Memorable Manitobans: Murdoch MacKay (1930-2023)

Lawyer, politician, entrepreneur.

Born at Winnipeg on 1 March 1930, son of James MacKay and Annie MacKay, he received a BA degree (1950) from United College and an LLB degree (1955) from the University of Manitoba. He was called to the Manitoba Bar in 1955 and practiced corporate and labour law with the firms of Christie Degraves MacKay and later Duboff Edwards Schachter. He was made a Queen's Counsel (1970).

He was a candidate in the 1973, 1977, and 1981 provincial general elections and in a 1975 by-election, mostly for the New Democratic Party (for which he was Party President in the early 1970s) except in 1981 when he represented the short-lived Manitoba Progressive Party. In the 1980s, after leaving politics, he was a proprietor of Superior Cheese Canada Limited. He served as a director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Main Street Project, Frontier Centre for Public Policy, Manitoba Dairy Manufacturers Association (President), Canadian Paraplegic Association (Vice-President), and Mount Carmel Clinic. He chaired the Manitoba Labour Board (7 years).

On 1 October 1960, he married Peggy Primrose Bean (1929-2016, daughter of Reginald Edward Bean) at St. George's Anglican Church and they had six children.

He died at Winnipeg on 18 July 2023.

Sources:

Obituary [Peggy Primrose MacKay], Winnipeg Free Press, 12 November 2016.

Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 22 July 2023.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 8 October 2023

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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