James McCrie Douglas (5 February 1867 – 16 March 1950) was a politician in Alberta, Canada, a mayor of Edmonton, and a member of Parliament serving in the House of Commons of Canada from 1909 to 1921. Early life Douglas was born 5 February 1867 in Middleville, Lanark County, Ontario, the son of Rev James Douglas, a Scottish Presbyterian minister and Margaret, née Blyth. He was educated in Winnipeg, and came to Strathcona, Alberta in 1894, where he opened a mercantile business with his brother R. B. Douglas. Their business at 10402 Whyte Avenue was a local landmark for years until a fire destroyed it in 1913. On 1 November 1894 he married Mary Cameron Bickerton. Political career James Douglas served in municipal and federal governments in a political career lasting 40 years. Douglas was elected as an alderman to the Strathcona city council. He entered federal politics in 1909 in a by-election that followed the death of Wilbert McIntyre, the recently elected Liberal Member of Parliament for Strathcona. Douglas, running as a Liberal, was the only candidate in the by-election, and was acclaimed to the House of Commons of Canada. He was re-elected as a Liberal in the 1911 election. In 1917, Prime Minister Robert Laird Borden introduced conscription as a means of strengthening Canada's war effort in the First World War. He appealed to all MPs who supported this move to come together under the banner of the "Unionist Party". Douglas was one of many MPs to leave Wilfrid Laurier's Liberal caucus and join this new grand-alliance "Union" government. He was re-elected as a government candidate in the 1917 election. Conscription became unpopular among many in the West when it was extended to hard-pressed farm families in 1918. Once the war ended, he was one of a handful of former Liberals to join Arthur Meighen's new "National Liberal and Conservative Party" (commonly known as the Conservative Party). He was defeated running under this banner in the 1921 election by Progressive/United Farmers candidate Daniel Webster Warner. Douglas returned to municipal politics, running for Edmonton City Council (Strathcona and Edmonton had merged in 1912) as an alderman in the 1923 election. The election elected six city councillors at-large through single transferable voting and Douglas received the fourth most votes initially. He never did achieve quota but was elected in the end through the guaranteed representation for southside candidates. Douglas was