Bob Edwards (1860-1922)
Bob Edwards was one of the colourful characters of early Alberta. His satirical newspaper the Calgary Eye-opener poked fun at the high and mighty during its 1902-1922 publication run. This of course included elected officials and the Alberta government. This engagement with politics pushed him in his last year of life to run for political office himself. Unfortunately his heavy drinking probably contributed to his early death just one year after election to the Alberta Legislature.
He began in journalism in the early 1880s.
In 1881 and 1882, Bob Edwards put out a tourist periodical, The Channel, aimed at visitors to the French Riviera. He returned to Scotland and worked for a time in Glasgow.
Edwards and his brother Jack emigrated to Canada in 1892.
Edwards settled in Wetaskiwin where he worked as a handyman until being persuaded by Clarence Stout to try writing.
He founded a newspaper, the Alberta Sun, at Leduc.
then in Wetaskiwin he published the Free Lance for four years.
He then moved to Strathcona (now part of Edmonton), where he published the Alberta Sun. His drinking was at such a scale that his newspaper was nicknamed "The Strathcolic." (Monto, Old Strathcona - Edmonton's Southside Roots)
Edwards moved to High River. On March 4, 1902 he began publishing a newspaper there. At first he called his paper The Chinook, but as the paper became known for its satirical content, he changed the name to the Eye Opener. Some copies of this newspaper can be found on the Peel's Prairie Provinces website.
In 1903 he moved to Calgary. He poked fun at local politicians, government officials, clergymen and other well-known Calgary residents. He made up characters that lampooned the pretensions of the better to do in Calgary
When the libel suits became too onerous, he moved to Thunder Bay, then to Winnipeg (1909-1911). He finally returned to Calgary in 1911 where he continued with the Eye-Opener. (DCB - Edwards, Robert Chambers)
In spite of, or perhaps because of, his drinking problem, he fully supported the introduction of Prohibition to Alberta in 1916. Yet, once the measure was implemented and he saw how drinking had moved from the bar room into the home, he became its outspoken critic. (DCB - Edwards, Robert Chambers)
Bob Edwards was a bachelor until he was in his late fifties. In 1917 he married Katherine Penman, a 20 year old just out from Scotland.
To his confrere's surprise, he also bought a car and ran for political office.
Edwards was elected in the 1921 Alberta general election as an Independent candidate. He was one of five MLAs elected by Block Voting in Calgary in that election. (Before the next election the district was switched to Proportional Representation.)
In the Legislative debate on continued Prohibition, he surprisingly took an pro-Prohibition stance, with his own newspaper saying that the great campaign of his life was to have bars and drinking saloons abolished. (Eye-Opener, Nov. 25, 1922)
In his one speech in the Legislature, he said those in favour of Temperance "should have prevailed on the federal government to have whiskey and kindred hard drinks classed as poison with licenses granted for the sale of beer and light wine only...."
"Why should a man, deliberately and with his eyes wide open, throw obstacles in the path of his own success" by adopting the drinking of alcohol?", he asked. (Eye-Opener, Nov. 25, 1922)
He did not serve long in the Legislature due to ill health that soon led to his death.
Edwards died November 14, 1922.
Fellow MLA Robert Pearson moderated his funeral service.
He was buried in Calgary's Union Cemetery.
The last issue of the Eye-Opener, November 25, 1922, described his funeral and memorial service.
Books on him:
Grant MacEwan wrote his biography entitled Eye-Opener Bob.
Hugh Dempsey published a collection of his writings.
His writings were published in five Summer Annuals, two published posthumously.
Thanks for reading.
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