Hugh Alfred Calder (December 25, 1872
– August 6, 1964) was a real estate developer and politician in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. He served as an alderman on

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 ...

between 1912 and 1916 and was a principle founder of the Village of West Edmonton.

Early life

Calder was born in Bridgewater,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

in 1873, and grew up there before moving to

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

, where he started its first lumber company. In 1902, he moved to

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 ...

, where he spent five years scouting suitable timber for

ties TIES may refer to: * TIES, Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science * TIES, The Interactive Encyclopedia System * TIES, Time Independent Escape Sequence * Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science * The International Ecotourism Society The Inter ...

for the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

. In 1907 he co-founded Foster and Calder, one of the city's first real estate firms, which developed the Village of West Edmonton, much of what is now the Calder neighbourhood in Edmonton. He also, as a member of the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

, helped construct the first building to house the Knox United Church.

Politics

Calder's first bid for political office took place during the February 1912 municipal election, when he ran to fill one of ten aldermanic seats available on

. He finished eleventh of eighteen, but the terms of the just-effected merger between Edmonton and Strathcona stipulated that at least three of the aldermen come from the south side of the

North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows eventual ...

. Only two of the top ten (

John Tipton John Tipton (August 14, 1786 – April 5, 1839) was from Tennessee and became a farmer in Indiana; an officer in the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe, and veteran officer of the War of 1812, in which he reached the rank of Brigadier General; and pol ...

and

Thomas J. Walsh Thomas James Walsh (June 12, 1859March 2, 1933) was an American lawyer and Democratic Party politician from Helena, Montana who represented Montana in the US Senate from 1913 to 1933. He was initially elected by the state legislature, and from 1 ...

) were, so Calder was elected to the third spot instead of the tenth place D. B. Campbell. Because of the amalgamation, an entire new council was being elected (Edmonton's councils were normally elected five members at a time for two year terms) and the five councillors with the fewest votes were only elected to one year terms, meaning that Calder had to seek re-election in December of that year. He finished eighth of seventeen candidates; only five councillors were to be elected, but Calder benefited again from the provision requiring south side representation; since none of the candidates to finish ahead of him were from the south side, Calder was re-elected. He was up for re-election again in the 1914 election, in which there were six, rather than five, seat available due to the resignation of Alexander Campbell. Calder finished sixth, good enough to win Campbell's seat and serve the remaining year in his term; however, Calder was instead elected to a two-year term as the top finishing south side candidate. He did not seek re-election at the conclusion of this term.

Post-political career

In 1916 he went to

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as a

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in the

19th Alberta Dragoons The 19th Alberta Dragoons was a cavalry regiment and later an armoured regiment of the Canadian Militia and later the Canadian Army. It was placed on the Supplementary Order of Battle in 1965. In 2006, it was taken off the Supplementary Order of ...

, where he commanded a Canadian Forestry Battalion. Upon his return, he retired to his farm in south Edmonton. He died in

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August 6, 1964, survived by three daughters and one son. Hugh Calder was involved in Edmonton Exhibition Board and the

Masonic Lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

References

Edmonton Public Library Biography of Hugh CalderCity of Edmonton biography of Hugh CalderReal Estate Weekly review of ''Naming Edmonton'', which credits Calder with founding the neighbourhood for which he was named
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calder, Hugh 1872 births 1964 deaths Businesspeople from Edmonton Canadian military personnel of World War I Edmonton city councillors Members of the United Church of Canada People from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia