Eugene Forsey

Eugene Alfred Forsey, PC CC FRSC (May 29, 1904 – February 20, 1991) served in the Canadian Senate from 1970 to 1979. He was considered to be one of Canada's foremost constitutional experts.

Biography

Born in Grand Bank in the Newfoundland Colony, he attended McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.

Forsey was a supporter of the Conservative Party led by Arthur Meighen until he went to Balliol College, Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship during which he was converted to democratic socialism. Upon returning to Canada, he joined the League for Social Reconstruction, and was a delegate at the founding convention of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) in 1933 in Regina.

In 1924 Forsey was employed by Vincent Massey as a tutor for the two Massey boys at their Batterwood home near Canton, Ontario. This was an old farmhouse and property that the Masseys had bought in 1918 on rising land backed by rolling hills and facing Lake Ontario a few miles to the south. Forsey was free to enjoy Massey's extensive library, and also socialized with the many visitors. These included academics from the University of Toronto and politicians such as the son of Ramsay MacDonald, the British Prime Minister. Massey at this time was about to enter public life, although his more immediate concern was the health of the family business.