Robert Telford

Robert Taylor Telford (July 19, 1860 – November 26, 1933) was a Canadian pioneer, businessman, and politician who served in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1905 until 1913. Born in Quebec, he moved to western Canada for adventure, and served with the North-West Mounted Police during the North-West Rebellion of 1885.

He settled near Leduc, Alberta, where he built the largest house in the region. After marrying and starting a family, he became a prominent local businessman, operating a hotel, general store and lumberyard before being elected as a Liberal in the 1905 election. He served two terms before retiring, and later was elected and served one year as mayor of Leduc. He and his wife had adopted two sons: the eldest, Raymond Telford was killed in action in 1916 during World War I.

Early life Telford was born June 19, 1860, in Shawville, Canada East, to Irish Canadian parents, Robert and Anne (Pratt) Telford. He was educated at public schools in Quebec. In 1880 he went to the United States, but returned to Canada in 1885 in search of adventure after reading an article about the North-West Rebellion of 1885.

He went to Calgary and worked as a carpenter until July 1885, when he joined the North-West Mounted Police. That July he built a house, then the largest building between Calgary and Edmonton; he operated it as a "stopping house", or hotel, with rooms and board available for travelers, in addition to those for his future family. He was returned to office without opposition in the 1909 election, In the legislature, he supported the government of Premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford against a group of dissident Liberals in the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal. The Calgary Herald alleged that he had accepted a bribe of Can$500 to do so, prompting Telford to sue for libel. After Rutherford was replaced as premier by Arthur Sifton, Sifton's cabinet, though Liberal, followed an opposite course to Rutherford's on the development of railways, the issue that had brought down Rutherford's government. Telford supported Sifton's government, notwithstanding its policy differences with the old.

Telford was also involved in local politics: he served on the Leduc town council for several years and as mayor from 1915 to 1916.

Electoral record 1905 general election

1909 general election