Publisher, Politician. He was a Canadian publisher and politician as well as a philanthropist and historian. Born the son of John Robertson and his wife Margaret Sinclair, he exhibited an interest in hockey and other sports as well as history while a youngster. While studying at Upper Canada College in 1857, he started "The College Times," the first school newspaper in Canada. He left college in 1860 and started a handwritten newspaper. Following this, he became the city editor of "The Globe" in 1865. He and James B. Cook were co-owners of "The Daily Telegraph" from 1866 to 1872. In 1876, he was a founding publisher of "The Evening Telegram" in Toronto. Other publishing adventures included "Young Canada Sporting Life," which is credited as the nation's first periodical devoted to sports; "Robertson's Canadian Railway Guide"; and from 1863 to 1865, the "Grumbler," a satirical weekly publication. With his excellent managerial skills, he kept the cost of publishing low, becoming a very successful and wealthy publisher. Robertson served as president of the Toronto Press Club and honorary president of the Canadian Press Association. After his only daughter's death from Scarlet Fever in March of 1881, he became interested in the lack of children's health facilities. The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto was built as a result of the fund-raising efforts of Robertson and his wife. As a historian, he collected priceless historical and pictorial documentation that was published in "Landmarks of Toronto" and the two-volume "History of Freemasonry in Canada." Providing a glimpse of Canada in the 18th century, he edited the diaries of watercolorist Elizabeth Simcoe, the wife of the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe, and published the work in 1911. As a politician, he served as an Independent Conservative member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada representing Toronto East from 1896 to 1900. He supported the Canadian Copyright Act. He was an enthusiastic advocate of the movement for civic reform and public ownership of services and utilities. Using bullying character assassinations, his newspapers had the power to make or break any politician's career. He was very active in the game of hockey, supporting rules for amateur hockey. For this reason, he was inducted in the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947. He married twice. With his first wife, Maria Gillbee, he was the father of two sons and a daughter. After being a widower for two years, he married for the second time to Jessie Elizabeth Holland, and the couple was childless. He was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1914. He was offered Senatorship and Knighthood by Prime Minister Sir Robert Laird Borden but refused both on December 31, 1916. At his 1918 death, his vast estate was estimated at about $1,750,000, which would be equal to nearly $37,000,000 in 2024. A Blue Historical Plaque of the Cabbagetown People was erected on the front of his Sherbourne Street home. Much of his historical collection was donated to the Toronto Public Library.