Alexander Lucas

Alexander Lucas
7th Mayor of Calgary
In office
January 18, 1892 – January 2, 1894
Preceded byJames Reilly
Succeeded byWesley Fletcher Orr
Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia for Yale
In office
1910–1916
Preceded byRichard McBride
Succeeded byJoseph Walters
Personal details
Born(1852-09-02)September 2, 1852
Brook Township, Canada West
DiedJune 8, 1942(1942-06-08) (aged 89)
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Alexander Lucas (September 2, 1852 – June 8, 1942)[1] was a Canadian businessman and politician. He was the seventh mayor of the town of Calgary, Alberta and spent six years as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in British Columbia.

Early life

Lucas was born in Canada West in 1852, and was the third child of George Lucas and Elizabeth Cowan. On January 10, 1878, he married Jane Frances "Jennie" Tanner. Together, they had two children, Fredrick and Edward.[2] Both of their sons became prominent lawyers in BC; Fred was appointed to the Supreme Court Bench of BC in 1935.

Political life

In 1886, Lucas moved to Calgary. Here he became a partner in a land, insurance and auctioning company, and was the publisher of the Calgary Herald. Lucas was first elected to Calgary Town Council in 1891 as an Alderman,[3] and was subsequently acclaimed Mayor of Calgary in the 1892[4] and elected to a second year in the 1893 Calgary municipal election.[5] As Calgary's seventh mayor, he helped found the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has a room named in his honour. Lucas spent one more term on council as Alderman for the newly created Ward 1 in 1894.[6]

Lucas was known for his anti-Chinese immigration views, and during his term as Mayor formed a branch of the Anti-Chinese League along with Aldermen Wesley Fletcher Orr and Issac Sanford Freeze. A smallpox outbreak in Calgary led to the August 2, 1892 riot in which a mob of around 300 men descended on two Chinese laundries in the town in an attempt to run the Chinese residents out of town. Lucas had been warned of the possibility of a riot and left town for the day.[7]

Lucas ran for a seat in the 1894 Northwest Territories general election in the West Calgary electoral district. He was defeated finishing second in the three way race behind Oswald Critchley.

Lucas went to the Kootenay district of British Columbia in 1897. He later moved to the Vancouver. Lucas was elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia in a by-election for Yale district in 1910, and was subsequently re-elected in the 1912 British Columbia general election. He served two terms as an MLA in Premier Richard McBride and Premier William Bowser's Conservative governments before being defeated in the 1916 provincial election.

Later life

Lucas died in Vancouver on June 8, 1942, and is interred in Mountain View Cemetery.

  1. ^ [1] Archived 2010-11-29 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Chambers, Ernest J., ed. (1916). "The Canadian Parliamentary Guide". The Canadian Parliamentary Guide = Guide Parlementaire Canadien. Ottawa: Mortimer Company Ltd.: 409-410. ISBN 9781414401416. ISSN 0315-6168. OCLC 266967058. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  3. ^ "The Votes Cast". The Calgary Daily Herald. No. 202. January 6, 1891. p. 1. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  4. ^ "The Declaration". Calgary Weekly Herald. January 6, 1892. p. 4.
  5. ^ "Municipal Elections". The Calgary Weekly Herald. No. 10. January 4, 1893. p. 5. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  6. ^ "The Municipal Elections". The Calgary Herald. No. 38. January 16, 1894. p. 4. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  7. ^ Dawson, J. Brian (1975). "The Chinese Experience in Frontier Calgary". In Rasporich, Anthony W.; Klassen, Henry C. (eds.). Frontier Calgary: Town, City, and Region 1875-1914. Calgary: McClelland and Stewart West. pp. 129–132. ISBN 0-7712-1017-5. Retrieved November 17, 2020.