Lawyer, grain merchant, land developer.
Born at Winnipeg on 16 September 1927, youngest son of John Hamilton McDonald and Marion Cecil Drury (1890-1965), he received his early education at Tuxedo Park School and Bishop Ridley College, prior to joining the Royal Canadian Naval College in 1944. After the Second World War, he studied at the University of Manitoba, graduating from the Faculty of Law in 1952.
He then began a law career at the firm Thompson Dorfman Sweatman and after several years left to join the family business as President of the McDonald Grain Company Limited. He spent over 25 years building and developing the residential subdivisions north of Winnipeg in the Rural Municipality of East St. Paul.
On 11 October 1958, he married Diane Mary Holden (1935-2000) at St. George's Anglican Church and they had five children, including Heather D. Stefanson. He was an active member of the Progressive Conservative Party, and sought election to the Manitoba Legislature. He served as Chairman of the Board at Balmoral Hall School, board member of Ridley College, Chairman of the Children’s Hospital Research Foundation, board member of the Health Science Centre Research Foundation, and an Honorary Life member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba. He was a founding director of the Manitoba Centennial Corporation (1963).
He died at St. Norbert on 1 April 2008.
“Engagements,” Winnipeg Free Press, 13 September 1958, page 13.
“These Manitobans will help plan centennial,” Winnipeg Free Press, 13 September 1963, page 9.
Obituary [Diane Mary McDonald], Winnipeg Free Press, 17 June 2000, page 62.
Obituary [Julian Hugh McDonald], Winnipeg Free Press, 5 April 2008.
“Manitobans’ Legacy a Better Province,” Winnipeg Free Press, 4 January 2009, page B2.
We thank Oliver Bernuetz (Legislative Library of Manitoba) for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 20 December 2023
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