Parliamentary Relatives – Political Jugglery and the Public Spirit: The Rileys and MecArthers of Alberta

Article 1 / 8 , Vol. 47 No. 2 (Summer)
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Political Jugglery and the Public Spirit: The Rileys and MecArthers of Alberta

The years following the creation of the Province of Alberta were marked by a dynamic era of rapid growth and development. This was a time of economic expansion, infrastructure projects, building provincial institutions, establishing the education system, and social change. People were drawn to the province by the promise of new opportunities.

Many elements of these foundational years, the turbulence and the settlement, are evident in a story of two sets of brothers who came to the Calgary area with their families from the east. From 1906 to 1917, the constituency of Gleichen alternated in representation between these brothers: Ezra H. Riley (1906- 1910), Archibald J. ‘A.J.’ McArthur (1910), Harold W.H. Riley (1911- 1913), and John P. ‘J.P.’ McArthur (1913-1917).

The Riley family came to Canada from England, arriving in Ontario, where Ezra was born in 1866. The family then moved near to Montreal, where Harold was born. Turning to the west, the Rileys came to Calgary from Quebec in 1888 to homestead and engage in ranching. Ezra became a landowner, subdividing the community he named Hillhurst and donating the adjacent 21-acre Riley Park to the City of Calgary in 1910. Harold was the first Deputy Provincial Secretary from 1905 to 1910, became the first University of Alberta Registrar in 1908, and then worked with his brother in finance and real estate. Harold also served three terms as a Calgary Alderman (1911- 1912, 1914-1915, and 1932-1935).

The McArthurs hailed from Scotland, where A.J. was born in 1857. His father Peter had taken part in the early California gold rush during the late 1840s and early 1850s. Peter returned to North America with his family in 1861, settling first in Bruce County, Ontario, where J.P. was born in 1862. There, A.J. engaged in the timber business and subsequently exported stock. When he settled in Calgary around 1892, A.J. acquired land just north of the Bow River and started the residential district of Crescent Heights, one community over and within three kilometres of Ezra Riley’s Hillhurst. J.P. came to Alberta around 1901 to ranch northeast of Calgary, settling in the city some 10 years later. Both brothers were also involved with the Knee Hill Coal company in Carbon, Alberta.

Ezra Riley was elected as the Liberal Member for the constituency of Gleichen in 1905 and again in 1909. During the First Legislature, Gleichen covered a large area to the north and east of Calgary, surrounding the city electoral division entirely. When the boundary map was amended in 1909 for the Second Legislature, the area of Gleichen was reduced on the northeast and southwest sides, so that it no longer enclosed Calgary but shared just the city’s northeast boundary.

On May 26, 1910, after months of criticism, Premier Rutherford tendered his resignation in response to the outcry over his handling of the Alberta and Great Waterways (A&GW) Railway contracts. Lieutenant Governor Bulyea immediately called upon Arthur L. W. Sifton, Chief Justice of Alberta, to form a Government. Ezra Riley was not satisfied. He too resigned from office, publishing his resignation letter in the June 3, 1910, edition of the Calgary Herald. In it, Ezra protested what he called the Lieutenant Governor’s tactics of “political jugglery” to form a new ministry. He called for the people to have a say in who shall be their political leaders, for cancellation of the A&GW contract, and further demanded that no member of the former government be in the new ministry.1

In the ensuing October 1910 by-election, Ezra ran as an Independent only to lose to Liberal A.J. McArthur. However, A.J.’s time in office was short-lived. Just eight months after his election, he faced a bout of pneumonia and died in office. Once again, an October by-election was held to fill the vacancy. In 1911, A.J.’s brother J.P. McArthur faced off against Ezra’s brother Harold Riley. Despite strong support during the campaign from Liberal Cabinet officials, including Attorney General Mitchell and Premier Sifton, Conservative Harold Riley defeated Liberal J.P. McArthur. Harold’s tenure was not much longer than A.J.’s; he served only the one term, just under a year and a half, before losing his seat in the next election.

According to census figures, Alberta’s population increased more than fivefold in just 10 years, growing from 73,022 in 1901 (before it became a province) to 374,295 in 1911.2 To account for the surging population, electoral boundaries were redrawn, and seats added to the Legislative Assembly. Starting with 25 electoral divisions in the First Legislature (1906-1909), this number was increased to 41 in the Second Legislature (1910-1913), and 56 in the Third Legislature (1913- 1917). The boundary changes made in 1913 saw three Calgary constituencies (North, Centre, and South) established over an expanded area so that Gleichen no longer covered to the north of the city, but rather was entirely to the east and effectively rural.

For the 1913 general election, Harold Riley made the fateful decision to run in Bow Valley, the constituency directly to the east of Gleichen, rather than challenge J.P. McArthur to once again represent Gleichen. Despite a generally stronger showing by the Conservatives in the election, Harold was not successful, going down in defeat to Liberal George Lane. Conversely, J.P. McArthur was elected in Gleichen, returning the constituency to the Liberal caucus. A notable moment demonstrating the social change of the time occurred in March 1916 when, during the reply to the Speech from the Throne, J.P. McArthur remarked that he was proud to be “one of the legislators in the first province in the Dominion of Canada to announce that equal suffrage should be granted to the women at this session of the legislature.” He claimed it a “personal honor to be the first member to officially refer to the question in this House as a matter of legislation to be enacted.”3

The story of the Riley and the McArthur brothers, each variously described as having a pronounced public spirit, follows many common themes from the early days of the province.4 Although the description of the Gleichen constituency as a ‘dynastic political battlefield’5 may be an exaggeration, there was both turbulence and continuity as these two families competed for roles in governing and establishing the foundations of Alberta.

Heather Close

Director of Library Services and Records Management

Legislative Assembly of Alberta

Notes

  1. Riley, E. H. “Notice: to the Electors of the Electoral Division of Gleichen,” Calgary Herald, June 3, 1910, p. 2.
  2. Statistics Canada, “Table A2-14 Population of Canada, by province, census dates, 1851 to 1976,” Historical Statistics of Canada, https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/ pub/11-516-x/sectiona/4147436-eng.htm#1.
  3. “J.P. McArthur Moves Reply to Speech From Throne,” Gleichen Call, March 23, 1916, p. 1, https://archive.org/ details/GCE_1916032301/mode/2up.
  4. Archibald Oswald MacRae, History of the Province of Alberta, vol. II ([Calgary]: Western Canada History Co., 1912), p. 828; “Passing of E.H. Riley removes last Witness Confederation Signed,” Calgary Herald, January 5, 1937, p. 9.
  5. “Riley, Ezra Hounsfield,” Glenbow Archives, fax August 1, 2002.
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