George Ritchie Maxwell (January 11, 1857 – November 17, 1902) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

minister and politician. Born in

Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire Stonehouse is a rural village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is on Avon Water in an area of natural beauty and historical interest, near to the Clyde Valley. It is on the A71 trunk road between Edinburgh and Kilmarnock, near the towns of ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, he was ordained a minister of the

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland (CoS; ; ) is a Presbyterian denomination of Christianity that holds the status of the national church in Scotland. It is one of the country's largest, having 245,000 members in 2024 and 259,200 members in 2023. While mem ...

in 1880. He migrated to Canada in 1885 serving as a minister in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

eventually setting in

Vancouver, British Columbia 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 cit ...

in 1890. In 1894, he founded the Nationalist Party, BC's first labour party.Encyclopedia of BC, p. 486 He ran as a candidate under that label for the British Columbia riding of Burrard in

1896 Events January * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports Wilhelm Röntgen's dis ...

. He was sometimes identified as a Liberal due to his opposition to the Conservative party. He was elected. Running as a Liberal, he was re-elected in

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15 ...

. He died in office in 1902 from intestinal cancer at the age of 45.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, George 1857 births 1902 deaths Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from British Columbia 19th-century ministers of the Church of Scotland 19th-century Presbyterian ministers People from Stonehouse, South Lanarkshire Scottish emigrants to Canada Canadian Presbyterian ministers 19th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada