12 Facts About Kelso Roberts

Archibald Kelso Roberts was a politician in Ontario, Canada.

Kelso Roberts was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1943 to 1948 and again from 1951 to 1967.

Kelso Roberts served as a senior cabinet minister in the governments of Leslie Frost and John Robarts.

Roberts was married to Lillian Brathwaite and had three sons: Alexander Roberts, Frank Kelso Roberts, who became a judge in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and a part-time judge of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, and Greer Roberts.

Kelso Roberts was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as the Member of Provincial Parliament for the Toronto riding of St Patrick in the 1943 Ontario election that brought the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party to power under George Drew.

Early in his term, Kelso Roberts supported strengthening the Fair Accommodation Practices Act to require restaurants and bars to serve all customers equally, regardless of race or ethnicity.

Kelso Roberts ran for the leadership of the party again in 1961 when Frost resigned, and led on the first ballot but then fell behind John Robarts, who went on to win on the sixth ballot.

Kelso Roberts remained attorney-general until 1962 when he became Minister of Lands and Forests.

Kelso Roberts had delivered a report that declared organized crime was virtually nonexistent in Ontario; the position was widely ridiculed and likely led to his demotion.

Kelso Roberts came under particular criticism when the press reported that he and officers of the Ontario Provincial Police had communicated with organized crime syndicates in Canada and the US.

Kelso Roberts resisted calls to call a Royal Commission to investigate organized crime in Ontario and examine allegations that his ministry was covering up instances in which it deliberately or through lax procedures assisted organized crime.

Kelso Roberts retired from cabinet in 1966, and retired from the legislature when the 1967 Ontario election was called.