Gilbert McMicken

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Gilbert McMicken

Member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba for Cartier
In office 1879–1883
Personal details
Born	(1813-10-13)October 13, 1813 London, England, or Glenluce, Scotland
Died	March 7, 1891(1891-03-07) (aged 77) Winnipeg, Manitoba

Gilbert McMicken (October 13, 1813 – March 7, 1891) was a Canadian businessman and political figure. He served on the Council of Keewatin the governing body of the District of Keewatin from 1876 to 1877.

He was born in England or Scotland in 1813 and came to Upper Canada in 1832. He entered the business of forwarding goods at Chippawa in the Niagara region. He later moved to Queenston where he became a customs collector and a notary public. He formed a forwarding company there in partnership with James Hamilton. He was elected to the council for the Niagara District and then to the council for Niagara Township, where he was chosen to be reeve. He moved to Clifton (later Niagara Falls) in 1851 where he served several terms as postmaster and became the town's first mayor.

In 1857, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for Welland. He was appointed excise officer in Windsor in 1864. Later that year, he was named stipendiary magistrate and justice of the peace throughout Canada West. McMicken was charged with collecting intelligence for the government during the period leading up to the Fenian raids. His injection of spies into the Fenian organization helped defuse this threat. In 1869, he was named commissioner for the Dominion Police, later merged into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

In 1871, he went to Winnipeg to help establish government offices there. McMicken took on the role of lands agent and had to deal with the thorny problem of distributing land in Manitoba. He later lobbied for the incorporation of Winnipeg as a town and helped keep it on the route chosen for the transcontinental railroad.

McMicken was appointed to the Council of Keewatin serving as one of six members appointed on November 25, 1876.^[1] He served on the council until he was asked to resign along with the rest of the council April 16, 1877^[2]

In 1879, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. He served as speaker for the provincial assembly from 1880 to 1882. He also served on the council for the University of Manitoba. He supplemented his pension income by working as an insurance agent in Winnipeg. He died there in 1891.

References

↑ "Keewatin Appointments". The Canadian parliamentary companion and annual register, 1877. p. 404. Retrieved 2006-10-19.
↑ "Report of the Minister of the Interior". Vol IV No. 204 (The Manitoba Daily Free Press). March 5, 1878. p. 2.

External links

Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

v t e Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba

Royal Bird Dubuc Sifton McMicken Murray Glass Winram Jackson Young Hespeler Johnson Baird Talbot Hawkins Miller Bachynsky Harrison Forbes Bilton Hanuschak Fox Graham Walding Phillips Rocan Dacquay Hickes

Authority control	VIAF: 104455493

Persondata
Name	McMicken, Gilbert
Alternative names
Short description	Canadian politician
Date of birth	October 13, 1813
Place of birth	London, England, or Glenluce, Scotland
Date of death	March 7, 1891
Place of death	Winnipeg, Manitoba

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