James Dunsmuir

The Honourable
James Dunsmuir
The Honourable James Dunsmuir
	Dunsmuir in 1914
14th Premier of British Columbia
	In office; June 15, 1900 – November 21, 1902
Monarchs	Victoria; Edward VII
Lieutenant Governor	Thomas Robert McInnes; Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière
Preceded by	Joseph Martin
Succeeded by	Edward Gawler Prior
8th Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
	In office; May 11, 1906 – December 3, 1909
Monarch	Edward VII
Governor General	The Earl Grey
Premier	Richard McBride
Preceded by	Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière
Succeeded by	Thomas Wilson Paterson
MLA for Comox
	In office; July 9, 1898 – June 9, 1900
Preceded by	Joseph Hunter
Succeeded by	Lewis Alfred Mounce
MLA for South Nanaimo
	In office; June 9, 1900 – October 3, 1903
Preceded by	Ralph Smith
Succeeded by	district abolished
Personal details
Born	July 8, 1851; Fort Vancouver
Died	June 6, 1920 (aged 68); Cowichan Bay, British Columbia
Nationality	Canadian
Political party	No party affiliation
Spouse	Laura Miller Surles (m. 1876)
Children	3 sons and 9 daughters
Parent	Robert Dunsmuir (father);
Alma mater	Virginia Tech
Occupation	Industrialist and politician

James Dunsmuir (July 8, 1851 – June 6, 1920) was a Canadian industrialist and politician in British Columbia. He served as the 14th premier of British Columbia from 1900 to 1902 and the eighth lieutenant governor of British Columbia from 1906 to 1909.

Early life and business career

Son of Robert Dunsmuir, he was heir to his family's coal fortune. The Dunsmuir family dominated the province's economy in the late nineteenth century and was a leading force in opposing organized labour. Dunsmuir managed his family's coal business from 1876 until 1910, increasing profits and violently putting down efforts to unionize.

In 1905, he sold his Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway to the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1910, he sold his coal mining companies, Union Colliery of British Columbia and R. Dunsmuir & Sons, to Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd (CCD).

Opposition to organized labour

In the 42 years that the Dunsmuirs owned the collieries, they never recognized their employees' attempts to unionize or create better working conditions. Dunsmuir used threats, spies, blacklists and scab labour to break strikes. When he could not break a strike with scab labour, he used his influence to have the provincial government call in the militia.^[1] Dunsmuir stated to a royal commission, "I object to all unions...They simply take the management of the mine...I want the management of my own works, and if I recognize the union, I cannot have that."^[2]

Dunsmuir provoked further rage when he ordered workers to relocate their homes at a new pit.^[1] Workers also resented low wages and the dangerous conditions that Dunsmuir imposed upon them.^[2] Mine owners at the time regularly ignored safety and sanitary conditions, and provincial inspectors were slow to bring them to justice.^[3]

Dunsmuir contributed to the mines of British Columbia being among the most dangerous in the world. Between 1889 and 1908, twenty-three men were killed in the production of every million tons of BC coal; the average for North America as a whole was six deaths per million tons.^[2] In 1901, while serving as Premier, many men perished in his collieries.^[4]

Political career

Dunsmuir entered provincial politics in 1898, winning a seat in the provincial legislature, and he became the 14th Premier in 1900. His government attempted to resist popular pressure to curtail Asian labour and immigration, not for humanitarian reasons, but to ensure a cheap labour pool for business. It also promoted railway construction and accomplished a redistribution of seats to better represent population distribution in the province.

Dunsmuir visited England and the United States in 1902,^[5] but disliked politics after his return and resigned as Premier in November 1902. In 1906, he became the province's eighth Lieutenant Governor. He retired in 1909 and lived out his remaining years at the baronial mansion that he had constructed at Hatley Park.

Legacy

Dunsmuir founded the town of Ladysmith, British Columbia. He is interred in the Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria, British Columbia.

One of his daughters, Jessie Muriel, married, as her first husband, the couturier Edward Molyneux. His second-born son, James A. Dunsmuir Jr., died in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915. His last child, Dola Dunsmuir, married Lieutenant-Commander Henry Cavendish and was rumored to be Tallulah Bankhead's lover.^[6]

Gallery

Hatley Castle, c. 2006
Gravestone of James Dunsmuir at Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria
Dunsmuir family monument at Ross Bay Cemetery in Victoria

References

^ ^a ^b McCormack, A. Ross (1977). Reformers, Rebels, and Revolutionaries: The Western Canadian Radical Movement 1899-1919. Canada: University of Toronto Press. pp. 6–7. ISBN 0-8020-5385-8.
^ ^a ^b ^c McCormack, A. Ross (1977). Reformers, Rebels and Revolutionaries: The Western Canadian Radical Movement 1899-1919. Canada: University of Toronto. p. 9. ISBN 0-8020-5385-8.
^ McCormack, A.Ross (1977). Reformers, Rebels and Revolutionaries: The Western Canadian Radical Movement 1899-1919. Canada: University of Toronto Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-8020-5385-8.
^ McCormack, A.Ross (1977). Reformers, Rebels and Revolutionaries: The Western Canadian Radical Movement 1899-1919. Canada: University of Toronto Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-8020-5385-8.
^ "Court Circular". The Times. No. 36890. London. 4 October 1902. p. 6.
^ "From the Archives: Dola Frances Dunsmuir". Royal Roads University. Archived from the original on 15 January 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2018.