Born in Hillier, Prince Edward County, Ontario, the son of James C. Davidson, a farmer, and Sarah McCartney Davidson, Davidson was educated at the public school of his district, Picton High School, Saint Catharines Collegiate Institute, and the University of Toronto where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1893.
University of Toronto.
He started working as a reporter for The Toronto World and soon joined the Toronto Star. He would report from the Ontario legislature for seven years. In 1902, Davidson founded, a daily newspaper published in the Calgary region that would become the Calgary Sun, it was printed and published by his company Public.
Company
Davidson was first elected to the Alberta Legislature in the 1917 Alberta general election.
Davidson would seek another term in the Alberta Legislature in the Calgary electoral district as an Independent in a by-election on January 15, 1923 held after the death of Robert Edwards. He retired from provincial politics for the second time in 1926.
He defeated Conservative incumbent Samuel Bacon Hillocks by a comfortable margin to win his first term in office and represent the North Calgary electoral district. Davidson retired at the end of his first term in office to run in the 1925 Canadian federal election in Calgary East he was badly defeated finishing a distant 3rd place behind Conservative Fred Davis the winner and Labor candidate William Irvine. He defeated Liberal candidate Clinton J. Ford to win.
