Scottish-born poet, called by some the Burns of Canada for his Scots dialect poetry, much of which deals with the homesickness of Scots immigrants. McLachlan was the foremost among a number of such Scottish bards, whose themes of nostalgia for Scotland appear to be literary conventions rather than original expressions.

Apprenticed to a tailor in Glasgow as a child, he went to Canada in 1840 and engaged in farming in central Canada West (Ontario). A collected edition of his work was published as The Poetical Works of Alexander McLachlan (1900).