James Moffat Douglas (May 26, 1839 – August 19, 1920) was a farmer, missionary and politician from western

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He served as MP for a district in the NWT from 1896 to 1904 and as Canadian Senator from 1906 to 1920. The son of John and Euphemia (Moffat) Douglas, he was born and received his early education in Linton, Bankhead, Roxburghshire in Scotland, and came with his parents to settle on a small farm near Cambray, Ontario, in 1851. Douglas was elected to the House of Commons of Canada for the district of

Assiniboia East Assiniboia East was a federal electoral district in Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1887 to 1908. This riding was created in 1886 in the Northwest Territories. Following t ...

in the 1896 Federal Election. He defeated William McDonald, who had been acclaimed as the riding's Member of Parliament in the previous election. Douglas won under the Liberal Party of Canada banner, but also had strong backing from the local farmers' organization, the

Patrons of Industry The Patrons of Industry in Canada were based on the Patrons of Industry of Michigan that had formed in 1889. It was dedicated to upholding and encouraging the moral, social, intellectual, political and financial situation of farmers and to preserve ...

.1896 Parliamentary Guide In 1900, he was re-elected to represent the district. He retired in 1904. Douglas was appointed to the Senate of Canada to represent the province of

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

on the advice of Prime Minister

Wilfrid Laurier Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minis ...

on March 8, 1906. He served in the Canadian Senate affiliated as an Independent Liberal until his death on August 19, 1920. Douglas built a

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept t ...

in the

Qu'Appelle Valley The Qu'Appelle River is a river in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba that flows east from Lake Diefenbaker in south-western Saskatchewan to join the Assiniboine River in Manitoba, just south of Lake of the Prairies, near t ...

in 1904. He named it Tantallon because he said the location reminded him of Tantallon Castle in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. Tantallon takes its name from the homestead.

References

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External links

Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan {{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, James 1839 births 1920 deaths Canadian Presbyterian ministers Canadian Presbyterians Canadian senators from Saskatchewan Liberal Party of Canada MPs Members of the House of Commons of Canada from the Northwest Territories