James Douglas served in municipal and federal governments in a political career lasting 40 years. Douglas was elected as an alderman to the
Strathcona city council. He entered federal politics in 1909 in a by-election that followed the death of
Wilbert McIntyre, the recently elected
Liberal Member of Parliament for
Strathcona. Douglas, running as a Liberal, was the only candidate in the by-election, and was acclaimed to the House of Commons of Canada. He was re-elected as a Liberal in the
1911 election. In 1917, Prime Minister
Robert Laird Borden introduced
conscription as a means of strengthening Canada's war effort in the
First World War. He appealed to all MPs who supported this move to come together under the banner of the "
Unionist Party". Douglas was one of many MPs to leave
Wilfrid Laurier's Liberal caucus and join this new grand-alliance "Union" government. He was re-elected as a government candidate in the
1917 election. Conscription became unpopular among many in the West when it was extended to hard-pressed farm families in 1918. Once the war ended, he was one of a handful of former Liberals to join
Arthur Meighen's new "National Liberal and Conservative Party" (commonly known as the
Conservative Party). He was defeated running under this banner in the
1921 election by
Progressive/United Farmers candidate
Daniel Webster Warner. Douglas returned to municipal politics, running for
Edmonton City Council (Strathcona and Edmonton had merged in 1912) as an alderman in the
1923 election. The election elected six city councillors at-large through
single transferable voting and Douglas received the fourth most votes initially. He never did achieve quota but was elected in the end through the guaranteed representation for southside candidates. Douglas was elected to a two-year term. Towards the end of this term, he again made a foray into federal politics, running in the
1925 election as a Conservative in
Edmonton West. He was defeated by former Liberal premier
Charles Stewart. After this federal rebuff, Douglas sought and won re-election as an alderman in Edmonton's
1925 election, the most popular of eleven candidates in the multi-seat aldermanic election. He resigned less than a year into his term to run for mayor in the
1926 election, in which he was the fifth most-popular of six candidates. In the
1929, he ran again for mayor and this time was elected. He was acclaimed in
1930 to a second term as mayor. During his time as mayor local KKK organizer J.J. Maloney asked mayor Douglas for permission to use the large city auditorium for his group's events. Douglas refused the necessary approval. In the
next election, Maloney backed Douglas's only opponent
Daniel Kennedy Knott and Douglas was unseated. Douglas took a five-year hiatus from politics to serve as a stipendary magistrate in the
Northwest Territories. During this time, he was also appointed by the Alberta government to the
Royal Commission on the Condition of the Halfbreed Population of the Province of Alberta (Ewing Commission) along with members
Albert Ewing and Dr. Edward A. Brathwaite to look at issues affecting the
Métis population including land claims, hunting rights and treaty status. The commission would deliver its findings later in 1936. Douglas returned to Edmonton to run for mayor in the
1936 election, in which he finished a close second to
Joseph Clarke in a five-person race. He left politics once again after this defeat, but returned to the position of alderman in the
1941 election, finishing second of fourteen candidates. He was re-elected in
1943 (finishing first of twelve candidates),
1945 (first of eleven), and
1947 (third of thirteen) before retiring for good in 1949. ==Personal life, death, and legacy==