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Alberta, Past and Present, Historical and Biographical
Vol 2
Hon. William Asbury Buchanan


Hon. William Asbury Buchanan, journalist and statesman, now editor and publisher of the Herald at Lethbridge, is a son of the Rev. William and Mary (Pendrie) Buchanan, and was born at Fraserville, Ontario, July 2, 1876. His education was acquired in the schools of Trenton, Brighton and Norwood. He was a youth of seventeen years when he entered upon the work that eventually led him into the field of journalism, for in 1893 he secured a position on the Peterboro Examiner, with which he was identified for three years. He was on the editorial staff of the Peterboro Review from 1893 until 1898 and then became city editor of the Toronto Telegram, occupying that position until 1903. In the latter year he became managing director of the journal published at St. Thomas, there remaining until 1905, when he came to Alberta and established the Lethbridge Herald. He continued the publication of the paper as a weekly only until 1907, when he established a daily and has since been editor and owner of the paper, which is regarded as one of the strong and influential factors in molding public opinion in Alberta.

It was also Mr. Buchanan who organized the first Alberta legislative library, opened in Edmonton in 1907 and it was after completing this important work that he returned to Lethbridge and established the daily edition of his paper. Throughout the period of his residence in this section of the Dominion he has been prominent in public affairs. He was quartermaster of the Twenty-fifth Regiment at St. Thomas, Ontario, for two years and thus wrote the military chapter into his life history. He has likewise been a councilor of the local Board of Trade and has been president of the Lethbridge Liberal Association. In 1909 he was elected for Lethbridge to the Alberta legislative assembly and was appointed a member of the provincial cabinet without portfolio. In December, 1909, he resigned from the ministry, owing to differences with the government on the railway policy. In August, 1911, he was elected to the house of commons for Medicine Hat and was re-elected at the general election in 1917. In 1912 he was made a member of the special committee on old age pensions and was a member of the special redistribution committee in 1913.

In 1904 Mr. Buchanan was married to Miss Alma Maude Freeman, a daughter of E. B. Freeman, J. P., of Burlington, Ontario. They have two sons: Donald, who is in school; and Hugh. Mrs. Buchanan was educated in the Hamilton Ladies' College of Ontario. She is a member of the Imperial Daughters of the Empire and of the Ladies Golf Club and is also identified with different church societies, both Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan having membership in the Methodist church at Lethbridge. Air. Buchanan belongs to the Alberta and Eastern British Columbia Press Association, of which he was on two occasions president, and he also occupied the presidency of the Canadian Club, while formerly he was chairman of the Alberta Amateur Association, and secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association. He belongs to the Chinook and the Lethbridge Country Clubs, the Ontario Club of Toronto and the Laurentian, Club of Ottawa, and finds his recreation largely in golf, turning to this when leisure permits.

In 1921 Mr. Buchanan retired from parliament and is now concentrating his efforts and attention upon journalistic affairs and is interested in oil development work. Alert and enterprising, he keeps in touch with the vital questions and problems of the day and has done much to mold public thought and action.


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