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

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, Canada. He served as an alderman on

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

Early life

Calder was born in Bridgewater,

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in 1873, and grew up there before moving to

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

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

, where he spent five years scouting suitable timber for

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for the

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. 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 (UCC; ) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholic Church in Canada. The United Chu ...

, 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

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. Only two of the top ten (

John Tipton John Shields 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 Thomas J. Walsh) 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

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, 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

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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