page_title: Alexander Cameron Rutherford
section_title: Public works
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Cameron Rutherford / Premier / Public works
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Alexander Cameron Rutherford, Premier of Alberta (1905–10): the Alberta Government purchased this painting by commissioning Long to paint it when Rutherford's term as premier was over.
context_page_description: Alexander Cameron Rutherford KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the first premier of Alberta from 1905 to 1910. Born in Ormond, Canada West, he studied and practised law in Ottawa before he moved with his family to the North-West Territories in 1895. There, he began his political career, winning in his third attempt a seat in the North-West Legislative Assembly. In keeping with the territorial custom, Rutherford ran as an independent but generally supported the territorial administration of Premier Frederick W. A. G. Haultain. At the federal level, however, Rutherford was a Liberal.
  In 1905, Alberta Lieutenant Governor George Bulyea asked Rutherford to form the new province's first government. As premier, Rutherford's first task was to win a workable majority in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, which he did in the 1905 provincial election. His second was to provide the apparatus of provincial government, and his government established everything from speed limits to a provincial court system. The legislature also controversially, and with Rutherford's support, selected Edmonton over rival Calgary as the provincial capital.
context_section_description: Rutherford's Liberals self-identified as the party of free enterprise, in contrast to the Conservatives, who supported public ownership Still the Liberals made a limited number of large-scale forays into government operation of utilities, the most notable of which being the creation of Alberta Government Telephones. In 1906, Alberta's municipalities legislation was passed and included a provision authorizing municipalities to operate telephone companies. Several, including Edmonton, did so, alongside private companies. The largest private company was the Bell Telephone Company, which held a monopoly over service in Calgary. Such monopolies and the private firms' refusal to extend their services into sparsely-populated and unprofitable rural areas aroused demand for provincial entry into the market, which was effected in 1907. The government constructed a number of lines, beginning with one between Calgary and Banff, and it also purchased Bell's lines for $675,000.
  Alberta's public telephone system was financed by debt, which was unusual for a government like Rutherford's, which.was generally committed to the principle of "pay as you go". Rutherford's stated rationale was that the cost of such a large capital project should not.be borne by a single generation and that incurring debt to finance a corresponding asset was, in contrast to operating deficits, acceptable. Though the move was popular at the time, it would prove not to be financially astute. By focusing on areas neglected by existing companies, the government was entering into the most expensive and least profitable fields of telecommunication. Such.problems would not come to fruition until Rutherford had left office, however. In the short term, the government's involvement in the telephone business helped it to a sweeping victory in the 1909 election. The Liberals won 37 of 41 seats in the newly-expanded legislature.
  Of equal profile was Rutherford's government's management of the province's railways. Alberta's early years were optimistic and manifested itself in a pronounced enthusiasm for the construction of new railway lines. Every town wanted to be a railway centre, and the government had great confidence in the ability of the free market to provide low freight rates to the province's farmers if sufficient charters were issued to competing companies. The legislature passed government-sponsored legislation setting out a framework for new railways in 1907, but interest from private firms in actually building the lines was limited.
  In the face of public demand and support by legislators of all parties for as rapid as possible an expansion of the province's lines, the government offered loan guarantees to several companies in exchange for commitments to build lines. Rutherford justified this in part by his conviction that railways needed to expand along with population, rather than have railway expansion follow population growth, which would be the case without government intervention. The Conservatives argued that the strategy did not go far enough, and they called for direct government ownership.
  While most public works issues were handled by Public Works Minister Cushing, but after the 1909 election, Rutherford named himself as the province's first Minister of Railways.
caption: Rutherford's official portrait.
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