{{Short description|Canadian politician}} {{for|the university teacher and administrator|Joseph B. Keeler}} {{Use Canadian English|date=September 2021}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Joseph Keeler | honorific_suffix = | image = JosephKeeler23.jpg | caption = | constituency_MP = Northumberland East | parliament = Canadian | predecessor = ''District Created'' | successor = James Lyons Biggar | term_start = February 20, 1867 | term_end = January 21, 1874 | constituency_MP2 = Northumberland East | parliament2 = Canadian | term_start2 = September 17, 1878 | term_end2 = January 21, 1881 | predecessor2 = James Lyons Biggar | successor2 = Darius Crouter | birth_date = {{birth date|1824|05|24}} | birth_place = Cramahe Township, Upper Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|1881|01|21|1824|05|24}} | death_place = | spouse = | cabinet = | party = Conservative | relations = | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = lumber merchant, landlord, grain merchant, postmaster, shipowner | profession = | honorific_prefix = }}
'''Joseph Keeler''' (May 24, 1824 – January 21, 1881) was an Ontario businessman and political figure. He represented Northumberland East in the House of Commons of Canada as a Liberal-Conservative member from 1867 to 1874 and from 1879 to 1881.<ref name="parl">* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=4217|nolist=yes}}</ref>
He was born in Cramahe Township, Upper Canada in 1814<ref name="parl"/> and educated at Upper Canada College. Keeler was a grain and lumber merchant and also owned a wharf, warehouses and a flour mill at Colborne. He was also the owner of a schooner. He was postmaster there and also served as a major in the local militia.<ref name="mackintosh"/> Keeler operated a printing business which produced one of the first newspapers in the region, the ''Colborne Transcript''. He helped establish a branch of the Bank of Toronto at Colborne and also helped promote the development of the Trent-Severn Waterway.<ref name="cramahe"/> In April 1879, Keeler introduced a bill to parliament to abolish the Supreme Court of Canada and the Exchequer Court, the bill did not succeed, but demonstrated the rural animosity towards the growing lawyer-centered character of Canada. After Keeler's death, the cause of abolishing the Supreme Court in Parliament was taken up by Auguste Charles Philippe Robert Landry.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Supreme Court of Canada: History of the Institution|last1 = Snell|first1 = James G. |last2 = Vaughan|first2 = Frederick |publisher = The Osgoode Society|year = 1985|isbn = 978-0-8020-3417-5 |location = Toronto|url = https://archive.org/details/supremecourtofca0000snel|url-access = registration |pages=28–31}}</ref>
On October 12, 1848,<ref>William D. Reid, Reid's Marriage Notices of Ontario 1813 - 1854, (Hunterdon House, Lambertville, New Jersey: 1980), p. 322, Globe, Toronto. "Marriage Notices of Ontario" by William D. Reid, Hunterdon House, Lambertville, NJ 1980. </ref> he married Octavia Phillips.<ref name="mackintosh"/> Keeler died in office in Ottawa at the age of 56.<ref name="johnson">{{cite book |title=The Canadian Directory of Parliament 1867-1967 |last=Johnson |first=J.K. |year=1968 |publisher=Public Archives of Canada}}</ref>
His father, Joseph Abbott Keeler, was credited with being the founder of Colborne<ref name="cramahe">{{Cite web |url=http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=4357 |title=''The History of Cramahe Township ...'' (1988) |access-date=31 July 2006 |archive-date=12 March 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312164300/http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=4357 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and his grandfather, a United Empire Loyalist from Vermont also named Joseph Keeler, was one of the first settlers in the township.<ref name="mackintosh">{{cite book |url=https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.32953/183 |page=181 |title=The Canadian Parliamentary Companion and Annual Register |year=1879 |publisher=Citizen Printing and Publishing Company |editor-last=Mackintosh |editor-first=C.H. |editor-link=Charles Herbert Mackintosh |location=Ottawa}}</ref>
== Election results == {{1867 Canadian federal election/Northumberland East}} {{1872 Canadian federal election/Northumberland East}} {{1874 Canadian federal election/Northumberland East}}
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=4217}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keeler, Joseph}} Category:1824 births Category:1881 deaths Category:Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario Category:19th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada
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