(19 Nov. 1861-23 June 1937), merchant, political figure. (James A. Sangster) Born at Bainsville, GC. Parents: George Sangster and his wife Jane McBain, who both emigrated from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1855. James A. Sangster was educated locally, and worked in early years as a carpenter and railway employee. Thereafter, he was a storekeeper for 48 years at Bainsville, where he was a partner with D.D. McCuaig under the store name of Sangster & McCuaig. For the operation of the store, see the entry for McCuaig. Sangster is described as having been the first postmaster of Bainsville (from 1884), and as having continued as postmaster for many years, but the same statement is made about his partner McCuaig; evidently, they shared the work of the postmastership.

     Sangster was councillor and reeve for Lancaster Township, and was warden of SDG in 1922. He was elected MLA for GC in the Ontario general election of 25 June 1923, in which he ran as the Liberal candidate against Duncan A. Ross of the UFO. In the Ontario general election of 1 Dec. 1926, Sangster the Liberal candidate was defeated by Angus McGillis the Conservative candidate. In the Ontario general election of 30 Oct. 1929 Sangster the Liberal candidate reversed the verdict by defeating McGillis, though only by the narrow margin of 45 votes. For this election, the Liberals had originally nominated Stephen O’Connor, but when O’Connor withdrew because of illness Sangster succeeded him as candidate. (Glengarry News 18 Oct. 1929) In the Ontario general election of 19 June 1934, which saw the great Liberal sweep of Ontario which brought Mitch Hepburn into the premiership, Sangster was returned as the Liberal MLA for the Electoral District of Glengarry (which by this time included a portion of Prescott County), defeating J. Domina Villeneuve, the Conservative candidate.

     It was noted at the time of his death that Sangster “in all his election campaigns never failed to take a house to house canvass of his electors and always kept in touch with the voters and the members of their family in this way,” and that he fought long and tenaciously on behalf of the extension of hydro to rural Ontario, so as “to bring to the farmers the comforts to which they were so justly entitled.”

     James A. Sangster died while still MLA. Place of death: Cornwall General Hospital. He was married on 5 Oct. 1891 to Bertha M. Hanes (1863-1945) of Aultsville. (five children) He was a Presbyterian and a Mason. Sangster was one of the Glengarrians who received the 1935 Jubilee Medal issued to mark the 25th anniversary of the coronation of King George V. (GN 10 May 1935) First elected MLA at the age of 61, he was 75 when he died. A newspaper report of 1933 called him “the man from Glengarry, oldest member of the Ontario Legislature, known to the House as ‘Daddy’.” (Standard Freeholder 4 March 1933) An obituary writer recorded that he was known as “Dad” to his fellow MLAs, and to Ontario civil servants. The last surviving of his children, James Percival (Percy) Sangster, died 11 Aug. 1986, aged 83; he too had been involved (with his brother) in the operation of the family store at Bainsville. (obituary, GN 20 Aug. 1986)

Standard Freeholder 25 (portrait) & 28 June 1937, Glengarry News 25 June (portrait) (QF) & 2 July 1937 * Harkness: index (portrait) * Ross, Lancaster, 304, 308, 327 * Roderick Lewis, 95-96 * Fraser, Gravestones, II, 54, 120 * biog. sketch of Sangster from Toronto Globe’s “Under the Gallery Clock,” repr. SFH 29 March 1933 * chosen warden of SDG, GN 27 Jan. 1922 * printed reports of his speeches in legislature, SFH 4 & 11 March & 5 April 1933, 28 Feb. 1934, 27 March 1935, and (an important text on hydro, esp. as related to GC), 10 March 1937