• Source: Murdoch Mackay

Murdoch Mackay (April 30, 1884 – December 18, 1962) was a Manitoba politician. He led the Manitoba Liberal Party from 1931 to 1932, and brought the party into an alliance with John Bracken's Progressives.




Biography


Mackay was born on Boularderie Island, Nova Scotia, the son of John Mackay and Anna MacAulay. He subsequently moved to Manitoba, and was elected to the provincial legislature in the general election of 1927. A Liberal, Mackay defeated Progressive incumbent Clifford Barclay by 18 votes in the riding of Springfield.
The provincial Liberals fared poorly in this election, winning only seven seats in a 55-member legislature. Party leader Hugh Robson stepped down in 1930. After a brief period in which James Breakey led the parliamentary caucus, Mackay was chosen over Fred C. Hamilton as party leader in 1931.
MacKay brought the Manitoba Liberals into an alliance with the governing Progressives in 1932. By this time, the Liberals and Progressives of Manitoba were already co-operating at the federal level; national Liberal leader William Lyon Mackenzie King wanted the same alliance at the provincial level to prevent a Conservative victory in the next election. The Liberals joined the government in early 1932, and two members of the party were brought into cabinet. Mackay himself was made a Minister without Portfolio on May 27, 1932.
His term in office was brief. The united "Liberal-Progressives" easily defeated the Conservatives in the election, but Mackay was defeated by Barclay (now running as an "Independent Farmer-Labour" candidate) in Springfield. He resigned from cabinet, and left provincial politics. Mackay attempted a comeback in 1945, but lost to CCF candidate George Olive by over one thousand votes.
As well as being a politician, MacKay was known by many as a prominent local physician in the town of Transcona, with a reputation for kindness and a great sense of humour. He graduated from Manitoba Medical School in 1916 and married Ruby Gowland the following year. They had four daughters who all graduated from the University of Manitoba. Throughout his career, MacKay was well known for his compassion - accepting food from patients that could not afford to pay upfront. He remains a community hero and his commitment to the Transcona area was honoured in his 2005 nomination as "The Greatest Transconian".
MacKay died at Saint Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg on December 18, 1962, and was buried at Transcona Cemetery.
MacKay had a great love of learning and, as such, Murdoch MacKay Collegiate, a high school in Winnipeg, was named in his honour in 1964.




References

• Source: Murdoch MacKay

Murdoch MacKay (1 March 1930 – 18 July 2023) was a Canadian lawyer and politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was president of the New Democratic Party of Manitoba during the 1970s, and later joined the breakaway Progressive Party.
His son-in-law, Paul Edwards, was leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party from 1993 to 1996.




Early life and career


MacKay was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on 1 March 1930. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Winnipeg in 1950, and a Bachelor of Law degree from the Manitoba Law School in 1955. He led an inquiry into labour negotiations into the glass industry, and subsequently served as chair of the Manitoba Labour Board for seven years. He was also a member of the Manitoba Development Corporation board. Once a member of the Liberal Party, he later joined the New Democratic Party and served as its provincial president from 1972 to 1974.




Political career


MacKay was the New Democratic Party's candidate for the division of Wolseley in the 1973 provincial election. On election night, official results showed that he had received the same number of votes as Liberal Party leader Izzy Asper. Jim Maloway, the returning officer, cast a tiebreaking vote for MacKay and declared him as the elected member; a subsequent recount, however, determined that Asper actually won by four votes. Herb Schulz's memoirs indicate that MacKay would have been appointed as Justice Minister in Edward Schreyer's government, had he been elected.
Asper resigned his seat in 1975, and MacKay contested a by-election to replace him. He finished third against Progressive Conservative candidate Robert Wilson in a close three-way contest. He contested Wolseley for a third time in the 1977 provincial election, and lost to Wilson by only 74 votes.
MacKay was a founding member of the Progressive Party, which was created by former NDP cabinet minister Sidney Green in 1981. He again sought election in Wolseley in the 1981 provincial election, and was resoundingly defeated.




After politics


MacKay was also part-owner of Superior Cheese Canada Ltd. in the 1980s. He initially supported a union shop for the plant, but later announced that he had "second thoughts" and argued for an open shop structure. In 1996, he argued that Manitoba should abandon the Rand formula of mandatory dues collection and allow workers to opt out of union membership. Peter Olfert, president of the Manitoba Government Employees' Association, described this suggestion as regressive. In 2003, MacKay argued that Manitoba's labour laws were anti-business, and preventing economic growth.
MacKay was a founding board member of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. The Centre's 2001 annual report lists him a lawyer with the Winnipeg firm, Duboff, Edwards, Haight and Schachter, specializing in corporate and labour law, as well as a director of Jory Capital Inc. and the Mount Caramel Clinic, and a Secretary of the Frontier Centre.
MacKay debated former political rival Al Mackling in a series of letters to the editor in 2006, on the subject of collective bargaining.
MacKay died in Winnipeg on 18 July 2023, at the age of 93.




Footnotes

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• William McMaster Murdoch
• Pengepungan Stralsund (1628)
• Tenggelamnya RMS Titanic
• Titanic (film 1997)
• RMS Titanic
• Nama Tionghoa
• Frederick Fleet
• Tim nasional sepak bola Skotlandia
• My Heart Will Go On
• Hewan di Titanic
• Murdoch Mackay
• Murdoch MacKay
• Alexander Murdoch Mackay
• Progressive Party of Manitoba (1981–1995)
• George Olive
• Rhynie, Aberdeenshire
• Murdoch MacKay Collegiate
• Springfield (provincial electoral district)
• Manitoba Liberal Party
• James Hannington