Angus MacLennan, MD was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

.

Born in Dunvegan

Dunvegan, Nova Scotia

Dunvegan is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Inverness County on Cape Breton Island.The name is derived from Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.-References:*...

, on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island

Cape Breton Island

Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the word Breton, the French demonym for Brittany....

, MacLennan was the Liberal

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

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 for the Canadian riding

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 of Inverness from 1896 to 1908.

Angus MacLennan was the youngest of the ten children of John MacLennan, an early settler from Kintail Scotland. MacLennan taught at local district schools to earn money for his medical studies. He eventually graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1871, and practiced medicine for over 30 years in Inverness County, maintaining the practice throughout his political career. His extended family over the years now resides in Tyne Valley, Prince Edward Island and Mainland Nova Scotia.

During his time as an MP, he was instrumental in bringing the railway to the west side of Cape Breton Island, thereby spurring the growth of Inverness as a coal-exporting boom town in the first quarter of the 20th century.

MacLennan represented Inverness (as a Conservative

Conservative Party of Canada

The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...

) for one term in the Nova Scotia legislature

Nova Scotia House of Assembly

The Nova Scotia Legislature, consisting of Her Majesty The Queen represented by the Lieutenant Governor and the House of Assembly, is the legislative branch of the provincial government of Nova Scotia, Canada...

 (1882-1886).

A strong supporter of Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Wilfrid Laurier

Sir Wilfrid Laurier, GCMG, PC, KC, baptized Henri-Charles-Wilfrid Laurier was the seventh Prime Minister of Canada from 11 July 1896 to 6 October 1911....

,he was defeated in his first campaign as a Liberal in 1891, elected in the Laurier landslide of 1896, and re-elected in 1900 and 1904. He died of a stroke on August 27, 1908, in Cheticamp, Cape Breton, while campaigning for a fourth term in the 1908 federal election.

Source

• MacMillan, C.L., Memoirs of a Cape Breton Doctor, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1973.

• MacDougall, J.L., "History of Inverness County"(facsimile edition), Belleville,Ontario, Mika Publishing, 1972. (originally published in Truro, N.S., 1922)

External links