Located at Mill River, the Don McDougall Park is named in honor of Don McDougall, a key figure in establishing the Toronto Blue Jays and known for his passion for baseball and dedication to his community and will enhance baseball and other outdoor activities for Islanders, as well as provide economic benefits from hosting tournaments and other events.
Funding for the new park includes $667,885 from the Province’s Rural Growth Initiative, $430,000 from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency Innovative Communities Fund, and $250,000 each from 2023 Canada Games Legacy Fund and Jays Care Foundation. Additionally, Mill River Resort is donating the land, while Baseball PEI will be raising $360,000 through donations and sponsorships.
Some highlights of Don McDougall Park include a fenced turf baseball field, dugouts, bullpens, plus a 600-metre walking track, and two outdoor green gym spaces. The park will be able to host large-scale ball tournaments, drawing attention and visitors to PEI as a premier travel destination.
Baseball PEI is aiming to throw the first pitch in August 2025.
“Baseball has always been a huge passion of mine. We are so delighted to enhance the sport for western PEI with this project. I am incredibly grateful for everyone who has worked on this and excited for what the future brings. This new facility will give the opportunity for players, coaches and spectators to enjoy baseball, keep healthy, and develop life-long friendships with their peers.”
– Don McDougall,
Mill River Resort owner and Toronto Blue Jays Founder
ABOUT DON MCDOUGALL
Don McDougall’s love of baseball was kindled on the dusty red ball fields of rural Prince Edward Island. While chasing down fly balls in his boyhood community of Bloomfield Station, it’s doubtful he ever dreamed that one day he would be responsible for bringing Major League Baseball to Canada’s largest city. On April 7, 1977, the umpire cried “Play ball!” and the Toronto Blue Jays played their first game. In the stands at Exhibition Stadium was Don McDougall, a key architect in the creation of the team.
Journalist Stephen Brunt is an authority on the history of the Blue Jays. His 1996 book, Diamond Dreams, marked the 20th anniversary of Toronto getting its baseball franchise.
“If there is one person who brought baseball to Toronto, I always thought it was Don,” Brunt is quoted in the book, Don McDougall, Business: Get it done, have some fun. He also doesn’t believe McDougall gets enough credit.
“There were a bunch of things that had to fall into place for it to happen and I’m not sure those things would have happened if not for Don. If there is no Don, it doesn’t happen.”
Paul Beeston is another baseball authority who supports Brunt’s assertion. Beeston was the chief financial officer for the Blue Jays before becoming club president. Later, he served as the president and chief operating officer of Major League Baseball.
“The credit has to go to Don,” Beeston said in the Don McDougall biography. “He was the one that pushed it. He was the front guy. He was the guy they all knew.”
McDougall’s journey from the small community of Bloomfield Station in western Prince Edward Island, to the bright lights of Toronto, began after his parents, Frank and Patricia, instilled in him the importance of a solid education. Don’s first ten school years were spent in his home community’s one-room school. His education continued at St. Dunstan’s University in Charlottetown, where he graduated from in 1958 with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. In 196l, he earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Western Ontario in London.
Later that year, Don’s twenty-plus-year career began with Labatt Breweries of Canada Ltd., and it was with Labatt that he became a baseball builder. He quickly climbed the corporate ladder at Labatt: in 1964, he became sales manager for the City of Toronto; in 1968, he was named general manager for the province of Alberta; in 1970, the vice president and general manager of Labatt Breweries of British Columbia; and in August 1973, at age 35, he was named president of Labatt Breweries of Canada.
In 1975, McDougall and his Labatt management team launched an aggressive effort to acquire a Major League Baseball (MLB) team for Toronto. They saw it as a win-win for 2 the company and city: a MLB team would raise Toronto’s profile as a major North American city, and Labatt’s association would help its profile and sales. The group seeking the baseball franchise included Labatt Breweries, R. Howard Webster, a well-known Canadian entrepreneur, financier and philanthropist, and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Labatt and Webster each had a forty-five per cent share, and the bank the remaining ten per cent. While Webster was an equal partner, he left it to the brewery, in particular Don McDougall, to do the legwork of attracting a MLB team to Toronto.
An excerpt from Don McDougall, Business: Get it done, have some fun, says: “In 1975, McDougall and his Labatt team became like wedding crashers, or the guests that wouldn’t leave. They turned up at every baseball event that attracted the sport’s bigwigs.”
Two years later, MLB’s American League voted to create an expansion team in Toronto. Don McDougall’s hunch that baseball would be successful in Toronto has stood the test of time. In two years, the Blue Jays will celebrate their fiftieth anniversary.
Don’s association with Labatt Breweries ended in August 1979, but his association with success has never ended. In baseball terms, he would be referred to as a ‘super utility player,’ someone who can play any position.
After his Labatt’s career ended, he had a twenty-year career in the aerospace industry with Novatronics Inc. One of the products his company engineered was a component used on the Canadian Space Agency’s Canadarm, which continues to circle the Earth on the International Space Station. McDougall’s aerospace career was followed by a successful career in property management in Stratford, Ontario, through his company Rambri Management Inc.
Although much of Don’s business career was spent away from Prince Edward Island, his beloved isle has always tugged at his heart, and that of his wife Marion (MacDonald), a native of Little Pond, P.E.I. Annual trips home to visit family and friends were always a rite of summer.
Don’s connection to P.E.I. became more tangible when he started investing in his home province. Beginning in 1985, he owned the popular tourist attraction Woodleigh Replicas for ten years. In 1989, after the military base at Summerside was closed, he headed up the Slemon Park Corporation, an entity established to offset the economic loss caused by the closure of the military base.
In 2017, McDougall’s business interests moved closer to his hometown community when he became the owner of the Mill River Resort, which has become one of the top tourism attractions on the East Coast and is an important economic generator in western Prince County.
Don’s years of involvement in business and social issues has seen him recognized with a number of honours. He co-chaired the Diocese of London, Ontario’s Pentecost 2000 fundraising campaign that realized $22 million. As a result, he was inducted into the Order of St. Sylvester, an honour handed out by the Pope to lay people who exemplify the values of the church in their daily life.
On June 22, 2002, he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. He is also a member of other halls of fame, including the London and District Business Hall of Fame (2009), Junior Achievement Prince Edward Island Business Hall of Fame (2010), and P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum (2012). He is the recipient of honorary degrees from the University of Prince Edward Island (1978), from Western University (2016), and in 2014 was named Chancellor of UPEI. In appreciation of Don and Marion’s generosity to UPEI, the university named the home of its Faculty of Business as the McDougall Faculty of Business in 2024. A year earlier, Don was made a member of the prestigious Order of Canada.
McDougall has been an avid amateur sportsman all his life. As a youth, he played ball in the summer, and in the winter helped clear off a patch of ice in a gravel pit for hockey games. At university, he played rugby and football, and as an adult his games of choice have been tennis and golf. Don’s favourite hockey team is the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he was in attendance in 1967 when the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup. He still has season tickets and plans to be in attendance when the Leafs next win the cup.