Background
He was born in York (later Toronto), Upper Canada in 1826, the son of William Bergin, a York merchant who had immigrated from Ireland.
He was born in York (later Toronto), Upper Canada in 1826, the son of William Bergin, a York merchant who had immigrated from Ireland.
He studied at Upper Canada College and McGill College, receiving his Doctor of Medicine in 1847.
He represented Cornwall from 1872 to 1874 and from 1878 to 1882 and then Cornwall and Stormont from 1882 to 1896 in the Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal-Conservative member. He was the 1st Canadian Surgeon General. Bergin set up practice at Cornwall.
He was defeated by Alexander Francis Macdonald, the brother of Donald Alexander Macdonald, in 1874.
He opposed the Canada Temperance Acting of 1878, feeling that, in the end, it increased rather than prevented the consumption of alcohol. Bergin also helped promote the expansion of the Cornwall Canal.
He served in the local militia during the Trent Affair and the Fenian raids, later becoming lieutenant-colonel. Bergin served as surgeon general with Middleton"s expedition to the North-West in 1885.
Although he was unsuccessful in persuading the government to create a permanent militia medical corps following the North-West Rebellion, the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps was later established in 1904.
He died in Cornwall while still in office in 1896 after succumbing to an unidentified illness.