Researching John Macdonald

Born in Tracadie, Prince Edward Island, the son of John Charles Macdonald, he represented 3rd Kings in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island from 1908 to 1915 and from 1923 to 1925 as a Conservative member. Macdonald served in the provincial cabinet as Minister without Portfolio from 1911 to 1915 and as Minister of Public Works and Highways from 1923 to 1925. He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the riding of King's in the 1925 federal election. A Conservative, he was re-elected in 1926 and 1930. Macdonald was a Minister without Portfolio in the federal cabinet in 1926 and from 1930 to 1935. In 1935, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada representing the senatorial division of Cardigan, Prince Edward Island. He served until his death in Cardigan in 1948.

Macdonald was a merchant, exporter and shipbuilder. He also was a director of the Cardigan Electric Company, the Cardigan Silver Fox Company Limited and the Georgetown Fish Company. In 1905, he married Marie Josephine MacDonald.

His son John Augustine also represented the riding of King's in the House of Commons. John Augustine's wife Margaret Mary was the first woman from Prince Edward Island to serve in the House of Commons.

Born in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, the son of Joseph Macdonald and Theresa MacDonald, he was educated at St. Francis Xavier University and Dalhousie University. He was called to the Nova Scotia bar in 1945. He practised law with his father and with Ronald J. Macdonald. During World War II, Macdonald served with the Royal Canadian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and with the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps.

He ran unsuccessfully as the National Government candidate (the label used by the Conservative Party/Progressive Conservative Party during those elections) for the House of Commons of Canada in the riding of Cape Breton North and Victoria in the 1940 election and 1945 election. In 1956, he was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, representing the electoral district of Cape Breton North.

Summoned to the Senate of Canada in 1960 representing the senatorial division of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, a Progressive Conservative, he was twice Opposition Whip in the Senate (1963–1979 and 1980–1984) and was Government Whip in the Senate (1979–1980).

Macdonald died in North Sydney, Nova Scotia in 1997; at the time of his death, he was the last senator to serve in the senate past the age of 75, and one of the last senators appointed for life serving in the Senate (Orville Howard Phillips was the last senator with a lifetime appointment. He resigned in 1999).

He is the only person to have won all the international races of Macau; Macau Grand Prix (1965, 1972, 1973 and 1975), Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix (1969) and Guia Race (1972). He is also the winner of the most Macau Grand Prix competitions, with 4 wins, and the first winner of the Guia Race in 1972.

In addition to his Macau victories, MacDonald won the Malaysian Grand Prix four times. He also won the 1976 Indonesian Grand Prix.

He was born in Bedeque, Prince Edward Island, the son of Angus McDonald. In 1875, he married Annie C. McKelvie. MacDonald was a justice of the peace in Indian River. He served as chairman of the board of railway appraisers and was a governor for Wales' College. He was speaker for the assembly from 1879 to 1891. MacDonald also served as a member of the Executive Council.

His nephew Bernard Donald McLellan also served as speaker for the provincial assembly. His uncle Bernard Donald Macdonald was bishop of Charlottetown. His daughter Bernice married Adrien Arsenault.

He was born in Havre Boucher, Nova Scotia, the son of Hugh Macdonald, and was educated at Saint Francis Xavier University and Dalhousie University. In 1912, Macdonald married Margaret Lola Maxwell. He represented Richmond County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1916 to 1925, when he resigned to run for a federal seat. Macdonald resigned his seat in the Commons in 1930 to allow Edgar Nelson Rhodes to be elected there. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus. He died in office as a member of the Senate at the age of 62.

MacDonald was born in Opotiki, New Zealand, the son of an Australian volunteer in the New Zealand Wars and veteran of the 1891 Australian shearers' strike. He completed his early education in New Zealand before his family migrated to New South Wales, whereafter he attended state schools. He spent time as a shearer in New South Wales and Victoria before returning to New Zealand and entering the printing trade. He began as a journeyman compositor, but shifted into journalism over time, working for the Wairoa Guardian and the Napier-based The Daily Telegraph before rising to become chief compositor and acting editor of the Gisborne Herald. He was also involved in the Typographical Association in its early days and taught shorthand at the Gisborne Technical College in 1903–04.

MacDonald later returned to Australia and worked as a journalist at The Argus and then The Age in Melbourne, including a stint in the parliamentary press gallery. He was one of the founding members of the Australian Journalists Association in 1910, spent time in London and studied at the University of London, before returning to Australia. He was then recruited as editor of the new Brisbane newspaper The Daily Standard in 1912, serving in that role until his appointment to the Senate and also serving as acting manager in 1913–14. He was involved in campaigning against the conscription referendums of Billy Hughes, but in 1918 was one of 12 newspaper editors selected by the Nationalist Party government to visit the World War I front.

On 26 May 1922, he was appointed to the Australian Senate as a Labor Senator for Queensland, filling the casual vacancy caused by the death of Nationalist Senator John Adamson; he had already been preselected as a Labor candidate for the forthcoming election. However, he was defeated at the 1922 election. MacDonald worked as a freelance journalist in the intervening years. Following the death of another Nationalist Senator, Thomas Givens, MacDonald was again appointed to the Senate on 1 August 1928 but was defeated again at the 1928 election. He then worked as chief compiler for the Queensland Tourist Bureau, promoting the state's tourist opportunities. MacDonald was finally elected in his own right in the election of 1931, taking his place in the Senate in 1932. He died in office in 1937 after suffering reported "heart trouble" and was cremated at Mount Thompson Crematorium.

His father was John Alexander Macdonald, a provincial politician then a federal Member of Parliament and Senator. The younger Macdonald served in World War II, commanding the Prince Edward Island Regiment. He was injured at Normandy on July 1944 and returned to Prince Edward Island. He won a seat at the 3rd Kings riding in a 1945 provincial by-election despite remaining in hospital recovering from his war injuries. He lost his riding in the 1947 provincial election, but returned to the provincial legislature in a 1951 election victory after which he became his party's whip and finance critic.

As a merchant, Macdonald became J. A. MacDonald & Co. Ltd.'s President and was a director for Associated Shippers, Inc. He also served on various boards and associations.

Macdonald was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada at King's riding in the 1957 general election and re-elected there in the 1958 election. Macdonald made two previous unsuccessful attempts to win a seat at King's in the 1949 and 1953 elections.

Macdonald died at his home in Cardigan, Prince Edward Island on the morning of 4 January 1961, during his term in the 24th Parliament. His wife, Margaret Mary Macdonald, succeeded him as the Member of Parliament for King's in a by-election later that year.

A farmer by occupation, MacDonald was born and raised in Glenfinnan, Prince Edward Island.

He enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I and had the rank of lieutenant at the end of the war. He was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal in September 1918.

MacDonald served as president of the PEI Dairymen's Association and was also a volunteer board member of the East River Telephone Company and the East River Dairy Company.

A Progressive Conservative, he was summoned to the Senate on the advice of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in 1958 and served in the upper house until his retirement in 1971.