(;ANADJAN PLAINS RESEARCH CENTER, University of Regina, Regina, Sask., Canada S4~ OA2 PRAIRIE FORUM Vol.6, No.2 Fall,1981 CONTENTS ARTICLES Autonomy and Alienation in Alberta: Premier A. C. Rutherford D. R. Babcock 117 Instilling British Values in the Prairie Provinces David Smith 129 Charlotte Whitton Meets "The Last Best West": The Politics of Child Welfare in Alberta, 1929-49 143 Patricia T. Rooke and R. L. Schnell The Trade in Livestock between the Red River Settlement and the American Frontier, 1812-1870 b Barry Kaye 163 Estimates of Farm Making Costs in Saskatchewan, 1882 ... 1914 Lyle Dick 183 RESEARCH NOTES Colour Preferences and Building Decoration among Ukrainians in Western Canada John C. Lehr 203 "The Muppets" among the Cree of Manitoba Gary Granzberg and Christopher Hanks 207 BOOK REVIEWS (see overleaf) 211 COPYRIGHT1981 ISSN0317-6282 CANADIAN PLAINS RESEARCH CENTER BOOK REVIEWS ARCHER, JOHN H., Saskatchewan, A History by Lewis G. Thomas 211 PALMER,HOWARD and JOHN SMITH (eds), The New Provinces: Alberta and Saskatchewan 1905-1980 by John Herd Thompson 213 WOODCOCK, GEORGE, The Meeting of Time and Space: Region- alism in Canadian Literature by William Howard 216 PARR, JOAN (editor), Manitoba Stories by David Carpenter 218 VAN KIRK, SYLVIA, "Many Tender Ties" Women in Fur-Trade Society in Western Canada by Philip Goldring 223 BROWN, C. et aI., Rain of Death: Acid Rain in Western Canada by D. M: Secoy 225 HALL, D. J., Clifford Sifton: Volume I. The Young Napoleon, 1861-1900 by Gerald J. Stortz 227 HYLTON, JOHN, Reintegrating the Offender by James J. Teevan 229 ROGGE, JOHN (editor), The Prairies and the Plains: Prospects for the 80s by Alec H. Paul 231 ARTIBISE, ALAN F. J. (editor), Town and City: Aspects of Western Canadian Urban Development by A. Ross McCormack 232 THOMAS, PETER, Robert Kroetsch by Arnold E. Davidson 234 CZUMER, WILLIAM A., Recollections about the Life of the First Ukrainian Settlers in Canada by Victor O. Buyniak 237 PRAIRIE FORUM: Journal of the Canadian Plains Research Center Chief Editor: F. Pannekoek, Alberta Culture Associate Editors: Alan Anderson, Sociology, Saskatoon J. W. Brennan, History, Regina W.Currie, Gabriel Dumont Inst., Regina B. Freeze, Lethbridge Community College G. Granzberg, Anthropology, Winnipeg R. Gruhn, Anthropology, Edmonton M. Evelyn Jonescu, CPRC, Regina W. Latta, English, Lethbridge F. MacKinnon, Political Science·, Calgary R. Macleod, History, Edmonton G. Mitchell, Biology, Regina Alec Paul, Geography, Regina R. Vogt, Economics, Winnipeg Book Review Editor: Barbara Jones, CPRC, Regina PRAIRIE FORUM is published twice yearly, in Spring and Fall, at an annual subscription of $15.00. All subscriptions, correspondence and contribu­ tions should be sent to The Editor, Prairie Forum, Canadian Plains Re­ search Center, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, S4S OA2. Subscribers will also receive the Canadian Plains Bulletin, the newsletter of the Canadian Plains Research Center. PRAIRIE FORUM is not responsible for statements, either of fact or of opinion, made by contributors. PRAIRIE FORUM, 1981, Vol. 6, No.2 117 Autonomy and Alienation in Alberta: Premier A. C. Rutherford D. R. Babcock Historic Sites Service, Alberta Culture ABSTRACT: The 1905 terms of provincial autonomy for Alberta clearly expressed the federal Liberal government's and Ontario's colonialist perception" of the prairie west. The transition of those Ontarians who settled in Alberta at the turn of the century from colonizers to colonials is exemplified by the political career of Premier A. C. Rutherford. While initially a staunch feder­ alist, he soon developed strong regional sympathies to become an alienated Albertan. RESUME Les termes sous lesquels l'Alberta devenait une province autonome en 1905 expriment clairement les perceptions colonialistes du gouvernement liberal federal et du gouvernement ontarien apropos des prairies de I'ouest. La transition du statut de colons au statut de coloniaux des Ontariens qui se sont etablis en Alberta au debut du siecle est illustree par la carriere politique du premier ministre albertain A. C. Rutherford. Etant initialement un federaliste devoue, il a vite developpe de solides sympathies regionales pourfinalement devenir un Albertain insatisfait du systeme federal de l'epoque. As the first premier of Alberta (1905-1910), Alexander Cameron Rutherford was a critical figure in the political life of that province. A public-spirited lawyer of high personal integrity, Rutherford became a member of the Ontarian elite that dominated the social and political life of the colonial west at the turn of the century. He was an early advocate of provincial autonomy and the first leader of the Alberta Liberal Association formed in 1905. He led the Liberals to two stun­ ning election victories in 1905 and 1909, yet in 1910, as leader of a formidable majority in the Alberta legislature," he was forced from office by the Liberal hierarchy in Alberta and Ottawa. While owing something to his personal vulnerability as' "a politician, his fall from power is attributable in part to the conflict between Rutherford's Ontarian aspirations for Alberta and Ottawa's colonialist outlook on the west. In this rapid and early disaffection from the Liberal party and the federal establishment, his political career both exemplified and nurtured the process of alienation in Alberta. Rutherford may well be considered the Alberta archetype of western alienation. In 1895 Rutherford left his native Ontario with his wife and two children to settle at South Edmonton in the District of Alberta. 1 At the age of thirty-eight he carried the cultural baggage of a successful lawyer from the Ottawa area ofVictorian Ontario. The son ofScottish immigrant parents, Rutherford had been raised in the Baptist Church and educated at a Baptist college.? After graduating from McGill University, he articled in Ottawa for four years and was called to the Ontario bar in 1885. As a partner for ten years in the law firm of Hodgins, Kidd & Rutherford at Kemptville near Ottawa, Rutherford became prominent in the community's institutional life and, while he did not seek political office, he "electioneered a little" on behalf of others. In search of a drier climate for his asthrna..he visited South 118 BABCOCK Edmonton in 1894 and his favourable assessment of conditions there led to his migration the following year. Modest, conciliatory and con­ servative in temperament, Baptist and Liberal by persuasion, he carried superlative credentials to enter the dominant society of Ontarians he found in the west. From the day of his arrival his activities were worthy of notice in the Ontarian-owned local press, and only a year later three hundred local citizens petitioned him to stand for election to the Territorial Assembly. The North-West Territories Legislative Assembly produced its first executive council in 1897 when F. W. G. Haultain became terri­ torial premier, a post he held until 1905. A strong advocate of non­ partisan territorial administration, by 1900 Haultain had joined the movement for provincial autonomy in the west. Dependent on Ottawa for most of its revenue, his government was hard pressed to meet the -needs ofaburgeoning territorial population.Tt was Haultain's 'belief that provincial status and local control of lands and resources would provide a more effective framework for rapid western development than the existing colonial administration. By 1902 the Conservatives had become the champions of full provincial autonomy for the west; though he was a Conservative in federal politics, Haultain as terri­ torial premier maintained a non-partisan position on the issue, and both his Liberal and Conservative colleagues in the assembly continued to support him and his quest for provincial autonomy. Like their Conservative predecessors, the federal Liberals under Prime Minister Laurier ruled the Haultain's 1900 request for provincial status was inconsistent with Ottawa's national policy for western development. At issue was the federal vision of Canadian nationhood based on an industrialized central Canada viably linked to an agrarian west by the Canadian Pacific Railway.' Only by retaining control of western lands could Ottawa ensure the continuation of free home­ steads and massive immigration into the west on which the goal of a British national identity depended.' The immigrants who swelled the population of the District of Alberta from 1891 to 1901 apparently did 'not challenge that national goal: most of the new settlers were British subjects. In 1891, 7132 (51 per cent) of the District's 13,692 resident immigrants were Cana­ dians, including 4473 Ontarians'who constituted fully one-third of the immigrant population. Another 4041 (30 per cent) were from the British Isles. During the succeeding decade immigration from con­ tinental Europe and the U. S. increased sharply and by 1901 the immigrant population stood at 46,827. Canadians numbered 16,683 (36 per cent) of which 11,420 were Ontario-born (24 per cent). Set­ tlers from the British Isles totalled 7120 (15 per cent) and those from the U.S., some of whom were returning Canadians, totalled 10,972 (23' per cent).5 PREMIER A. C. RUTHERFORD 119 Immigrant British subjects were not only. numerically dominant during this period. Unlike the European immigrants ... they did not have to acquire citizenship and familiarity with the language and constitution before participating in public life. There were well-educated and well-to-do men among them, and all of them