Kansas Governor John Leedy tried, tried and tried again to get elected in Alberta
He was a "fighting man” and “the kind that fights at the drop of the hat and drops the hat himself.”
Alberta’s history is filled with colourful characters and perhaps one of the most unlikely was John Leedy. But before Leedy even arrived in Alberta in 1910 and set his eyes on elected office in this province, he had already served as the Governor and a State Senator in Kansas and a mayor and city attorney in Alaska.
Born in Ohio in 1849, Leedy was elected to the Kansas State Senate in 1893 and served there until he was elected Governor of Kansas in 1896 by leading the Populist Party ticket to a sweep in that year’s election.
Asked what in his opinion caused the defeat of the Republicans in that year’s election, Leedy told the Kansas City Gazette in November 1896 that “I attribute the defeat of the Republican party in Kansas more to the fact that the state of Kansas is for free silver, than to any other cause.”
His time as governor was notable for numerous reforms to laws allowing for the creation of small rural banks in Kansas, the formation of a state schoolbook commission, and his outspoken criticism of privately owned railroads, but at the end of his two-year term Leedy lost his party’s nomination and the Republicans regained control of the Governorship in Kansas.
Leedy moved to Alaska in 1901 following his first big electoral defeat in what some Kansan newspapers described as an “Alaskan exile.” He practiced law in Alaska, despite never having actually studied law and he didn’t stay out of politics for long.
He lost by one vote in his first bid for election as city attorney of the City of Valdez, according to a report by the Osbourne County Farmer. He was later elected as city attorney and served as mayor of Valdez.
Leedy quit his job as city attorney in 1910 and applied to become a British subject in order to move to Canada to start a farm near what is now Whitecourt, Alberta, located 177 km northwest of Edmonton. One of his daughters, Alice, married Walter White, the founder of the Town of Whitecourt.
Even in a different country, farming couldn’t quench Leedy’s thirst for politics. He joined the United Farmers of Alberta and became very active in the farming advocacy group, serving on the UFA executive and working closely with UFA president Henry Wise Wood.
Wise Wood would later lead the UFA in it’s surprise sweeping win in the 1921 provincial election but did not run as a candidate and chose not to serve as Premier, instead deciding to focus on the organization’s business and farmer advocacy efforts.
Conservative Canadians will heed the Kansas language as she is spoke
The Kansas City Journal described Leedy as a “fighting man” and “the kind that fights at the drop of the hat and drops the hat himself.”
So, true to character, he jumped back into electoral politics.
“Edmonton is so far north it would appear that even a Kansan’s desire to be a member of the legislature might be frosted,” wrote the Kansas City Star in April 1916.
“If he gets into the Alberta legislature the Conservative Canadians will heed the Kansas language as she is spoke. For Leedy’s desire to go to the legislature shows that he is still a Kansan.” - Kansas City Star
Leedy ran in the June 1917 provincial election under the Non-Partisan League banner alongside fellow candidates Louise McKinney and James Weir. He ran the southern Alberta district of Gleichen and placed third with 17 per cent of the vote behind Conservative Fred Davis and Liberal John McArthur.
Months later he ran in the December 1917 federal election in the rural Alberta riding of Victoria, placing third with 7.9 per cent of the vote. He appears to have relocated from Whitecourt to Edmonton after these two electoral defeats.
Split with UFA
Leedy split with Wise Wood and resigned from the UFA executive shortly after the farmers’ party won the 1921 election.
Following his split with the UFA, Leedy became an enthusiastic promoter of monetary reform, calling for the creation of a smaller localized banking system over a centralized system dominated by central Canadian banks. He also clashed with evangelical followers of Social Credit theory during the big monetary reform debates of the 1920s and 1930s.
An April 1922 report in the Financial Post described Leedy as “one of those who has achieved a reputation in this country as a bank baiter,” having once published a pamphlet describing bankers as “our overlords” who “have skinned the farmer instead of shearing him.”
After a short break from electoral politics, he announced plans to jump back into electoral politics in 1925 as an Independent Progressive in Edmonton East in the federal election but he did not make it on to the ballot.
His next and final run for elected office would happen in 1926, when he advocated for monetary reform as an Independent candidate for MLA in Edmonton’s multi-member district. He eared 0.75 per cent of the vote and placed last out of 18 candidates.
Continuing to promote monetary reform theories, at age 83 he took his first trip in an airplane when flying back to Kansas in 1932 to give monetary advice to local bankers.
In an Edmonton Journal article marking his 86th birthday, Leedy credited his longevity to “accepting his doctor’s advice to move to a colder climate.”
Leedy died in Edmonton on March 24, 1935. He is buried in the Edmonton Municipal Cemetery. Counted among Leedy’s pallbearers were UFA MLAs Frederick Jamieson, Charles McKeen, and John Buckley, and Liberal MLA Arthur Mitchell.
His wife, Sarah Boyd Leedy died in 1941 and is also buried in the municipal cemetery.
Upon notice of his death, the Kansas House of Representatives voted to provide $1,000 to meet the burial expenses for him and his wife and erect a burial monument.
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Thank you to everyone who has read, subscribed and shared the Daveberta newsletter. As Alberta celebrates its 120th year as a Canadian province, I am planning to highlight some of the characters that colour our rich history.
The article I shared today is an updated version of a story I first published on May 28, 2021. I aim to provide as much original writing as possible but I am also happy to share older pieces from time to time with the growing audience of subscribers of the Daveberta newsletter.
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Dave
Congratulations on an insightful piece on John Leedy. Despite the fact I did my MA thesis on the 1921 Alberta Election and my Ph.D. thesis on John Brownlee, I was unfamiliar with Leedy’s career. It would be interesting to know more about Leedy and Wise Wood’s relationship. Wise Wood was from Missouri so they had U.S. roots but the Kansas-Missouri War was part of their shared background. Look forward to more …