James Duncan McGregor

James Duncan McGregor was a Canadian agricultural pioneer and officeholder who helped diversify farming across the Canadian prairies away from wheat monoculture and open-range cattle raising. Born at Amherstburg, Ontario in 1860, he came to Winnipeg in 1877 and moved west to Portage la Prairie and later Brandon to pioneer Aberdeen Angus cattle breeding. He is credited with pioneering the general cultivation of alfalfa in Manitoba and helping establish the growing of sweet clover and fodder corn there, work that pushed the region toward a more varied agriculture. He later served as the eleventh Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba from 1929 to 1934 and is commemorated by McGregor Street in Winnipeg. He was inducted posthumously into both the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1961 and the Manitoba Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1978.