[2] McPherson moved west in the spring of 1878, spending three years in Kenora working on the Canadian Pacific Railway[2] He traveled to Edmonton in May 1881 via 105 day ox and cart journey and quickly moved to his selected homestead where he began farming and livestock breeding.

[2] McPherson was the director of the Edmonton Exhibition Association from 1901, a town councillor in 1905, school board trustee from 1895, postmaster for Spruce Grove and Justice of the Peace.

[2] McPherson was first elected as an original member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for the electoral district of Stony Plain in the 1905 Alberta general election for the Alberta Liberal Party defeating Dan Bronx of the Conservatives and future Conservative MLA Conrad Weidenhammer who ran as an Independent.

[3] He served the Alberta Liberal Party as a back bencher.

McPherson would win a second term to office in Stony Plain in the 1909 Alberta general election in another hotly contested election against three other opponents.