James McCrie Douglas
James McCrie Douglas (5 February 1867 – 16 March 1950) was a
politician in Alberta, Canada, a mayor of Edmonton, and a member of
the Canadian House of Commons.
Douglas was born 5 February,
1867 in Middleville, Lanark County, Ontario, the son of Rev James
Douglas, a Scottish Presbyterian minister and Margaret, nee Blyth. He was educated in
Winnipeg, and came to Strathcona, Alberta in 1894, where he opened a
mercantile business, Douglas Brothers ltd, with his brother
Robert Blyth Douglas
in Strathcona.
On 1 November
1894 he married Mary Cameron Bickerton.
James Douglas was
elected as an alderman to the Strathcona city council. He entered
federal politics in 1909 when Wilbert McIntyre, the recently elected
Liberal Member of Parliament for Strathcona, died. Douglas, running
as a Liberal, was the only candidate in the ensuing by-election, and
was acclaimed to the Canadian House of Commons. He was re-elected as
a Liberal in the 1911 election.
In 1917, Prime Minister
Robert Laird Borden introduced conscription as a means of winning
the First World War, and appealed to all MPs who supported this move
to come together under the banner of the "Unionist Party". Douglas
was one of many MPs to leave Wilfrid Laurier's Liberal caucus and
join this new alliance party, and was re-elected as a government
candidate in the 1917 election. Once the war ended, he was one of a
handful of former Liberals to join Arthur Meighen's new "National
Liberal and Conservative Party" (commonly known as the Conservative
Party). He was defeated running under this banner in the 1921
election by Progressive candidate Daniel Webster Warner.
Douglas returned to municipal politics, running for Edmonton City
Council (Strathcona and Edmonton had merged in 1912) as an alderman
in the 1923 election. He was elected to a two year term, finishing
fourth of fourteen candidates. Towards the end of this term he made
a final foray into federal politics, running in the 1925 election as
a Conservative in Edmonton West. He was defeated by Liberal Charles
Stewart.
Defeated again federally, this time for good,
Douglas sought and won re-election as an alderman in Edmonton's 1925
election, finishing first of eleven candidates. However, he resigned
less than a year into his term to run for mayor in the 1926
election, in which he finished fifth of six candidates. Thereafter,
he stayed out of politics until 1929, when he was elected mayor. He
was acclaimed in 1930 to a second term, but was unseated in the 1931
election by Daniel Kennedy Knott.
Douglas took a five year
hiatus from politics to serve as a stipendary magistrate in the
Northwest Territories. During this time, he was also appointed by
the Alberta government to the Ewing Commission, struck to "Make
enquiry into the condition of the Half-breed population of Alberta,
keeping particularly in mind the health, education, relief and
general welfare of such population".
Douglas returned to
Edmonton to run for mayor in the 1936 election, in which he finished
a close second to Joseph Clarke in a five person race. He left
politics once again after this defeat, but returned to the position
of alderman in the 1941 election, finishing second of fourteen
candidates. He was re-elected in 1943 (finishing first of twelve
candidates), 1945 (first of eleven), and 1947 (third of thirteen)
before retiring for good in 1949.
James Douglas was a
director of the Edmonton Exhibition Association, a member of the
Kiwanis Club, a member of the Zoning Appeals Board, and a
Presbyterian. He endowed two
academic scholarships at the University of Alberta, one in his own
name for science students and one in his wife's name for arts
students.
He died of a seizure March 16, 1950.
There was a third brother, Henry Ward
Beecher Douglas (1873-1944) who opened a stationery store and
later a printing business. Henry was a member of Edmonton's first
city council and an alderman from 1912-1913. He also served on
the Edmonton Public School Board.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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