William James McNamara (December 27, 1879 – January 1, 1947) was a politician in

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, Canada, a mayor of both

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 ...

and Wetaskiwin, Alberta, and the first mayor of Edmonton to be forced from office over a scandal.

Biography

McNamara was born in Renfrew, Ontario on December 27, 1879. He was educated at Saint Laurent College in

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and came to Edmonton in 1886. In 1900 he was hired as the first teacher at Lone Spruce School, an Edmonton boys' school. In 1905 he formed a real estate partnership with Lorne York that acquired real estate in Camrose, Wetaskiwin, and Edmonton. He was elected mayor of Wetaskiwin in 1909. After returning to Edmonton, he ran for mayor in the 1913 election, in which he defeated incumbent William Short, receiving 50.2% of the vote in the two person race. In doing so, he became both the first person in Edmonton's history to defeat a sitting mayor and the winner of the closest mayor election in the city's history, a record that still stands. In office, he formed an alliance with future mayor Joseph Clarke (then an alderman) against those who wanted to drive prostitution and gambling out of the city. McNamara fired both the police chief and the head of the morality squad. His alliance with Clarke ended when the two came to blows in a meeting of

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 ...

. Later in his term, he was convicted by Justice William Ives of voting on a matter in which he had a pecuniary interest and was, along with alderman

James East James East (October 7, 1871 – June 23, 1940) was a politician and labour activist in Alberta, Canada. He was for a time and the longest-serving alderman in Edmonton's history, and was a defeated candidate at the provincial and federal levels ...

, expelled from office on October 27, 1914. He stayed out of politics thereafter. He moved to

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Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

on November 19, 1915. McNamara died on January 1, 1947, at 3:55 pm in

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, of heart failure.

References

External links

Edmonton Public Library Biography of William McNamaraCity of Edmonton biography of William McNamaraReal Estate Edmonton article about the history of a house in which McNamara once lived
{{DEFAULTSORT:McNamara, William J. 1879 births Canadian schoolteachers Canadian people of Irish descent Mayors of Edmonton People from Renfrew County 20th-century Canadian politicians 1947 deaths