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Alexander Lucas

Canadian politician (1852–1942)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ4719439
Source-derived summary

Alexander Lucas (September 2, 1852 – June 8, 1942) was a Canadian businessman and politician. He was the seventh mayor of the town of Calgary, Alberta and spent six years as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in British Columbia.

Early life

Lucas was born in Canada West in 1852, and was the third child of George Lucas and Elizabeth Cowan. On January 10, 1878, he married Jane Frances "Jennie" Tanner. Together, they had two children, Fredrick and Edward. Both of their sons became prominent lawyers in BC; Fred was appointed to the Supreme Court Bench of BC in 1935.

Political life

In 1886, Lucas moved to Calgary. Here he became a partner in a land, insurance and auctioning company, and was the publisher of the Calgary Herald. Lucas was first elected to Calgary Town Council in 1891 as an Alderman, and was subsequently acclaimed Mayor of Calgary in the 1892 and elected to a second year in the 1893 Calgary municipal election. As Calgary's seventh mayor, he helped found the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Alexander Lucas” is canadian politician (1852–1942). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Alexander, Lucas and Canadian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1852, 1942, 1878, 1935—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1852-09-02. For this dossier, Alexander, Lucas and Canadian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “canadian politician (1852–1942)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4719439. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1852, 1942, 1878 and 1935.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Alexander Lucas”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Alexander Lucas primary sources, Alexander Lucas archive and Alexander research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Alexander Lucas”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Alexander Lucas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.