 In 1940, he married Janet Southam, daughter of "Ottawa Citizen" publisher Harry Stevenson Southam and a member of the Southam family.He began advising Mackenzie King during election campaigns in the 1920s and was named as executor of the late prime minister's estate.He was president of the National Liberal Federation from 1952 to 1958 and had been a top Liberal campaign strategist for nearly 40 years at the time of his death.