Frank Oliver was born Francis Bowsfield in Peel County, Canada West, just west of Toronto, Oliver was the son of Allan Bowsfield and Hannah Lundy. Some disagreement in the family made him drop the name Bowsfield and adopt the name of his grandmother, Nancy Oliver Lundy. Oliver studied journalism in Toronto, Ontario. In 1880, he moved west and founded the Edmonton Bulletin with his wife, Harriet Dunlop. When the first issue was printed on December 6, 1880, it became the first newspaper in what is now known as the province of Alberta, which he owned until 1923.
From 1905 to 1911, he was appointed and served as the Minister of the Interior and Superintendent-General of Indian Affairs. As minister responsible for national parks, he drastically reduced the size of Rocky Mountains Park from in 1902, to ; Kootenay Lakes Forest Reserve from in 1895 to, and Jasper National Park from in 1907 to, under the Dominion Forest Reserves and Parks Act of 1911, which replaced the earlier legislation; much of the land thus freed was declared to be forest reserves to capitalize on its timber and mineral resources. Frank Oliver's successor for Minister of the Interior William James Roche would expand the three Alberta National Parks closer to their original sizes, in 1914 Waterton Lakes National Park to, later in 1917 expand Banff National Park to and Jasper National Park to. Oliver unhappy with centralized approach to the National Parks System, would re-organize the system creating the position of Commissioner of Dominion Parks with its headquarters in Banff, Alberta, and Howard Douglas, the superintendent of Rocky Mountains Park since 1897 was appointed the first Commissioner. By 1911, Oliver's immigration policy called for tighter controls on immigration. Oliver was staunchly British, and his policies favoured nationality over occupation. He was now able to assert that his immigration policy was more "restrictive, exclusive and selective" than those of his predecessors. Oliver wrote Order-in-Council 1911-1324 which was approved by the Laurier Cabinet on August 12, 1911, under the authority of the Immigration Act, 1906. The order was intended to keep out Black Americans escaping segregation in the American south, stating that "the Negro race...is deemed unsuitable to the climate and requirements of Canada." The order was never called upon, as efforts by immigration officials had already reduced the number of Blacks migrating to Canada. The order was cancelled 5 October 1911, the day before Laurier completed his term, by cabinet claiming that the Minister of the Interior was not present at the time of approval. Oliver would also be successful in using his newspaper to lobby for having the PapaschaseCree removed from their Treaty 6 Reserve territory, south of Edmonton.
