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Michael Arthur Meighen, QC, BA, LLL, LLD (born in Montreal, March 25, 1939) is a Canadian senator, lawyer and cultural patron.

Meighen is the son of lawyer and philanthropist Theodore Meighen, and the grandson of former Prime Minister of Canada Arthur Meighen. He has continued the family tradition of involvement in the Conservative Party of Canada. A corporate lawyer based on Toronto's Bay Street, Meighen is a longtime friend, advisor and fundraiser for former Progressive Conservative leader and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney who appointed Meighen to the Senate in 1990 representing Ontario. Both he and Mulroney are lawyers at the law firm of Ogilvy Renault. They also attended law school together at Laval University, in Quebec City along with other promonent Canadian political leaders such as Lucien Bouchard. He also received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960 from McGill University. He also holds two honorary doctorates from the University of New Brunswick and Mount Allison University.

In the mid 1980s, Meighen was Legal Counsel to the Deschênes Commission on War Criminals. Until 2006, Meighen was Counsel to the law firm Ogilvy Renault, formerly Meighen Demers, and today remains a member of the McGill University Board of Governors, and is a director of the Cundill Funds, Sentry Select Capital Corp., and J.C. Clark Ltd. of Toronto.

He and his wife, Kelly Meighen (née Dillon), are benefactors of the Stratford Festival. In 2004, he became Canadian chair of the Atlantic Salmon Federation which promotes conservation efforts. He is Past Chair of Stratford Festival, current Chair of the T.R Meighen Family Foundation and Chancellor of the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Meighen sought election to the Canadian House of Commons in both the 1974 federal election and 1976 in the Quebec riding of Westmount but failed to win the seats.

More recently, Meighen was the only Conservative senator to vote in favour of same-sex marriage. He continues to sit on the Senate Committee on National Defence and Security, Banking Trade and Commerce, Fisheries and has chaired the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs.

He has three sons, Ted, Hugh and Max. He lives in Toronto.

2006

Saturday, December 09, 2006 Meighens back in 10 Toronto Street
In a bittersweet homecoming, the descendants of Colonel Max Meighen are buying the historic Toronto downtown building at 10 Toronto Street that served as the headquarters of Conrad Black's former media empire. The sale comes nearly 30 years after Col. Meighen was ejected from Argus Corp., and the building, by a group that included Lord Black.
Boutique investment manager Morgan Meighen & Associates Ltd. is paying $14-million for the stone building from which the Blacks, Meighens and other families, through Argus, once controlled such Canadian business icons as farm equipment-maker Massey Ferguson and the Dominion supermarket chain.

Saturday Dec 25, 2004 ts The giving spirit: Are we generous?

The philanthropic vision of Michael and Kelly Meighen has had a profound impact on UNB and the province of New Brunswick. Through the T. R. Meighen Family Foundation, they support organizations that seek to improve the quality of life for New Brunswickers. In 1999 alone, the foundation allocated $2 million to community foundations. UNB has also benefited. The creation of the Meighen-Molson Professorship in Atlantic Salmon Research led to the establishment of the world-renowned Canadian Rivers Institute. This is just one example of the difference the Meighens and the Meighen Family Foundation have made at the university.

Michael Meighen is the chairman and director of the T. R. Meighen Family Foundation. A graduate of McGill University and l’Université Laval, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1990. He has practised litigation and commercial law in Montreal and Toronto, and has an extensive record of community and professional service. Senator Meighen is currently the chancellor of the University of Kings College. Kelly Meighen is the president of the T. R. Meighen Family Foundation. She serves on a number of boards, including those of Upper Canada College and the University of Western Ontario, her alma mater. Both hold honorary degrees from Mount Allison University.

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Michael Meighen .

Peggy Meighen A descendant of Loyalists.

Peggy deLancey Meighen Molson, who has died aged 85, was a woman with some of the strongest personal ties to the Conservative party. She was the daughter-in-law of a prime minister and, a first in Canadian political life, was both the wife and the mother of sitting senators.

Mrs. Molson's son Michael, a former president of the Progressive Conservative Party, still sits in the Senate. At her death she was married to Hartland Molson, who sat in the Senate until his mid 80s. Her late husband, Theodore Meighen, was the son of Arthur Meighen, the Conservative who was prime minister twice in the 1920s.

Senator Molson broke the string of Conservative men in Peggy Molson's life. The Senator, a member of the Montreal brewing family, was appointed in 1955 by the Liberal Prime Minister, Louis St. Laurent, though he sat as an independent.

Mrs. Molson was born Margaret deLancey Robinson on Jan. 5, 1915, in Toronto. Her family, from Saint John, were staunch Tories, descendants of United Empire Loyalists who came north after the American Revolution. Her middle name was from deLancey's Brigade, which fought the American rebels. Peggy's father was a grain broker and the family moved to Montreal when she was a baby.

Although the family lived in Montreal, the Robinsons kept their ties with New Brunswick and spent every summer at St. Andrews. For high school, young Peggy attended Netherwood at Rothesay, a suburb of Saint John.

At school she was athletic and acquired a strong tennis game, which stayed with her all her life. Along the way she also mastered ballroom dancing. Even as a teenager she started volunteer work, and continued that in her adult life.

As a girl in Montreal she was wild about hockey and used to go to the Forum to watch the old Montreal Maroons practise. Her second husband later owned and was president of the rival Montreal Canadiens. In the 1920s, her brother, Barclay, played for the Montreal Victorias, an NHL farm team. He was said to be the first goalie pulled during a game to add an extra attacker. The referee disallowed it.

She married Theodore Meighen in 1937 and helped him build his law career in Montreal.

Mrs. Meighen was active in charity work and in entertaining, a key ingredient in the life of successful men of the era. Although her husband had the stronger political pedigree, it was Mrs. Meighen who was involved in politics. She worked in Tory committee rooms in the Westmount riding. Her son, Michael, ran and lost in the riding in 1972 and 1974.

At Christmas in 1965, Mrs. Meighen opened a box full of dirt. It was a gift from her husband, and was from a piece of land in St. Andrews, where the couple then built a house. After Mr. Meighen's death in 1979, Mrs. Meighen continued with volunteer work and the family's charitable foundation.

She married Hartland Molson in 1990. He survives her.