page_title: William Henry Cushing
section_title: Railway scandal
hierarchical_section_title: William Henry Cushing / Provincial politics / Railway scandal
caption_attribution_description: English: G. C. King at unveiling of memorial cairn, Morley, Alberta. Plaques honoured pioneers, McDougall family and Stoney people. Tom Wilson, second from left, rear. Doctor W. A. Lewis, left, in profile, wearing glasses. Andrew Sibbald, in front of flag, back to camera. G. C. King and Right Honourable W. H. Cushing, speaking.
context_page_description: William Henry Cushing was a Canadian politician. Born in Ontario, he migrated west as a young adult where he started a successful lumber company and later became Alberta's first Minister of Public Works and the 11th mayor of Calgary. As Minister of Public Works in the government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford, he oversaw the creation of Alberta Government Telephones.
  Cushing's resignation in 1910 precipitated the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal, which forced Rutherford's resignation. Though Cushing had hopes of being asked to replace Rutherford, that role fell instead to Arthur Sifton, the province's chief judge. Left out of Sifton's cabinet, Cushing did not seek re-election in the 1913 election, and did not re-enter politics thereafter. He was the chairman of Mount Royal College's board of governors for sixteen years. He died in 1934.
context_section_description: By the 1909 Alberta general election, Calgary's growth had earned it a second seat in the legislature.  Cushing finished first in a five-candidate field, and was elected to fill one of these seats; Bennett, finishing second, was elected to the other.
  Though Cushing, as Minister of Public Works, was initially responsible for railway policy, on November 1, 1909, Rutherford created a new ministry of Railways, which he appointed himself to head.  In February 1910, Cushing resigned as Minister of Public Works, expressing disagreement with Rutherford's policy of offering loan guarantees to private railway builders, including the Alberta and Great Waterways (A&GW) Railway.  He stated in his letter of resignation that this policy had been adopted without his knowledge or consent.  Rutherford accepted the resignation with regret, but publicly disagreed with Cushing's claim that he had been kept unaware of government railway policy.  On February 25, Cushing gave his account of the events leading to his resignation In the legislature: after responsibility for railways was removed from his department, Rutherford had offered the A&GW guarantees of $20,000 per mile of railway constructed.  In making this guarantee, Rutherford had not consulted government engineers in the department of Public Works about construction costs, relying instead on the A&GW's engineer.  Cushing felt that guaranteeing $20,000 per mile, regardless of actual construction costs, was unwise, and further believed that the government's reliance on the A&GW's engineer could let the company get away with building a sub-standard railway.
  There followed a dramatic series of legislative debates and votes, in which many Liberals, including Cushing, frequently voted against their own government, even on motions of non-confidence.  In March, Rutherford invited Cushing to rejoin the cabinet; according to Cushing, he was assured that if he did so his rival, Attorney General Charles Wilson Cross, would resign.  He declined Rutherford's offer, both because he considered that he was no longer able to work with the premier and because his allies among the anti-Rutherford Liberals urged him to fight on.  Rumours began to circulate that Rutherford would resign, to be replaced by Cushing.  Lieutenant Governor of Alberta George Bulyea was indeed convinced that Rutherford would have to resign in order to save the Liberals, but he and other powerful Liberals did not view Cushing as capable of leading the government.  Bulyea instead invited provincial Chief Justice Arthur Sifton to form a government, though Cushing was reputed to have been "sitting in his hotel room, his ear glued to the telephone, waiting for the summons from the Lieutenant-Governor to assume the robes of Rutherford".
  Sifton left Cushing, along with all other major figures of the A&GW dispute, out of his first cabinet; Ezra Riley, a staunch Cushing ally, resigned his seat in protest.  Cushing did not do the same, but did not seek re-election in the 1913 election.
caption: Cushing, far right, speaking at the unveiling of a memorial cairn at Morley, 1927
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