Murdoch MacPherson

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Murdoch Alexander MacPherson, Q.C. (1891-1966) was a Canadian politician. Universally referred to as "M.A. MacPherson", he was Attorney-General of Saskatchewan under Conservative Premier James T.M. Anderson from 1929 to 1932.

Born on Cape Breton Island, MacPherson attended law school at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He served in World War I and was wounded. MacPherson Avenue in Regina, Saskatchewan was later named in his honour, and is an official memorial of the Canadian Department of National Defence. After the war he practised law in Saskatchewan and eventually became a Queen's Counsel (Q.C.).

MacPherson was first elected to the Saskatchewan legislative assembly in 1924, and remained a member of the Legislative Assembly until his defeat in the 1934 provincial election that wiped out the Conservative Party. He was called to Ottawa late in the term of the R.B. Bennett government to assist in creating the Farm Credit Corporation.

In 1938 and again in 1942, he was a candidate at the federal Conservative leadership conventions, coming in second place on both occasions.

In May 1961, he received an honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree from the University of Saskatchewan.

One of his three sons, Murdoch Alexander MacPherson Jnr. born in 1916, was a pillar of the local Progressive Conservative Party and of the non-concurring First Presbyterian congregation. He served as a justice of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench from 1961 to 1981. Another son, Donald K. MacPherson (always referred to and addressed as "D.K. MacPherson"), was Chief Justice of the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench; a grandson, Les MacPherson, is a columnist for the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix newspaper.

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