William John McCann (25 January 1879 – 1 December 1961) was an Australian politician who served as a member of the

Victorian Legislative Council The Victorian Legislative Council (VLC) is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria, Australia, the lower house being the Legislative Assembly. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The Legislative Co ...

. Born in

Kerang Kerang is a rural town on the Loddon River in northern Victoria in Australia. It is the commercial centre to an irrigation district based on livestock, horticulture, lucerne and grain. It is located north-west of Melbourne on the Murray V ...

to farmer David James and Isabella McCurdy, both Irish-born, McCann became a dairy farmer at

Lake Charm Lake Charm is a small town situated on the Murray Valley Highway, just west of a lake of the same name. Located in the northwest of Victoria, Australia, within the Shire of Gannawarra. Lake Charm is 19 km from Kerang, Victoria, Kerang. At th ...

, where he helped to establish an aged care home to which he later retired. In 1918 he was organising secretary of the People's Party, and he was a

Victorian Farmers Union The Victorian Farmers' Union (VFU) was an association of farmers and primary producers formed in 1914 in the Australian state of Victoria. Although initially formed as an "absolutely non-political" entity, the VFU became a political party in 1916 ...

councillor from 1922 to 1927, serving as chief president from 1924 to 1925 and founding president of the Primary Producers Union in 1926. On 9 January 1926 he married Edith Emily Taylor. In 1928 McCann was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council for North Western Province, representing the Country Progressive Party. When the Country Progressives rejoined the main Country Party in 1930 McCann followed them, but in 1931 he resigned from the Council to contest the federal seat of

Wimmera The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Austral ...

, without success. McCann died at Kerang in 1961.

References

1879 births 1961 deaths Country Progressive Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Members of the Victorian Legislative Council Australian farmers People from Kerang {{Australia-National-politician-stub