Walter L. Gordon
Canadian politician (1906-1987)
Walter Lockhart Gordon (27 January 1906 – 21 March 1987) was a Canadian accountant, businessman, politician, and writer.
Education
Born in Toronto, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Duncan Lockhart Gordon DSO, a prominent Toronto businessman, and Kathleen Cassels, daughter of the first President of the Exchequer Court of Canada Walter Cassels. Like his father, Gordon was educated at Upper Canada College and the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.
Public affairs involvement in early business career
Upon graduation and after a brief unhappy stint in New York, in January 1927 Gordon joined the accounting firm Clarkson, Gordon and Company, a prominent accountancy with roots to Upper Canada and the precursor to modern day EY Canada. The firm was at the time headed by Gordon's father (who became a name partner of the firm in 1913) and G.T. Clarkson, a grandson of the firm's founder Thomas Clarkson. He was a student there for four years, became a chartered accountant in early 1931.
In the mid-1930s, Gordon joined the ownership group of Canadian Forum, a political periodical with nationalist and progressive orientation, for about a year. He and his wife were close friend with its editor Graham Spry, and other leading members of the League for Social Reconstruction, an organization of left-leaning intellectuals.
Gordon's time at Clarkson Gordon provided him with extensive exposure to government machinery. G.T. Clarkson was a close personal associate of Ontario Conservative Premier Howard Ferguson, and the firm was regularly retained by the Ontario government in the 1920s, so much so that Gordon commented that there were times when he seemed to spend more time at Queen's Park than he did in the firm's office.
The public source identifies “Walter L. Gordon” as canadian politician (1906-1987). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Walter, Gordon and Canadian.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Walter L. Gordon”, the useful work is to connect “canadian politician (1906-1987)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2545302. VIAF identifies the subject as 51768879. The Library of Congress control number is n50035023. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1906, 1987, 1927 and 1913.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Walter L. Gordon”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Walter L. Gordon primary sources, Walter L. Gordon archive and Walter research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Walter L. Gordon”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Walter L. Gordon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.