Vignettes /Greater Winnipeg / Adelaide-Forks
MacDonald House (Dalnavert)
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Following the transfer of Rupert's Land to Canada in 1869-70. The Hudson’s Bay Company sub-divided their reserve into large-lot subdivision, using building restrictions and other means to encourage an exclusive neighbourhood stretching west along Broadway from Main Street. The area attracted leading business and professional families, including lawyer-politician Hugh John Macdonald, son of Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.
He first came west with the 1870 Wolseley Expedition later resuming law studies in Ontario. He then practised for a decade in his father's firm before resettling in Winnipeg in 1882 and beginning a new partnership with barrister J. Stewart Tupper, son of another Father of Confederation. Reluctant to enter active politics, Macdonald nonetheless was pressed to run in the 1891 national election as Conservative candidate for South Winnipeg. He won but resigned his seat soon after his father’s death.
