Alexander Cameron Rutherford (February 2, 1857 – June 11, 1941) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman and politician who served as the first premier of Alberta from 1905 to 1910. Born in Ormond, Canada West, he studied and practised law in Ottawa before he moved with his family to the North-West Territories in 1895. Besides his work as lawyer, he began a political career that saw him serve as member of the North-West Legislative Assembly and then as Liberal MLA, Liberal party leader, and premier of Alberta. During his premiership he laid the base for important elements of Alberta society even today, such as the University of Alberta. He lost the premiership in 1910 due to the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal and lost his Legislature seat in 1913. He later was prominent in the administration of the University of Alberta, beside which he and his family lived for decades. His home, Rutherford House, is an historic site on the grounds of the University of Alberta.
In keeping with the territorial custom, while NWT member, Rutherford described himself as an independent but generally supported the administration of NWT Premier Frederick W. A. G. Haultain. Rutherford was a prominent Liberal in federal politics and, after the founding of Alberta as a province in 1905, in provincial politics.
When the Province of Alberta was formed in 1905, its lieutenant governor, George Bulyea, asked Rutherford to lead the new province's first government. As premier, Rutherford's first task was to hold a provincial election, in which he hoped to win a workable majority in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. This he did in that year's provincial election. He also needed to form a provincial government and set it in operation. His government established a wide range of powers, ranging from speed limits to a provincial court system. The legislature selected Edmonton over rival Calgary as the provincial capital. This was controversial, but with Rutherford's approval. Calgarians' bruised feelings were not salved when the government located the University of Alberta, a project dear to the premier's heart, in his hometown of Strathcona, just across the North Saskatchewan River from Edmonton.
The government was faced with labour unrest in the coal mining industry, which it resolved by establishing a commission to examine the problem. It also set up a provincial government telephone network (Alberta Government Telephones) at great expense, and tried to encourage the development of new railways. It was in pursuit of the last objective that the Rutherford government found itself embroiled in scandal. Early in 1910, William Henry Cushing's resignation as Minister of Public Works precipitated the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal, which turned many, including Liberals, against his government. Pressure from many party figures forced Rutherford to resign as premier. He kept his seat in the legislature after resigning as premier, but he was defeated in the 1913 election by Conservative Herbert Crawford.
After leaving politics, Rutherford continued his law practice and his involvement with a wide range of community groups. Most importantly, he became chancellor of the University of Alberta, whose earlier founding had been a personal project, and stayed in that position until he died of a heart attack. A University of Alberta library, an Edmonton elementary school, and Jasper National Park's Mount Rutherford are named in his honour. Additionally, his home, Rutherford House, was opened as a museum in 1973, and is an Alberta provincial historic site.
Early life Alexander Rutherford was born February 2, 1857, near Ormond, Canada West, on his family's dairy farm. His parents, James and Elspet "Elizabeth" Cameron Rutherford, had immigrated from Scotland two years previous. They joined the Baptist Church, and his father joined the Liberal Party of Canada and served for a time on the Osgoode village council. Rutherford attended the local public "scotch school" and, after rejecting dairy farming as a vocation, enrolled in a Metcalfe high school. After graduating in 1874, he attended the Canadian Literary Institute, a Baptist college in Woodstock. He graduated from there in 1876 and taught for a year in Osgoode, having passed his teaching examination the year previous.
He moved to Montreal to study arts and law at McGill University. He was awarded degrees in both in 1881, and joined the Ottawa law firm of Scott, McTavish and McCracken, where he was articled for four years under the tutelage of Richard William Scott. Called to the Ontario bar in 1885, he became a junior partner in the firm of Hodkins, Kidd and Rutherford, with responsibility for its Kemptville office for ten years. He also established a moneylending business there.
Meanwhile, his social circle grew to include William Cameron Edwards. Through Edwards, Rutherford was introduced to the Birkett family, which included former Member of Parliament Thomas Birkett. Rutherford married Birkett's niece, Mattie Birkett, in December 1888. The couple had three children: Cecil (born in 1890), Hazel (born in 1893), and Marjorie (born in 1903 but died sixteen months later). Rutherford had a traditional view of gender roles and was happy to leave most childrearing responsibilities to his wife.
Move west In November 1886 Rutherford visited the Canadian West for the first time when he travelled to British Columbia to investigate the disappearance of his cousin. The Rocky Mountains left a great impression on him, as did the coastal climate, which he found "very agreeable". He visited again in the summer of 1894, when he took the Canadian Pacific Railway across the prairies. Upon arriving in South Edmonton, he was excited by its growth potential and pleased to find that the dry air relieved his bronchitis. He resolved to settle there and did so one year later, bringing his reluctant wife and his children, who arrived by train June 10, 1895. Within ten days of their arrival, Rutherford had opened a law office, purchased four lots of land, and contracted local builder Hugh McCurdy to build him a house. In July, the family moved into their new four-room single-storey house. In 1896 Rutherford became the town's only lawyer, as his competition, Mervyn Mackenzie, had moved to Toronto.
Rutherford quickly became deeply involved in the community. Among the roles he acquired during his first three years in the District of Alberta were president of the newly formed South Edmonton Football Club, secretary-treasurer of the South Edmonton School Board, president of the South Edmonton Athletic Association, vice president of the South Edmonton Literary Institute, auditor of the South Edmonton Agricultural Society, and secretary of the Edmonton District Butter and Cheese Manufacturing Association. He was also the first master of the Acacia Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and had previously served as the master of the Mount Zion Lodge in Kemptville. He also became .Rutherford also became involved in the provincial autonomy movement for the North-West Territories in 1896. He was an early advocate for the incorporation of South Edmonton, hitherto an unincorporated community. When incorporation came in 1899, as the Town of Strathcona, Rutherford became the new town's secretary-treasurer after he had acted as returning officer in its first election.
Throughout that period, he practised law, from 1899 with Frederick C. Jamieson, who later was elected as a Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. He employed single women as secretaries in an era that clerical workers were predominantly male, and he defended a First Nations person accused of murder when most lawyers refused such cases. As their practice grew, he and Jamieson also engaged in moneylending. Besides his law practice, Rutherford was a successful real estate investor, and he also owned an interest in gold mining equipment on the North Saskatchewan River. Several parks and neighbourhoods in the city, including Bonnie Doon (originally spelt "Bonnie Doone"), were created from land owned by Rutherford.
Early political career In 1896, Frank Oliver, who had represented Edmonton in the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories since 1888, resigned to pursue a career in federal politics. Several Strathcona residents urged Rutherford to run for Oliver's old seat in the ensuing by-election. Though he was originally reluctant, he agreed to stand after a 300-signature petition urging his candidacy was presented to him. His only opponent was a former mayor of Edmonton, Matthew McCauley, who, like Rutherford, ran as an independent. Rutherford campaigned on a platform of improved roads, resource development, simplification of territorial ordinances, and (in what would become a theme of his political career) increased educational funding. McCauley won the election, but Rutherford received more than forty per cent of the vote.
During the 1898 territorial election, Rutherford again challenged the now-incumbent McCauley. His defeat of two years previous still fresh in his mind, his platform this time included a call for a redrawing of the territory's electoral boundaries. He believed that the current Edmonton riding was gerrymandered in McCauley's favour. He also repeated his past calls for improved roads and advocated increased taxation on the railroads. He pledged "independent support" for the nonpartisan administration of Premier Frederick Haultain, and he supported that administration's call for the creation of a single province in the southern part of NWT following the 1901 census. Rutherford criticized McCauley's past record, accusing him of silence on issues that were of concern to his constituents. Despite this, McCauley won again but by a reduced margin.
Rutherford was at last successful in the 1902 election, when he ran in the newly created riding of Strathcona. His 1902 platform was similar to his 1898 platform and supported Haultain, but he now supported a two-province division of the southern part of the Northwest Territories, rather than Haultain's preferred one-province approach, on the grounds that a single province covering all the western prairies would be so large as to be ungovernable. It at first looked as though he would run unopposed; however, at the last minute, local lawyer Nelson D. Mills, a prominent Conservative, publicly accused Rutherford of being not a true independent, but a dyed-in-the-wool Haultain supporter, and announced that he would run against him. Rutherford was supported by most of Strathcona's most prominent residents, including his law partner Jamieson and his future rival John R. Boyle, and won an easy victory.
Rutherford served in the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories until Alberta became a province in 1905. During his tenure, he was elected deputy speaker and sat on standing committees for libraries, municipal law, and education. His legislative efforts included successful attempts to extend the boundaries of the Town of Strathcona and to empower it to borrow for construction of public works. He was considered a possible member of Haultain's executive council, likely in the post of Commissioner of Public Works, but the post instead went to George Bulyea. He joined many of his fellow MLAs in continuing to advocate for provincial status, finding that the limitations on a territory's means to raise revenue prevented the North-West Territories from meeting its obligations.