. Belliveau, 1976,He is Hommo The Splendid Life of Albert Smith and the Women he Left Behind, Windsor, NS: Lancelot Press

References

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament