Item 0069 - Letter, Montreal, to C. Fraser Elliott, Ottawa.

Donald Ivan McLeod, financier, was born in Owen Sound, Ontario in 1886. He was one of four original founders of ScotiaMcLeod in 1921, one of Canada's leading full-service investment dealers. The other three partners included William Ewart Young, James Gordon Weir and John Henry Ratcliffe. Branch offices began opening up across Canada and internationally and by the 1970s McLeod, Young Weir was diversifying to offer a full range of investment services including Bond, Stock and Money Market trading, Corporate and Government Finance, Mergers and Acquisitions, Commodities and Futures, Personal Investment Services, Mutual Funds and various other specialty products. In the early 1980s, the financial community called for deregulation of the industry. By 1987, the newly deregulated the investment industry was becoming highly competitive and the Bank of Nova Scotia decided that it wanted to get involved. The Bank purchased McLeod, Young, Weir because it was well established and respected in the industry.

McLeod was also a painter, who worked alongside A.Y. Jackson, Manly MacDonald, and Sir Frederick Banting over his amateur career.