Henry Albert Harper

Who was Henry Albert Harper?

A Canadian journalist and civil servant, Henry Albert Harper was best known as a friend of future Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, and is commemorated by a statue on Parliament Hill.

Born to Henry and Margaret-Ann Harper in Cookstown, Ontario, Harper moved with his family to Barrie in 1880, where he graduated from Barrie Central Collegiate Institute eleven years later.

He attended the University of Toronto where he befriended Mackenzie King, who was a fellow student. After completing his Honours degree in Political Science in 1895, Harper became a journalist in London and Toronto, before eventually becoming the Ottawa correspondent for the Montreal Daily Herald.

In Ottawa he shared an apartment with Mackenzie King, who was then leading the effort to establish the new Department of Labour under the government of Wilfrid Laurier. In 1900 Harper resigned from the Herald, to work for Mackenzie King as the assistant editor of the Labour Gazette, the Department's main publication.

On December 6, 1901, Harper was attending a skating party held on the frozen Ottawa River by the Governor General, the Earl of Minto.