Robert Chambers Edwards (September 17, 1860 – November 14, 1922) was a Canadian newsman, humorist, editorialist, entrepreneur, and provincial politician. He is best known, as the writer and publisher of the early 1900s weekly newspaper, the Calgary Eye Opener.

Personal life and education

Edwards was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Scotland. Little is known about any siblings, beyond the fact that he had an older brother, Jack. Edwards' mother, Mary Chambers, survived his birth by only a few weeks. His father, Alexander Mackenzie Edwards

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

, an Edinburgh surgeon and medical author, died in 1868 while on a world cruise. He was raised by unmarried aunts, and attended school in St. Andrews and Edinburgh before spending time at Glasgow University. His mother's father, Dr. Robert Chambers, was a founder of the Scottish publishing house W. & R. Chambers. in the late 1910s, he sobered up and bought a car. After 25 years in Canada, in 1917, at the age of 57 he married Katherine Penman, a 20-year-old newly arrived from Scotland. In 1921 he was elected MLA for Calgary.

Career

Journalism

In 1881 and 1882, Edwards put out a tourist periodical, ''The Channel'', aimed at visitors to the French Riviera. He returned to Scotland and worked for a time with the Glasgow city clerk, Sir

James David Marwick Sir James David Marwick FRSE (15 July 1826 – 24 March 1908) was a Scottish lawyer, historian and town clerk. He served as Town Clerk of Glasgow for thirty-one years, during which time the entire city was transformed. Its powers and amenities ...

. Edwards and his brother Jack emigrated to North America in 1892. Edwards settled in the village of

Wetaskiwin Wetaskiwin ( ) is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada. The city is located south of the provincial capital of Edmonton. The city name comes from the Cree word , meaning "the hills where peace was made". Wetaskiwin is home to the Reyn ...

and founded a newspaper, the ''Free Lance'', which he published for four years.David Mittelstadt.
Foundations of Justice: Alberta's Historic Courthouses
'. University of Calgary Press; 2005. . p. 134–. He then moved to Strathcona, where he published a newspaper until the year 1900.Paul Leonard Voisey.
High River and the Times: An Alberta Community and Its Weekly Newspaper, 1905-1966
'. University of Alberta; 2004. . p. 28–. Edwards worked for the Winnipeg Free Press for a short time, then moved to

High River High River is a town within the Calgary Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada. It is approximately south of Calgary, at the junction of Alberta Highways 2 and 23. High River had a population of 14,324 in 2021. History The community takes ...

. On March 4, 1902 he began publishing a newspaper there. At first he called his paper ''The Chinook'', but as the paper became known for its satirical content, he changed the name to the ''Eye Opener''. In 1903 he moved operations to Calgary, where the Eye-Opener became widely popular.Grant MacEwan.
Coyote Music and Other Humorous Tales of the Early West
'. Rocky Mountain Books Ltd; 1993. . p. 163–.William Bernard Fraser.
Calgary
'. Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada; 1967. p. 67–68. Through this outlet he poked fun at local politicians, government officials, clergymen and other well-known Calgary residents. He even invented fictitious people to lampoon.Pierre Berton.
The Promised Land: Settling the West 1896-1914
'. Doubleday Canada; 10 August 2011. . p. 118–. Edwards published negative stories on the Canadian Pacific Railway and those employed by the organization, including R. B. Bennett and CPR Western Superintendent John Stoughton Dennis. Edwards often published stories and photographs of CPR train wrecks, with an emphasis on those occurring in downtown Calgary. Eventually the CPR banned the ''Eye-Opener'' from its passenger cars as an "obscene publication”. Dissatisfied with Calgary, he moved to

Port Arthur, Ontario Port Arthur was a city in Northern Ontario, Canada, located on Lake Superior. In January 1970, it was amalgamated with Fort William and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay. Port Arthur became the district seat ...

, then to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, finally returning to Calgary in 1911 and continued with the Eye-Opener.

Politics

Edwards was elected in the

1921 Alberta general election The 1921 Alberta general election was held on July 18, 1921, to elect members to the 5th Alberta Legislative Assembly. The Liberal government is replaced by the United Farmers of Alberta. It was one of only five times that Alberta has changed gov ...

as an Independent candidate.
Peoples of Alberta: Portraits of Cultural Diversity
'. Western Producer Prairie Books; 1985. . p. 117. He was one of five MLAs elected in Calgary by

block voting Block or bloc voting refers to a class of electoral systems where multiple candidates are elected simultaneously. They do not guarantee minority representation and allow a group of voters (a voting bloc) to ensure that only their preferred candi ...

in that election. He advocated for the ready availability of beer and the prohibition of stronger alcoholic beverages, in spite of (or because of) the fact that he himself was an alcoholic.Candace Savage.
Our Nell: A Scrapbook Biography of Nellie L. McClung
'. Formac Publishing Company Limited; 27 January 2014. . p. 153–. He died before the issue came to a vote.

Death and legacy

Edwards died November 14, 1922 at the age of 62.Ted Byfield.
Brownlee and the triumph of populism
'. United Western Communications; 1996. p. 60. He was buried in Calgary's Union Cemetery.I Bob Edwards Junior High School in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

is named in his honour. The Bob Edwards Award has been presented annually since 1977 to a provocative Canadian who is not afraid to speak his or her mind. Notable recipients have included

Rick Mercer Richard Vincent "Rick" Mercer (born October 17, 1969) is a Canadian comedian, television personality, Political satire, political satirist, and author. He is best known for his work on the CBC Television comedy shows ''This Hour Has 22 Minutes'' ...

Margaret Atwood Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and an inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight chi ...

and

Preston Manning Ernest Preston Manning (born June 10, 1942) is a retired Canadian politician. He was the founder and the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance in 2000 which in tu ...

. Originally supporting Alberta Theatre Projects as a fundraising luncheon, in 2012 the event moved to the

Calgary Public Library The Calgary Public Library (CPL) is a distributed library system featuring 22 branch locations including the Central Library. As of 2012, it is the second most used system in Canada (after the Toronto Public Library) and the sixth most used libr ...

Foundation as their signature gala. The long-running Calgary Eyeopener morning show on

CBC Radio One CBC Radio One is the English-language news and information radio network of the publicly owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial-free and offers local and national programming. It is available on AM and FM to 98 percent o ...

in Calgary is named after Edwards' newspaper.

References