James Aloysius McGrath, PC (January 11, 1932 – February 28, 2017) was a politician and the eighth lieutenant governor of Newfoundland, Canada.
As a young man, McGrath was a member of the Responsible Government League which opposed Newfoundland becoming a province of Canada.
[1] He entered federal politics the next year, and won a seat in the House of Commons of Canada in the 1957 election as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for St. John's East.
In 1962, McGrath became parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Mines and Technical Surveys, and served in that position until he was defeated along with the Diefenbaker government in the 1963 election.
The report he authored led to a number of procedural changes, including the introduction of election by secret ballot for the position of Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons.