Voting Station

James Gladstone

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Politician

The Resume

    (May 21, 1887-September 4, 1971)
    Born in Mountain Hill, Northwest Territories, Canada
    Cree adopted by Blackfoot Confederacy Blood Reserve
    AKA Akay-na-muka (Blackfoot for ‘many guns’)
    President of the Indian Association of Alberta (1949)
    First status Indian to be appointed to Senate of Canada (1958)
    Subject of biography ‘The Gentle Persuader’ by Hugh Dempsey

Why he might be annoying:

    He was actually born on the Kainai (‘blood’) reserve that belonged to the Blackfeet.
    Though he identified as an ‘Independent,’ he was regarded as a (Progressive) Conservative.
    Parliamentary rules of the time indicated that a senator, at appointment, was required to hold real property at a minimum value of $4000 in the riding in question — which at the time he didn’t.
    To fulfill his senatorial requirements, he sold some of his cattle and scored some property near Cardston, Alberta ($6700 at the time).
    He delivered his inaugural speech to the Speaker of the House in Blackfoot, which no one in the Senate understood.

Why he might not be annoying:

    At an Indian Industrial school in Calgary, he apprenticed as a printer.
    Returning to his reserve after his education, he worked as a mail carrier and cattle wrangler.
    He worked as a translator for both his reserve and the (Royal) North-west Mounted Police.
    He was wholeheartedly endorsed for the senate by John Diefenbaker.
    He named one of his horses Alberta.
    He would become one of four figures on the ‘Canada 150’ $10 bill.

Credit: Cool It All Right?


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 7 Votes: 14.29% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying