Donald Oliver

The Honourable
Donald H. Oliver
CM ONS KC
Senator for South Shore, Nova Scotia
In office
September 7, 1990 – November 16, 2013
Appointed byBrian Mulroney
Personal details
Born (1938-11-16) November 16, 1938 (age 86)
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
Political partyConservative
ProfessionLawyer

Donald H. Oliver CM ONS KC (born November 16, 1938) is a Canadian lawyer, developer and politician. Appointed by former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Oliver served in the Senate of Canada from 1990 until 2013. He was the first black male to sit in the Senate and the second black Canadian appointed to the chamber.[1]

A lawyer and real estate developer, Oliver is a member of Nova Scotia's black minority. He is descended in part from African-American slave refugees who were resettled by the British in Canada from the United States after the War of 1812.[2] But his maternal grandfather, William A. White, migrated independently in 1900 from Baltimore, Maryland. Oliver is the nephew of Canadian opera singer Portia White, politician Bill White and labour union activist Jack White, and the cousin of political strategist Sheila White.

  1. ^ "Senate of Canada - Black History Month: Meet Senator Anne C. Cools". 10 February 2017.
  2. ^ Senator Donald Oliver Archived July 6, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, "Black History And Culture", December 20, 2007