Walter Clifton McDonald (March 16, 1903
Born to a wealthy land-owning family, the son of John Albert McDonald and Alice Grace Carr, McDonald was educated in Roland and at Wesley College in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1925, and worked in insurance and real estate. McDonald later served on the Board of Regents for United College in Winnipeg. He was also active in freemasonry, and became Grant Master of the Grand Lodge of Manitoba in 1948-49. He became a thirty-third degree mason in 1955.
He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in the 1949 provincial election,