Finlay MacDonald

Who was Finlay MacDonald?

Finlay MacDonald was a Conservative member of the Canadian House of Commons. He was born in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia and became a barrister.

The son of Malcolm MacDonald and Sarah Cantwell, MacDonald attended St. Francis Xavier College then Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, earning a Bachelor of Laws degree. From 1906 to 1925 he was a city solicitor for Sydney, Nova Scotia. He was also appointed a King's Counsel.

He was first elected to Parliament at the Cape Breton South riding in the 1925 general election then re-elected there in 1926 and 1930. MacDonald was defeated in the 1935 federal election by David James Hartigan of the Liberals.

He died in 1948 at Sydney.

His son, also named Finlay MacDonald, a Halifax broadcasting executive, would run unsuccessfully for the House of Commons in the riding of Halifax in the 1963 Federal Election, and would eventually be appointed to the Canadian Senate by then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1984.