Term of Office: 1 July 1888 – 2 September 1895
Born: Amherstberg, Upper Canada, 1 January 1840
Died: Monterey, Mexico, 13 April 1896
- Educated at Oberlin College, Ohio, Kingston and possibly Victoria College, Cobourg.
- Arrived at Fort Garry in 1860 and with his half-brother Henry MacKenny opened the Royal Hotel at what was to become Portage and Main.
- Operated as a free trader in furs in opposition to the Hudson’s Bay Company throughout the early 1860s.
- Became a partner in the “Nor’Wester”, Red River’s earliest newspaper, using it as an anti-Company organ.
- Opened a drug store on Main Street and practiced medicine (although it is doubtful that he acquired a doctorate in medicine as he claimed).
- Leader of the “Canada First” party at Red River urging the union of all the provinces.
- Opposed the formation of the Provisional Government of Riel in December 1869 and was incarcerated in Upper Fort Garry.
- Escaped in February 1870 to Ottawa to raise opposition to Riel in Eastern Canada.
- Member of Parliament for the Manitoba constituency of Lisgar 1871-1882.
- Appointed to the Senate 1882.
- Led a Senate committee which examined the resources of the Mackenzie Basin.
- Knighted in 1894.