Upper Canada Gazette – Upper Canada (Ontario), Louis Roy, 1793

Louis Roy (1771–1800) is recognized as the first printer in Upper Canada. Born in Montreal, he apprenticed with William Brown in the offices of The Quebec Gazette. John Graves Simcoe, the newly appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, invited him to set up a newspaper in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake). Roy made the journey from Montréal in 1792. His employment agreement included a monthly salary and a supplement for living expenses. He purchased a second-hand screw press and, by January 1793, printed the first edition of the Upper Canada Gazette or American Oracle. This double name was an attempt to convey that the paper was both a government publication (gazette) and a source of general news and information (oracle). Its main purpose, though, was to keep its citizens informed on government policy.

One of Roy’s earliest assignments was an eight-page brochure featuring a speech which Lord Simcoe made at the opening of the first session of the Upper Canada legislature. Lord Simcoe’s wife, Elizabeth, kept a diary of her adventures in Upper Canada, in which she noted that Roy "cannot write good English." Despite this, Roy became the first to hold the title of King’s Printer in the staunchly loyal English colony. The Upper Canada Gazette was never used as a forum for open political debate. Instead, Lord Simcoe well understood the value of a printer and used the press to further his goal of building a community rooted in aristocratic and conservative principles.

Although other printers continued managing The Upper Canada Gazette after Louis Roy, none held the title of King’s Printer. John Bennett was the next to be officially designated as such.