Dana Porter

Dana Harris Porter (January 14 1901 – May 13 1967) was a Canadian politician and jurist. After graduating from the University of Toronto in 1921, Porter went to England to continue his studies at Balliol College, Oxford graduating with a Masters in 1923. He returned to Toronto where he was called to the bar and joined the firm of Fennel, Porter & Davis.

Porter entered politics winning a seat in the Ontario legislature representing the downtown Toronto riding of St. George in the 1943 Ontario election that brought the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario to power.

He joined the cabinet of Ontario Premer George Drew as Minister of Planning and Development in 1944 and in 1947 instituted an airlift of 10,000 British immigrants to the province over the objections of the federal government. In 1948 he was promoted to Minister of Education and Provincial Secretary. When Drew left provincial politics to take the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Porter ran to succeed him as provincial leader but only won 65 votes in the 1949 provincial Tory leadership convention losing to Leslie Frost.

Porter remained in the education portfolio until 1951 but also served as Attorney-General beginning in 1949. In 1950 he introduced a bill to legalize Sunday sports in Ontario. He remained Attorney-General until 1955 when he became Treasurer (Minister of Finance).

In 1958, Porter left politics to accept an appointment as Chief Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal and made a ruling in 1964 lifting a ban on the book Fanny Hill.

From 1961 until 1964 he was head of the Royal Commission on Banking and Finance. He also served as the first Chancellor of the University of Waterloo beginning in 1960. The university's Dana Porter Library is named after him.

Dana Porter's son, Julian Porter, is a prominent Canadian copyright and libel lawyer who has run unsuccessfully in the 1985 Ontario election as a Progressive Conservative in the same riding formerly represented by his father. The younger Porter was defeated by Ian Scott who went on to hold Dana Porter's former position of Attorney-General of Ontario.