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Edward Whelan, Prince Edward Island's fighting Irishman,
was the angriest young man among the Fathers of Confederation.
During his short but turbulent life, he brought his
adopted province close to rebellion and he was several times sued for libel,
twice by W.H. Pope, one of his fellow Fathers of Confederation. At an early
age he arrived in Halifax from County Mayo, Ireland, where he had been born
in 1824, and soon was apprenticed as a printer to Joseph Howe. While still a
boy he became co-publisher of the Roman Catholic paper, the Register. Then,
at the age of 19, on Howe's recommendation, he sailed for Prince Edward
Island. |
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Whelan arrived in
Charlottetown on Aug, 31, 1843 and started his own
newspaper, the palladium. He agitated venomously against
the family compact which ruled the island but though he
had popular support, he failed financially. Within a
year, to nearly everyone's surprise, he became editor of
the Morning News, previously his hated rival. A few
months later, aged 22, he was elected to the island
assembly. A month later he resigned from the News to
start a new paper, the Examiner. Before the plant could
be brought from Boston, winter set in and Whelan started
another temporary paper, the Reporter. However, on Aug.
9, 1847, the Examiner finally hit the street. Whelan
played a leading part in the government of George Coles
in 1851, as responsible government finally reached the
island. Later he became Queen's Printer ands the Royal
Gazette he published in a strangely venomous
politically-slanted sheet compared with the present
dull, neutral gazettes. A staunch advocate of
Confederation, he was bitterly upset when electors, who
had given him tremendous majorities for 20 years turned
him out of office in 1867 on the union question. He died
a broken-hearted man at Charlottetown on Dec. 10, 1867. |
