My father was born in Charlottetown, and moved to Souris when he was a little boy, and lived with his grandmother here. My mother was born in Souris River and worked in one of the stores here. My father was a tailor. He spent a lot of his time with his training in Winnipeg and moved back to Souris to have his tailor business here. I never inquired into my ancestry very much. My mother was Irish but I really don't know where her ancestors came from. There are McQuaids in Charlottetown, of course, and McQuaids in Tracadie but no relation of mine at all.

I have lived here in Souris, of course, all my life. In fact I was born in this house. I attended public school just across the street here, I suppose, about 50 feet. So it wasn't any hardship for me to continue my primary school education. In my childhood, I played hockey and baseball and the odd school activities, you know, nothing spectacular at all. I tried to associate with everybody and got along fairly well as a kid. Upon completion of school here, I went to St. Dunstan's and finished my course there but was not able to acquire my Bachelors degree for the reason that the requirements at that time were that you had to pass your examinations in Greek. I knew nothing at all about Greek and had no interest in it and didn't try to study it. So after that I went to St. F.X. for one year and I finished and completed my degree course there in 1936.

All along I had the inclination to be a lawyer . I don't know what gave me the idea and I don't know why but I did have an inkling for a long long time. I applied to Dalhousie and was accepted in the law school there. I was the only member of my family in law. I guess I was a fairly good debater when I was going to college and law school, too. Probably that was one of the things that urged me on. I apparently had a very retentive memory. Not that I was very clever at all as far as mathematics and such was concerned, but if I read a thing I was apparently able to retain it and that is very important in law. You have to depend on it. If you don't have a retentive memory you have to do a terrific amount of research.

I completed in three years and in 1939 I finished my LLB. Then, you had to spend a year in an office before you could be admitted to the bar. I spent it here in Souris and was admitted to the bar in 1940. My legal career started then. Things were fairly tough then. There was another lawyer practising here and I was just a young fellow starting out so I wasn't getting too much business. A vacancy of town clerk turned up. I was asked if I would take that on. It didn't pay very much - about $500 a year or something like that. I decided that I would try it for a year or so but it happened that I got stuck in it and I was there until 1958, I think something like 18 years. At the same time, I was building up my law practice.

Prior to that, I got interested in politics. The first election was in 1949 - it was a by-election here. I ran as a Conservative and I was very easily defeated. I continued on in politics until 1957. That year I managed to win a seat with the Shaw government. I was appointed as Minister of Finance and Minister of Justice. I lasted for about three years and the Shaw government went to the polls again and I was defeated. I was the only cabinet minister defeated and the Shaw government returned. That was a bit of a setback.

The Federal election came along in 1964-65 and I was persuaded to run in that in 1965 and was elected. I spent seven years in Ottawa then and I enjoyed it but I didn't feel I was accomplishing very much because I was in the opposition all the time. You talk in the opposition, but you don't get anywhere. Besides that, I had my family here in Souris and my wife was looking after the children. I decided it was time for me to get out of this game and get back home and to my law practice again.

The children were the wrong age - pretty grown up. We tried it one year, Catherine moved to Ottawa with me and took our youngest boy, Peter, who was the only one at home. The other two were at college. But Peter didn't like it there and wasn't satisfied and Catherine wasn't either. So she just stayed that one session then moved back to Souris. I used to come home practically every weekend but you lose touch with your family. If the family is young they can move right to Ottawa and live there but we couldn't do that for the children were too old.

Actually, I hadn't given up the practice of law - I did it on a very modified scale. In 1972 I left Ottawa and came back here and continued my law practice. Again with a very sincere determination that I was going to have nothing more to do with politics but I was persuaded to enter the provincial scene. They got the leadership of the Conservative party and I didn't last very long because, though I was elected, our government was soundly defeated and I stayed there unti1 1975. In 1975 a vacancy occurred in our Supreme Court. I had no intention of even attempting to look for it because I wasn't on the right side of politics. Ordinarily, you know, politics have quite an influence and I was a very strong Conservative and always have been. But the Premier of the day decided that I should apply and I did and he worked for me and I was appointed. I stayed there for six years and again I was away from home a lot having to be in Charlottetown practically all of the time. In 1981 I was going to be 60 years of age and I decided it was time to quit. So I resigned and came back to Souris here and carried on practicing on a very limited scale unti11992, when I retired completely.