P.E.I.'s Don McDougall among new members of the Order of Canada

The owner of the Mill River Resort in western Prince Edward Island is among the 85 new appointments to the Order of Canada announced Friday. 

The Governor General's office said Don McDougall was being made a member of the order "for his visionary leadership as the founding director of the Toronto Blue Jays club, and for his entrepreneurship and philanthropy."

The 85-year-old former president of Labatt's was born and raised on the Island, and now lives in Ebbsfleet, P.E.I. 

He bought the Mill River Resort from the provincial government in 2017. He added the Eagles Glenn of Cavendish golf course to his holdings this past March. 

As well as being a well-known name in the Canadian business world, McDougall has been credited as one of the driving forces behind creation of the Blue Jays.

For that role, he was inducted in the builder category into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 2002. 

McDougall attended St. Dunstan's University, now the University of Prince Edward Island, before earning an MBA at the University of Western Ontario in 1961. 

In 2008, UPEI named a new building after McDougall and his wife, Marion.

McDougall also served a four-year term as the eighth chancellor of the Charlottetown-based university, beginning in 2014.

A news release from Gov. Gen. Mary Simon's office on Friday noted that in its 56 years the Order of Canada "has honoured more than 7,800 people whose service has shaped our society, whose innovations have ignited our imaginations, and whose compassion has united our communities."

The news release said this year's appointees will be invited to an investiture ceremony, but no date has been scheduled.