David Milwyn Duggan (May 5, 1879 – May 4, 1942) was a Welsh-born Canadian politician who was the

Mayor of Edmonton This is a list of mayors of Edmonton, a city in Alberta, Canada. Edmonton was incorporated as a town on January 9, 1892, with Matthew McCauley acclaimed as its first mayor during the town's first election, held February 10, 1892. On October 8 ...

from 1920 to 1923, a member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from singl ...

, and a leader of the Conservative Party of Alberta.

Early life

David Duggan was born in

Builth Builth Wells (; cy, Llanfair-ym-Muallt) is a market town and community in the county of Powys and historic county of Brecknockshire (Breconshire), mid Wales, lying at the confluence of rivers Wye and Irfon, in the Welsh (or upper) part of ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

May 5, 1879. In 1893 he entered the dry goods business, in which he remained until leaving Wales. In 1902 he married Marian Price; the pair had four children. Duggan immigrated to Canada in 1905 to farm near

Nanton, Alberta Nanton is a town in southern Alberta, Canada. Nanton was named after Sir Augustus Meredith Nanton of Winnipeg (1860–1925) who directed firms which offered financing for farms and ranches throughout the west. It is located south of Calgary at th ...

. he and his brother Joseph J. moved to Edmonton in 1912 and founded Duggan Investments, Ltd., a firm handling bonds and investments. (Joseph served as Edmonton city councillor 1924 to 1925.Rek, Municipal elections in Edmonton)

Municipal politics

Duggan ran for mayor in the 1920 Edmonton election when, despite lacking any previous experience, he defeated incumbent Joseph Clarke. Clarke had become unpopular with the city's Board of Trade and both of its newspapers owing to what they perceived as anti-business policies, and these groups supported Duggan aggressively. While Duggan was mayor, Alberta's first radio station,

CJCA CJCA is a Canadian radio station. It operates at 930 AM branded as ''AM930 The Light'' in Edmonton, Alberta. History It was first licensed in 1922, and it first broadcast on May 1, 1922, becoming Alberta's first radio station. It was an affili ...

, began operations, and Duggan himself concluded its inaugural broadcast by boasting "Edmonton leads the way in all Alberta. Calgary and others follow. That is all. Goodnight." He was re-elected in

1921 Events January * January 2 ** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil. ** The Spanish lin ...

and

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

, but did not seek re-election after his last term expired.

Provincial politics

His attentions turned to provincial politics, and he was elected to the

in the 1926 election as a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

in the riding of

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

. Duggan succeeded

Alexander McGillivray Alexander McGillivray, also known as ''Hoboi-Hili-Miko'' (December 15, 1750February 17, 1793), was a Muscogee (Creek) leader. The son of a Muscogee mother and a Scottish father, he had skills no other Creek of his day had: he was not only liter ...

as leader in 1930, and led the party into that year's election. In this election, the Conservatives picked up a seat in Edmonton (taking three of the city's six seats), but were shut out of seats outside of Edmonton and

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, as they had been in 1926. Moreover, they lost ground to the rival

Alberta Liberal Party The Alberta Liberal Party (french: Parti libéral de l'Alberta) is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1905, it is the oldest active political party in Alberta and was the dominant political party until the 1921 election ...

in the race to form the official opposition to the governing

United Farmers of Alberta The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) is an association of Alberta farmers that has served different roles in its 100-year history – as a lobby group, a successful political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. As a political party, it forme ...

. Duggan easily retained his own seat. The situation worsened for the Conservatives in the 1935 election, when the

Social Credit Party of Alberta Alberta Social Credit was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on social credit monetary policy put forward by Clifford Hugh Douglas and on conservative Christian social values. The Canadian social credit movement wa ...

swept the province, reducing the Conservatives to two members, Duggan and Calgary MLA John Irwin (the other parties fared no better - the Liberals lost six of the eleven seats they had won in 1930, while the UFA, owners of a majority government before the writ was dropped, were eliminated from the legislature completely). In response to this catastrophe, Duggan's Conservatives formed an alliance with the Liberals, the Unity League, whereby candidates of the parties would not run against each other, these were identified as Independents on election results as the Unity League did not have official party status. In the 1940 election, there were nineteen independents elected, including Duggan. During his last full term in the legislature, Duggan was involved in the

Bankers' Toadies incident The Bankers' Toadies incident occurred in 1937 in the Canadian province of Alberta when a pamphlet advocating the "extermination" of nine men identified as "Bankers' Toadies" (in other words, servants of bank owners) was distributed to Members ...

. He brought to the house's attention a government-sponsored leaflet that named him and eight other men (

William Antrobus Griesbach Major General William Antrobus Griesbach, (January 3, 1878 – January 21, 1945) was a Canadian politician, decorated soldier, mayor of Edmonton, and member of the House of Commons and of the Senate. Early life Griesbach was born in Fort Qu'A ...

among them) as "Banker's Toadies" and urged readers to "exterminate them". This incident saw two men, including Social Credit MLA

Joseph Unwin Joseph Henry Unwin (September 15, 1892 – January 4, 1987) was a politician from Alberta, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1935 to 1940 as a member of the Social Credit Party. 1935 election Unwin ran in the 1935 ...

, prosecuted for criminal

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

and counselling murder.

Personal life, death, and legacy

Duggan was active with the

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

Church, the

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, profe ...

, the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, and the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

. He died May 4, 1942 while still an MLA. He was buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery in Edmonton. In 2004,

Edmonton City Council The Edmonton City Council is the governing body of the City of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Edmonton currently has one mayor and twelve city councillors. Elections are held every four years. The most recent was held in 2021, and the next is in 20 ...

passed a motion directing its Names Advisory Committee to strike a subcommittee whose purpose would be, among other things, to honour Duggan by naming a city feature after him.

References

External links

Edmonton Public Library Biography of David DugganCity of Edmonton biography of David DugganEdmonton Economic Development Corporation's account of CJCA's first broadcastMinutes of the Edmonton City Council meeting at which the Names Advisory Committee was directed to honour Duggan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duggan, David 1879 births 1942 deaths People from Builth Wells Businesspeople from Edmonton Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs Canadian Baptists Leaders of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta Mayors of Edmonton People from Powys Welsh emigrants to Canada Welsh politicians 20th-century Canadian politicians