John Short was a farmer and political figure in Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

. He represented Gaspé

Gaspé (electoral district)

Gaspé was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1997.It was created by the British North America Act of 1867...

 in the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 from 1875 to 1878 as a Conservative

Conservative Party of Canada (historical)

The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...

 member.

Born in Richmond

Richmond, Ontario

Richmond is a Canadian village. Founded in 1818, it spans the Jock River, a tributary of the Rideau River. Like many communities in eastern Ontario, Richmond houses several unique populations. Some residents have historic and economic roots in the immediate area. Richmond operates as a small core...

, Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

 and educated in Lennoxville

Lennoxville, Quebec

Lennoxville is an arrondissement, or borough, of the city of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Lennoxville is located at the confluence of the St. Francis and Massawippi Rivers approximately five kilometers south of downtown Sherbrooke....

, Canada East

Canada East

Canada East was the eastern portion of the United Province of Canada. It consisted of the southern portion of the modern-day Canadian Province of Quebec, and was primarily a French-speaking region....

, he was the son of the Reverend Robert Short and Margaret Lyon, the grandson of John Quirk Short and the great-grandson of Robert Quirk Short

Robert Quirk Short

Robert Quirk Short was a Church of England clergyman. He was born at Withycombe Hall in Somerset, England.He entered the University of Oxford in 1778 and was ordained a deacon in the Church of England in 1783 and a priest on September 30, 1787. He served as a curate in the Diocese of Bath and Wells...

. In 1858, Short married Mary Charlotte Boyle. He served as mayor of Gaspé

Gaspé, Quebec

Gaspé is a city at the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in the Gaspésie–Îles-de-la-Madeleine region of eastern Quebec, Canada. As of the 2006 census, the city had a total population of 14,819....

 for 14 years and also served as warden for Gaspé County. Short also served as chairman of the school board and sheriff for Gaspé district. He was elected to the House of Commons in an 1875 by-election held after Louis George Harper

Louis George Harper

Louis George Harper was a prothonotary and political figure in Quebec. He represented Gaspé in the Canadian House of Commons from 1874 to 1875 as a Conservative member....

 was unseated.

His uncle Edward Short

Edward Short (Canadian judge)

Edward Short was a lawyer, judge and political figure in Quebec.He was born in Bristol, England in 1806, the son of John Quirk Short and the grandson of Robert Quirk Short, and came to Canada with his family. He studied law in Trois-Rivières and was called to the Bar of Quebec in 1826...

was a judge in the Quebec Superior Court and served in the legislative assembly for the Province of Canada.