Article

Alexander Stirling MacMillan

Published Online February 18, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Alexander Stirling MacMillan, businessman, politician, premier of Nova Scotia 1940-45 (b at Upper South River, NS 31 Oct 1871?; d at Halifax 7 Aug 1955).

MacMillan, Alexander Stirling

Alexander Stirling MacMillan, businessman, politician, premier of Nova Scotia 1940-45 (b at Upper South River, NS 31 Oct 1871?; d at Halifax 7 Aug 1955). After a successful career in lumbering and construction, he was appointed chairman of the Nova Scotia Highways Board in 1920 and served briefly as minister of highways in 1925. A Liberal member of the Legislative Council 1925-28, he held a seat in the Nova Scotia Assembly 1928-45. In 1933 he again assumed the powerful highways portfolio and in 1940 also took on the posts of premier, provincial secretary and minister of public works. A tough debater and a shrewd politician, the aging MacMillan found wartime leadership burdensome. He willingly relinquished the premiership to Angus L. Macdonald and retired from public life in 1945.