election. As Governor of Kansas, he established a state schoolbook commission and a state printing plant, and organized four state regiments for service in the Spanish–American War. Leedy was known as an outspoken critic of privately owned railroads and other corporations. During his governorship he instituted a system of small rural banks. He was defeated for renomination as governor. In 1901, Leedy moved to Alaska, where he discovered a gold mine and consequently became very wealthy, and practiced law despite having no formal legal training. He served as mayor of Valdez for two years. Canadian life Leedy moved to Alberta, Canada, in 1908. He took up a homestead near Whitecourt, named after his son-in-law. Leedy became a naturalized British subject, hence had political rights in Canada. He agitated for reform of Canada's banking system, seeking the institution of the system of small rural banks that he had helped establish in Kansas during his governorship. W.L. Morton in his book "The Progressive Party in Canada" noted that Leedy "stumped" the province (giving speeches to rural gatherings from the tops of tree stumps) in the cause of cheap loans and local banks. Leedy was active in the United Farmers of Alberta. In 1917, when the UFA stood aloof from direct politics, Leedy became active in the Non-Partisan League. He ran for a seat in the Alberta Legislature in the 1917 Alberta general election as a candidate for the League in the electoral district of Gleichen. He received more than 16 percent of the vote but came in last behind Conservative candidate Fred Davis and the defeated Liberal incumbent John McArthur. Leedy ran for a seat to the House of Commons of Canada as a Non-Partisan League candidate in the electoral district of Victoria in the 1917 federal election. He was again defeated in the three-way race, again finishing third behind anti-conscriptionist Laurier Liberal candidate William Henry White (the sitting MP who was re-elected) and the Conservative/Unionist candidate, former Alberta MLA James Holden. He was active in the United Farmers of Alberta after it decided to engage in direct politics in 1921 and was elected government. He and fellow farmer and bank reformer George Bevington pushed the UFA government to establish a government-owned bank but their efforts were stopped by the conservative UFA executive. He left the UFA. At the age of 77, he ran as an Independent on a bank-reform platform in