HON. JAMES ALEXANDER CALDER.
The Hon. James Alexander Calder, B. A., LL. D., member of the Do-
minion Senate and long a conspicuous figure in provincial and Dominion
polities, was born in Oxford county, Ontario, on the 17th of September,
1868. His parents, James and Johanna (McKay) Calder, were Scotch by
birth. The family moved to Winnipeg from Ontario in 1882 and the same
year witnessed the death of the father. The mother is still living.
James Alexander Calder was a lad of fourteen when the family moved
west and had completed the work of the public schools of Ingersoll, On-
tario. In Winnipeg he attended the high school from 1882 to 1885, then
entering the University of Manitoba, graduated with honors in science,
in the class of 1888. He was also silver med~list. Subsequently he
studied law and was called to the bar of the Northwest Territories in
1906, but he does not engage in active practice of this profession, al-
though it has been of great assistance to him in his public work. After
acting as principal of the Moose Jaw school from 1891 to 1894, he became
inspector of schools in the Northwest Territories and continued in that
office for six years. From 1901 to 1905 he served as Deputy Commis-
sioner of Education for the Territories.
Mr. Calder's political career may be dated, in some respects, from
his election to the Saskatchewan Assembly in the first general election
held in the new province in 1905, although he had been acutely interested
in politics for some time previous to that. Upon the formation of the
Scott ministry, on the 5th of September, 1905, he was appointed Pro-
vincial Treasurer and Commissioner of Education. In August of 1912
he relinquished his other portfolios to become Minister of Railways, Tele-
phones and Highways. Meanwhile, at the general elections of 1908, he
was defeated on the Milestone Division, but at a by-election in the same
year, on December 7, occasioned by the sitting member accepting a nomi-
nation for the House of Commons, he was elected for Saltcoats, by an
overwhelming majority. At the Saskatchewan general elections of 1912
and 1917 he was re-elected. Upon the retirement of Premier Scott in
October, 1916, the premiership of Saskatchewan was offered Mr. Calder,
but he did not feel that he was in a position to accept that important
office. When the union government was formed in the Dominion the
following year he accepted the portfolio of Minister of Immigration and
Colonization, resigning his portfolio in the provincial government that
he might be free to take up his new duties at Ottawa in October, 1917.
At the federal general elections of that same year he was returned to
the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Moose Jaw. After
the resignation of Sir Robert Borden he was appointed Minister of Im-
migration, president of the Privy Council and Minister in Charge of the
Department of Health in the Meighen administration, which was formed
July 13, 1920. A year later, on the 21st of September, 1921, he was ap-
pointed Member of the Senate, his present office.
In 1910 Mr. Calder was united in marriage to Miss Eva Mildred
Leslie, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Travers Leslie of St. Mary's,
Ontario. The valuable public services of James A. Calder received a
fitting recognition in the month of October, 1905, when the University of
Toronto honored him with the Doctor of Laws degree. His clubs are
the Rideau and Country Clubs of Ottawa, and the Assiniboia Club of
Regina. lie is a Presbyterian in his religious affiliations and, as has been
seen in the foregoing account, is a Liberal Unionist in his political be-
liefs. But Senator Calder ever places the good of the country before
mere partisanship and the welfare of his constituents before personal
aggrandizement. lie commands the respect of the Senators and Mem-
bers of Parliament at Ottawa, but at home-in his own province-where
he is best known, he inspires personal friendships of unusual strength
and all who know him have the highest admiration for his good quali-
ties of heart and mind.
Bibliography follows:
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