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When the present Premier of
Alberta, the Hon. Herbert Greenfield, formed his ministry on the 13th of
August, 1921, the Hon. Alex Ross of Calgary was asked to accept the
portfolio of minister of public works. At that time Mr. Ross had had a
comparatively short career in the political arena of this province as
member of the legislature from his district, to which office he was
first elected in 1917. He came to the front in public life as a
representative of labor and as its spokesman and leader defended its
interests iii the legislative halls with a loyalty and ability that won
him the whole-hearted approval of his constituents and the admiration of
the leaders of the labor and farmer movement elsewhere in the province.
It was, therefore, with general approbation that the news of his
inclusion in the Greenfield ministry was received by the public.
Alex Ross is a Scotchman
by birth and spent his youth and early manhood in his native ]and. The
son of James and Jessie (Thompson) Ross, he was born at Premnay, on the
15th of January, 1880. He was educated at Oyne, Aberdeenshire, following
which he learned the trade of a stone mason. It was at the age of
twenty-six that he set sail for America in 1906, and chose Canada as his
future home. Here he continued to work along the lines of stone masonry
and in Calgary, which is his home city, he rose to a place of leadership
among the laboring men that resulted in his entering politics on the
labor ticket. He stood for election to the Alberta legislature as labor
candidate in the general elections of 1917 and was returned to that body
for the first time. Four years later he was reelected to the office by
acclamation on the 9th of December, 1921. As a member of the Greenfield
ministry he has supported the policies of his chief consistently and
loyally and has stood out as one of the men whose interests were
inseparably bound up in the labor cause. The duties of his office have
been discharged promptly and with ability, the department of public
works holding an excellent record for effective and constructive work in
its branch of the public administration. The principles and platforms of
Mr. Ross's Party are too well known in the province to need explanation.
It is sufficient to point out that Mr. Ross is one of those men whose
public and personal career has been such that he has served to inspire
the general public with confidence in the great industrial-political
movement he represents. |
