Davey, Keith

Person

Davey, Keith

1926-2011

Keith Davey was a sales manager, National Campaign Director for the Liberal Party Canada, a Senator, and a communications consultant. He was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Charles Minto Davey and Grace Viola Curtis. He married Catherine Isobel Hart in 1952. They had three children, Douglas, Ian and Catherine. They separated in 1975. He married Dorothy Elizabeth Petrie in 1978.

Davey was educated at North Toronto Collegiate Institute. He received a B.A. from Victoria College, University of Toronto in 1949. After graduation Davey became a Sales Manager for CKFH, a Toronto radio station (1949-60). He entered politics in 1960 as a campaign organizer for his home riding of Eglinton and was appointed National Campaign Director of the Liberal Party Canada in 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1965; concurrently National Organizer of the Party and Executive Director, of the Liberal Party of Canada until his appointment to the Senate in 1966. He was Chairman of the Special Senate Committee on Mass Media in 1970; and Co-Chairman of the Liberal National Campaign in 1973, 1979, 1980, and 1984 (last half). He was Commissioner of the Canadian Football League in 1967; a member of the Board of Governors of Toronto Central Hospital, the Canadian Oldtimers Hockey Association, and the United Church; Chairman of the Advisory Board of Alcohol and Drug Concerns, Inc.; Director of the Shaw Festival; and member of the Editorial Advisory Board of The Journal. Upon his retirement from the Senate in 1996 his friends and colleagues created an endowment to establish an annual lecture at Victoria University.

In 1969 Davey established his own communications consultancy, Keith Davey Limited. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999. Davey published a political memoir, The Rainmaker – a Passion for Politics, in 1986.

Keith Davey died in Toronto in 2011.

Victoria University Library - Special Collections