Alberta's First Premier: Alexander Rutherford Quiz

Answer: Education

Rutherford was a public education advocate and he retained the ministry of Education for himself when he formed a government in 1905. He would later serve as chancellor of the University of Alberta.

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Answer: George H. V. Bulyea

George Bulyea was Alberta's first Lieutenant-Governor (pronounced lef-ten-ant)and the youngest. Sir Wilfrid Laurier was Canada's first French Canadian Prime Minister. Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl Grey was the 9th Governor General of Canada, who appointed Bulyea to the position. Arthur Sifton succeeded Rutherford as premier of Alberta.

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Answer: Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Scandal

A charter was granted to build a railway from Edmonton to Waterways, Alberta in 1909. Problems arose when allegations of a conflict of interest regarding the government financing of the railway led to the eventual resignation of Rutherford as premier of the province in May 1910. I made up the other choices!

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Answer: Ontario

It was on February 2nd, 1857 that Rutherford was born in Osgoode Township in Ontario, although then it was still the western part of the United Province of Canada. His parents were James Rutherford and Elizabeth Cameron. In 1895 Rutherford left Ontario to settle in the Northwest Territories.

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Answer: Liberals

He was a member of the Liberal Party. The United Farmers of Alberta came to power in 1921, and the Social Credit party in 1935. The Conservatives came to power in Alberta in 1971, and are still in power as of the writing of this question in 2012.

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Answer: Matthew McCauley

McCauley, the first mayor of Edmonton, beat Rutherford twice, once in a by-election in 1896 and then in the general election for the Territorial Assembly in 1898. Rutherford handily won a seat in the Assembly in 1902. In 1913, Crawford beat the former premier for a seat in the provincial legislature of Alberta.

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Answer: Diabetes

While Rutherford had suffered from bronchitis for a long time, it was diabetes that struck him towards the end of his life. A year after his wife passed away, Rutherford himself died of a heart attack while receiving an insulin treatment. He was 84 at the time of his death.

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Answer: Three

Rutherford and his wife, Mattie Birkett, had three children. Cecil and Hazel survived into adulthood but Marjorie died at the age of sixteen months.

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Answer: It became a Provincial historic Site in 1973

A year before his death in 1941 Rutherford sold the family home (11153 Saskatchewan Drive, Edmonton) to the University of Alberta's Delta Upsilon Fraternity. It was later passed on to the university itself before being leased to the government for preservation. In 1973 it was made the Rutherford House Provincial Historic Site and became a publicly accessible landmark in Edmonton.

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Answer: Great Western Garment Company

The Great Western Garment Company (GWG) which was founded by Charles A. Graham and Rutherford in 1911 in Edmonton, Alberta, created western clothing for common people.

During WW2, the company produced military clothing for the Allied armed forces and was the biggest clothing manufacturer in the British Commonwealth. With the increasing popularity of designer clothing in later years, the GWG company finally shut down in 2004.

The other choices I made up!

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