Exporting Talent – How Some Rose to Stardom After Leaving Metis

Talented youth often leave Metis to make their way in the world. This is just as true today as it was in the 19th century. Those seeking adventure and ambition left, only occasionally returning for summer holidays, family celebrations, in retirement or for burial. The promise of fame and fortune was elsewhere. The gold rushes in California and the Klondike had their appeal. Nineteenth-century America offered a feast of opportunities. Farmers often sought greener pastures. 

Who is the most famous Metis expatriate? John Gillanders Turriff (1855-1930) would be one. Born in Metis, he moved to Manitoba and then to the North-West Territories (now Saskatchewan). Finding success as a grain dealer, he became active in politics, becoming the chief organizer for the Liberal Party in Western Canada. He was elected to the House of Commons and served in the government of Wilfrid Laurier. He changed allegiance to the Conservatives during the First World War and was appointed by Sir Robert Borden to the Senate in 1918. He ended his parliamentary career as a supporter of the Progressives or Farmers’ Party, supporting western interests as he had done for decades.  

Another candidate would be Hanford Macnider. Although not born in Metis, when he was US Ambassador to Canada, he proudly claimed his connection to the Metis Macniders. Macnider earned an impressive chest full of medals for bravery in World War I in the US military. He then served as Assistant Secretary of State for War in the cabinet of Calvin Coolidge (where his executive assistant was future president Dwight D. Eisenhower) and made an unsuccessful attempt to secure the Vice-presidential nomination for the Republican Party.