EZRA RILEY

'Ezra Hounsfield Riley' (born: June 5, 1866 Yorkville, Ontario - died:) was a politician and rancher from Alberta, Canada.

Contents

Early life

1906 by-election

Resignation and defeat

Honors

References

External links

Early life

Riley owned a large sum of land that he sold off to the City of Calgary in 1904. The land was developed into the historical Hillhurst-Sunnyside community northwest of Downtown.^[1]

1906 by-election

Riley ran for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in a by-election for the Alberta Liberal Party on December 7, 1906. He would be re-elected to a second term in the 1909 Alberta general election.

Resignation and defeat

After serving a year into his second term he resigned his seat to protest the leadership of Arthur Sifton who became leader of the Liberal party in the wake of the Great Waters Railway Scandal. Riley would run in the subsequent by-election on October 3 ,1910 The Conservatives did not run a candidate in that by-election instead choosing to support Riley.^[2]
Explaining his resignation in a memorable stump speech on September 30, 1910 Riley was quoted as saying
On election day Riley was defeated by 100 votes in a hotly and bitterly contested by-election rife with accusations of tampered voters lists.^[3][4]
His brother Harold Riley would end up winning the district for the Conservatives in another by-election almost exactly a year later.

Honors

Riley Park in Calgary, Alberta, the site of which was on his former ranch is named in his honor. ^[5]

References

1. Hillhurst-Sunnyside remembers Margaret Tanko
2. Liberals Stand Back of Riley
3. Futile Efforts Of Machine Organ To Distort Facts
4. Past By-elections
5. Riley Park

External links

★ Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing

★ Ezra Riley Pioneer Profiles