15 Facts About William Finlay

William Thomas Finlay was a merchant, politician and cabinet minister in Alberta and Northwest Territories, Canada.

William Finlay was born in Lisburn, Ireland on July 12,1853, to John William Finlay and Christina Brownlee.

William Finlay was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and worked in the wholesale grocery business before moving to Montreal, Quebec in 1873.

William Finlay continued to move around, living in Toronto and in and eventually Winnipeg, working as a travelling salesman for the Northwest Lumber Company in 1883 and later his own firm William Finlay and Company.

William Finlay set up branches of the Northwest lumber Company along the Canadian Pacific Railway line as it moved west across the prairies, and settled in Medicine Hat shortly afterwards.

William Finlay left his lumber agency in 1886 and joined Thomas Andrew Tweed and two other prominent men in the Medicine Hat Ranche Company.

William Finlay was active in the Medicine Hat community, serving on the hospital board from 1896 to 1904, as a justice of the peace from 1886 to 1896, as president of the local board of trade in 1888, and as director of the agricultural society in 1889.

William Finlay married Catherine Anne Allott in Winnipeg on February 10,1883.

William Finlay first ran for the Legislative Assembly of Northwest Territories in the 1898 Northwest Territories general election in the Medicine Hat district but was defeated, coming a close second to Horace Greeley.

William Finlay was elected the second mayor of Medicine Hat in 1900 and was acclaimed to the position the following year.

William Finlay was the only member of the Rutherford cabinet born outside of Canada.

In March 1909, just before the upcoming election, William Finlay announced the construction of the $40,000 Medicine Hat Courthouse, a bridge, and a demonstration farm in the region.

William Finlay was re-elected in the 1909 Alberta general election defeating conservative Francis O Sissons , with a larger margin of 71.7 per cent to 28.3 per cent.

William Finlay resigned from his cabinet posts shortly afterwards on November 1,1909, due to his failing health.

William Finlay stepped down as the member of his riding in 1910 after his health deteriorated to the point where he could no longer perform his duties, and made room for Charles R Mitchell to run in a by-election.