The "Ottawa Journal" of March 30, 1959 credited Percy Sparks with being the "father of the Gatineau Park," adding that, as chairman of the Federal Woodlands Preservation League from 1937 to 1947, he "brought about the first purchase by the Dominion government of what is now […] Gatineau Park." On May 12, 1955, the same paper said that "Mr. Sparks and his associates are generally credited with 'selling' the late Prime Minister Mackenzie King the idea of setting aside a national recreation area on the outskirts of Canada's capital."