Former Pointe-Claire mayor Bill McMurchie dead at 93 [Video]

Bill McMurchie, former mayor of Pointe-Claire, died at 93 on New Year’s Day.

McMurchie was elected as a councillor in 1990. He became mayor in 1998 and again in 2005, before retiring in 2013.

He died in Toronto, where he had been receiving care, surrounded by his loved ones.

McMurchie was born on a farm in Saskatchewan, but after discovering he was allergic to horses and hay, he could not take over the family farm. He studied at the University of Saskatoon and came to Montreal in 1956.

He fell in love with a French-Canadian woman with whom he spent 65 years.

He started his career in municipal politics as a city employee when he was hired to look after Stewart Hall on Pointe-Claire’s waterfront. The city had recently bought the mansion and it was completely empty, so he took care of it armed with a shotgun, said McMurchie’s daughter …