Editing Keith Davey

{{short description|Canadian politician}}

{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix = [[The Honourable]]
| name             = Keith Douglas Davey
| honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|OC|size=100%}}
| image            =
| imagesize        = 
| office           = [[Senate of Canada|Senator]] for York, Ontario  
| term_start       = February 24, 1966
| term_end         = July 1, 1996
| appointed        = [[Lester B. Pearson]]
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1926|4|21}}
| birth_place      = [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]], Canada
| death_date       = {{death date and age|2011|1|17|1926|4|21}}
| death_place      = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| spouse           = Catherine Isobel Hart (m. 1952 – c. 1975; marriage dissolved)<br />Dorothy Elizabeth Petrie (m. 1978 – d. 2011; his death)
| party            = [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]]
| children         = Douglas, Ian, Catherine
| residence        = [[Toronto]]
| alma_mater       = [[University of Toronto]]
| profession       = political organizer
| committees       = Chairman, Special Committee on Mass Media (1969–1970)<br />Chairman, Special Committee on Mass Public Communication in Canada (1968–1969)
}}

'''Douglas Keith Davey''', {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|OC}} (April 21, 1926{{snd}} January 17, 2011) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] politician and campaign organizer.

== Family, early life and education ==
Born in [[Toronto]], Ontario to Charles Minto Davey ([[Toronto Star]] Production Manager) and Grace Viola (née Curtis), Keith Davey attended high school at [[North Toronto Collegiate Institute]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://library.vicu.utoronto.ca/special/F36fonds.htm|title=Special Collections &#124; Collections &#124; E.J. Pratt Library}}</ref> Davey graduated with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] from the [[University of Toronto]] in 1949.<ref>''The Rainmaker: A Passion for Politics'', by Keith Davey, Stoddart, Toronto, 1986</ref>

==Business career==
Davey became a sales manager for [[CKFH]], a Toronto radio station, from 1949 to 1960. The station was owned and managed by noted broadcaster [[Foster Hewitt]].

==Political career==
Davey became a political organizer for the Liberal Party at the constituency level in Toronto in his early 20s, and joined the Executive of the Ontario Young Liberals in the 1950s, along with [[Judy LaMarsh]] (later a federal cabinet minister). In 1960 he became a campaign manager for his home riding of [[Eglinton (federal electoral district)|Eglinton]].

Davey was appointed National Campaign Director of the [[Liberal Party of Canada]] in 1961. He directed the Liberal campaigns in [[1963 Canadian federal election|1963]] and [[1965 Canadian federal election|1965]]. Commuting regularly between homes in [[Ottawa]] and Toronto, Davey played important roles in every federal Liberal campaign up to and including 1984, serving Prime Ministers [[Lester Pearson]], [[Pierre Trudeau]], and [[John Turner]]. These elections were held in [[1968 Canadian federal election|1968]], [[1972 Canadian federal election|1972]], [[1974 Canadian federal election|1974]], [[1979 Canadian federal election|1979]], [[1980 Canadian federal election|1980]], and [[1984 Canadian federal election|1984]].

===Senator (1966-1996)===
Davey was appointed to the [[Senate of Canada]] by [[Lester Pearson]] in 1966, just before his 40th birthday. He resigned in 1996.

In 1969, Davey chaired the Special Committee on Mass Media. [[Terence Corcoran]] argues that it was Davey's contention that a subsidized press is necessary "to supplement the privately owned media" which "were a menace to a democratic society."<ref name="tcnp">{{cite news |last1=Corcoran |first1=Terence |title=Government to the newspaper industry's rescue? No thanks |url=https://nationalpost.com/opinion/terence-corcoran-government-to-the-newspaper-industrys-rescue-no-thanks |publisher=National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc |date=6 February 2016}}</ref>

==Other==

In 1966, Davey served briefly as the [[Canadian Football League#League commissioners|second]] commissioner of the [[Canadian Football League]], resigning after less than two months on the job, due to stated incompatibility with many leading league figures.<ref>''The Rainmaker: A Passion for Politics'', by Keith Davey, 1986, Stoddart, Toronto</ref>

Davey was portrayed on an episode of ''[[King of Kensington]]'' as Senator Keith Davis on the episode titled ''Mr. King Goes to Ottawa''; he was portrayed by actor Ken James.
 
In 1986, Davey published a political memoir, ''The Rainmaker: a Passion for Politics''.

Davey was made an Officer of the [[Order of Canada]] in 1999.

==Marriages==
He married Catherine Isobel Hart in 1952; they had three children, Douglas, Ian and Catherine. The union was dissolved around 1975. He remarried to Dorothy Elizabeth Petrie in 1978.

==Death==
Davey died on January 17, 2011, aged 84,<ref>[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/liberal-rainmaker-keith-davey-dies-1.1041733 Notice of Keith Davey's death]</ref> at Belmont House in Toronto. He had been suffering from [[Alzheimer's disease]]. He was survived by his second wife, and his three children from his first marriage.<ref>[https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/923146--keith-davey-liberal-rainmaker-dies Obituary for Keith Davey]</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Bothwell |first=Robert |title=Keith Davey |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |date=4 March 2015 |publisher=[[Historica Canada]] |edition=online |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/keith-davey}}

==External links==
{{Archival records|title=Keith Davey fonds}}
* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=14921}}
* [http://library.vicu.utoronto.ca/special/F36daveyfonds.htm The Keith Davey Collection at the Victoria University Library at the University of Toronto]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Davey, Keith}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:Canadian Football League commissioners]]
[[Category:Canadian political consultants]]
[[Category:Canadian senators from Ontario]]
[[Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Canada]]
[[Category:Neurological disease deaths in Ontario]]
[[Category:Liberal Party of Canada senators]]
[[Category:Politicians from Toronto]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of Canada]]
[[Category:University of Toronto alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Senate of Canada]]