James Alexander Barry (January 13, 1886 – May 21, 1950) was a politician in

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 ...

, Canada. He served in 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 ...

from 1936 to 1941 as a member of 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 ...

. Barry was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, the son of Michael Joseph Barry and Ellen Curless, who had come to Manitoba from

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

in 1879. He was educated at St. Mary's and Immaculate Conception Schools. Barry worked for the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

as head clerk of the superintendent's office in Winnipeg. He served on Winnipeg city council from 1921 to 1925. In 1927, he married Delmar Erickson. He first ran for the Manitoba legislature in the 1932 provincial election, in the constituency of

. At the time, Winnipeg elected ten members via a

single transferable ballot Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate p ...

. Barry finished seventeenth on the first count, as was defeated on transfers. He fared better in the 1936 election, finishing sixth on the first count and securing election on the sixteenth. The Conservatives lost this election to the

Liberal-Progressives Liberal-Progressive was a label used by a number of candidates in Canadian elections between 1925 and 1953. In federal and Ontario politics, there was no Liberal-Progressive party: it was an alliance between two parties. In Manitoba, a party existe ...

, and Barry served on the opposition benches for the next four years. In 1940, the Conservatives joined with the Liberal-Progressives and two other parties in a wartime

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

. Barry supported the coalition, and served as a government backbencher. Running for re-election in the 1941 election, Barry finished ninth on the first count but fared poorly on transfers. He was eliminated after the eighteenth tally. He died in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

at the age of 64.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barry, James 1886 births 1950 deaths Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba MLAs Winnipeg city councillors