Peter McLaren

Who was Peter McLaren?

Peter McLaren was a Canadian politician.

Born in Lanark, Upper Canada, he was the son of James McLaren, an immigrant from Scotland. He married Sophia, the daughter of William Lees. McLaren was involved in the timber trade and operated sawmills in Carleton Place and at McLaren's depot on the Kingston and Pembroke Railway line as well as in Alberta. In 1881, the Ontario government passed the Rivers and Streams Act, mainly due to a dispute between McLaren and a rival lumber company over access to McLaren's timber slides on the Mississippi River. The Act was disallowed by John Alexander Macdonald, leading to a dispute over jurisdiction between the Mowat government in Ontario and the federal government. However, in 1884, the Act was upheld by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in McLaren v. Caldwell.

McLaren was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1890 on the advice of John Alexander Macdonald representing the senatorial division of Perth, Ontario. A Conservative, he served 29 years until his death in Perth in 1919.