Richard Charles Hardisty (March 3, 1831 – October 18, 1889) was a Hudson's Bay Company official at Edmonton, and a politician in the Northwest Territories, Canada. He married Eliza McDougall on Sept 21, 1866 while he was a Hudson's Bay Company employee.He ran as an Independent Conservative in the 1887 Canadian federal election and finished a close second in the Alberta (Provisional District). He lost to Donald Watson Davis. He was appointed to the Senate of Canada on the advice of John A. Macdonald on February 23, 1888, the first Metis Senator. He died just a year later while fording a river on horseback on October 18, 1889. His replacement in the Senate was Peter Lougheed's grandfather. The village of Hardisty, Alberta is named in his honour.