Angus Augustin McKay (born Auguste McKay; 1 November 1836 – 1 September 1910) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who represented the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

in the riding of Marquette,

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

. He was elected on 2 March 1871 in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

. His term ended on 8 July 1872. He was the first

aboriginal Canadian In Canada, Indigenous groups comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. Although ''Indian'' is a term still commonly used in legal documents, the descriptors ''Indian'' and '' Eskimo'' have fallen into disuse in Canada, and most consider the ...

elected to the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

Biography

He was born in 1836 at the

Red River Colony The Red River Colony (or Selkirk Settlement), also known as Assiniboia, Assinboia, was a colonization project set up in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, 5th Earl of Selkirk, on of land in British North America. This land was granted to Douglas by the Hud ...

. A Roman Catholic, McKay appears to have identified with the French-speaking community of his mother rather than with the English-speaking,

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

background of his father, a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

r. His mother's ancestors were

Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

and

French Canadian French Canadians (referred to as Canadiens mainly before the twentieth century; french: Canadiens français, ; feminine form: , ), or Franco-Canadians (french: Franco-Canadiens), refers to either an ethnic group who trace their ancestry to Fren ...

. His brother

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

was also a fur trader like their father.

Political career

Although

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

, he was opposed to

Louis Riel Louis Riel (; ; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first ...

's (the spiritual leader of the Métis people) methods for dealing with the Canadian government. He was arrested by Riel in March 1870 because of his political stance. That same year he was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (french: Assemblée législative du Manitoba) is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at provincial gener ...

in the riding of Lake Manitoba, and was reelected in 1874. McKay resigned in 1876 to make room for his brother James, who was elected to the seat by acclamation. Later in 1876, Angus McKay was appointed Indian agent for the areas covered by Treaty No. 4 including the

Qu'Appelle Valley The Qu'Appelle River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba that flows east from Lake Diefenbaker in south-western Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just south of Lake of the Prairies, near t ...

. In 1879, he was posted to the areas covered by Treaty No. 5 in northern Manitoba. The Department of Indian Affairs was charged with maintaining a positive public relations between Canada and the natives. However, "his reports were often sharply critical of the government's failure to live up to treaty promises and he passed on the complaints of the Indians." Despite his "stormy relationship" with the Department, he served until 1897.

Personal

Angus McKay married Virginia Rolette around 1870. He died in 1910 at Berens River, Manitoba. He had been in declining health after suffering from

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

. He was buried at St. Boniface, Manitoba."ANGUS M'KAY DEAD", ''Winnipeg Free Press'', Thursday, September 08, 1910, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

External links

* *
''Manitoba Historical Society - Angus McKay''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKay, Angus 1836 births Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942) MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba MLAs Métis politicians Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian people of French descent Canadian Métis people Canadian Roman Catholics 1910 deaths Indigenous Members of the House of Commons of Canada