John Sutherland

Who was John Sutherland?

John Sutherland was a Manitoba political figure. Farmer, Senator.

He was born in Point Douglas in what was then the Red River Colony and was educated at St. John's College

Following the flood of 1852, he moved to East Kildonan where he operated a general store and farmed.

In 1866 he was appointed to the Council of Assiniboia which had been created by the Hudson's Bay Company to govern the territory until it was dissolved in 1870.

During the Red River Rebellion, Sutherland was a leader of the "loyalists" and was a delegate to the Council of Forty in 1870. In February 1870, the Provisional Government of the Red River Colony appointed Sutherland Collector of Customs. When Manitoba entered Canadian Confederation on July 15, 1870, Sutherland was appointed the first High Sheriff of Manitoba and held the office until December 1871 when he was appointed to the Canadian Senate by Sir John A. Macdonald where he sat as an Independent Conservative until his death.

In his later life, Sutherland helped found Manitoba College.