John Arbuthnot (7 January 1861 – 18 September 1931)[1] was a Canadian businessman and politician who served as an alderman and the 19th Mayor of Winnipeg.

Arbuthnot worked as a clerk at Port Arthur, Ontario for John Ross, manager of construction 1882-85 for the Canadian Pacific Railway along the north shore of Lake Superior from Port Arthur to Missanabie.

[2] After railway construction ended, he moved back to St Catharines, Ontario where he married Agnes Barbara Savage 17 February 1886, a niece of John Ross.

The 1891 Canada census at St Catharines records John as a lumber salesman, living there with his wife, two children, Ross and William, and in-laws, William and Christina Ross Savage.

He initially worked in partnership with his brother-in-law James Malcolm Savage managing a coal mining company.