Creighton, Donald Grant, 1902-1979

Donald Grant Creighton (15 July 1902 – 19 December 1979) was a Canadian historian whose major works include The Commercial Empire of the St-Lawrence, 1760–1850 (first published in 1937), a detailed study on the growth of the English merchant class in relation to the St Lawrence River in Canada. His biography of John A. Macdonald, published into two parts between 1952 and 1955, was considered by many Canadian historians as re-establishing biographies as a proper form of historical research in Canada. By the 1960s Creighton began to move towards a more general history of Canada. Creighton's later years were preoccupied with criticizing the then ruling Liberal Party of Canada under William Lyon Mackenzie King and his successor Louis St. Laurent. Creighton denounced the Liberal Party for undermining Canada's link with the United Kingdom and moving towards closer relations with the United States, a policy which he strongly disliked.