John McDowell

Who was John McDowell?

John McDowell was a merchant and politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as a Progressive Conservative from 1945 to 1958.

The son of John McDowell and Janet Shaw, McDowell came to Canada with his family in 1895, and was educated in Toronto, Ontario. He worked as a grain dealer, and was president of McDowell Grain Co. Ltd and Ridgewood Development Co. Ltd. He was also on the board of governors of the Winnipeg Grain Exchange.

He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1945 provincial election, in the constituency of Iberville. At the time, Manitoba was governed by a coalition ministry of Liberal-Progressives and Progressive Conservatives. McDowell ran as an Independent Progressive Conservative supporting the coalition, and defeated Liberal-Progressive W.D. Lawrence by over 400 votes.

He resigned his seat in 1949 to run for the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative. He finished third in the riding of Selkirk in the federal election of 1949, behind William Bryce of the social-democratic Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and Liberal Laurier Regnier.