Gordon Fogo

Who was Gordon Fogo?

James Gordon Fogo was a Canadian lawyer and senator.

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the son of Adam Fogo and Alice Hanway, he studied law at Dalhousie University and served in the Canadian Army in World War I. Fogo was called to the Nova Scotia bar in 1924 and practised law in Halifax. He married Helen Louise Fisher in 1927. Fogo was a vice-president and director for Algoma Steel. While making a name for himself in corporate law, he was also active in the Liberal Party, where he became a protégé of William Lyon Mackenzie King. He served as president of the National Liberal Federation from 1946 until 1952 and was appointed co-chairman of the Third National Convention of the Liberal Party in 1948 at which Louis St. Laurent was elected Liberal Party leader succeeding Mackenzie King. Reporting his appointment, Time magazine characterized him as “a reliable worker behind the scenes, whose political gift is to stop bootless quarreling and secure quiet settlements”. Fogo was summoned to the Canadian Senate in 1949, and represented the senatorial division of Carleton, Ontario. Impressed by his relative youth and energy a contemporary newspaper editorialized, "what the Senate needs is fewer old fogeys and more young Fogos!" Nevertheless, he died in office in La Malbaie, Quebec just three years later, in 1952. Fogo was survived by his wife and two children. His legacy is perpetuated by two awards at Dalhousie University, the J. Gordon Fogo Prize for Excellence in Commercial Law, and the J. Gordon Fogo Bursary, a need-based scholarship.