James Dunsmuir

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James Dunsmuir (b July 8, 1851, Fort Vancouver – d June 6, 1920, Cowichan Bay, British Columbia) was a British Columbian industrialist and politician. 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 were a leading force in opposing organized labour. Dunsmuir managed his family's coal business from 1876 until 1910 increasing profits and resisting efforts to unionize. In 1905 he sold his Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway to the Canadian Pacific Railway and in 1910 he sold his Union Colliery of British Columbia.

Dunsmuir entered provincial politics in 1898 winning a seat in the provincial legislature and became 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 disliked politics and resigned as Premier in 1902. In 1906 he became the province's Lieutenant-Governor but retired in 1909 and lived out his years at the baronial mansion he had constructed at Hatley Park.

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

One of his eight daughters, (Jessie) Muriel, married, as her first husband, the couturier Edward Molyneux.

[edit] References

• Reksten, Terry (1991). The Dunsmuir Saga. Vancouver:Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 0-88894-742-9. 

[edit] External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Political offices
Preceded by Joseph Martin	Premier of British Columbia 1900-1902	Succeeded by Edward Gawler Prior
Government offices
Preceded by Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière	Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia 1906-1909	Succeeded by Thomas William Paterson