The wild story of BC's scandal-plagued second premier, Amor De Cosmos

He served for only one year and 48 days, but he may be one of the most interesting, and one of the most important, premiers British Columbia, and possibly Canada, have ever had.

The story of Amor De Cosmos begins when he was born William Alexander Smith in Nova Scotia to United Empire Loyalist parents on August 20, 1825. In 1852, Smith left Nova Scotia and moved to New York City, then to Kanesville in what is now Iowa to operate a gallery. After two months, he left that and went to take part in the California Gold Rush.

He found some success there, operating a business taking pictures of miners.

It was also in California that he began to call himself Amor De Cosmos, or Lover of the Universe. Why did he change his name? Some speculate that he had trouble getting his mail since there were several William Smiths in the mining camps.

Others believe it’s because he was involved in shady business dealings and wanted to change his name to avoid legal ramifications. Regardless of the reason, he moved to Fort Victoria in 1858 to work as a contractor, before founding the Victoria Times-Colonist. The first issue was published on December 11, 1858.

A believer in responsible government, Amor De Cosmos used his newspaper to push for free speech, free assembly, and proper representation of the people. The newspaper quickly became popular, publishing five days a week within a year.

At the time, what is now British Columbia was divided into the Colony of Vancouver Island and the Colony of British Columbia under the Hudson’s Bay Company. The person in charge of those colonies was Governor James Douglas. De Cosmos had no love lost for Douglas.

He criticized Douglas, stating that the legislative assembly was made up of friends, colleagues, and family members of Douglas. De Cosmos also criticized the power the Hudson’s Bay Company had over the colony.

The attacks from De Cosmos became so bad, including calling Douglas a traitor, that Douglas put a $2,500 bond on the newspaper to stop it from publishing. De Cosmos raised the money needed within two days from subscribers.

From publishing to politics

In 1864, De Cosmos sold the newspaper and took on a new career path, politics. By this point, he had the money for it, having grown his fortune to $118,000 through real estate investments.

He had run for the House of Assembly in 1860, but finished third and then stated in his paper that he lost because Black voters didn’t vote for him. This began a long campaign of racism against Black settlers for De Cosmos.

This time, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly and became a fiery member. At one point, he hit another MLA with his cane during an angry debate. As talk of Confederation in the east grew, De Cosmos formed the Confederation League in British Columbia to advocate for joining Canada. At the time, there was a real possibility of British Columbia joining the United States, especially after the Americans purchased Alaska from the Russians in 1867.

While De Cosmos wanted British Columbia to join Canada, he wanted it on terms favourable for the province.

“I would not object to a little revolution in British Columbia after Confederation if we were treated unfairly, for I am one of those who believe that political hatred is a test to the vitality of a state,” De Cosmos said. By the time British Columbia joined the Confederation on July 20, 1871, De Cosmos was the leading pro-Confederation figure in the entire province.

That same year, he was elected to both the provincial legislature and the House of Commons. At the time, serving in both was allowed. Many expected that he would be chosen as the first premier of British Columbia but his volatile nature caused him to be passed over in favour of John McCreight.

He did not have to wait long to take the top job in BC

When McCreight resigned in 1872, De Cosmos was chosen as premier, taking office on December 23, 1872. De Cosmos immediately got to work to implement a responsible government.

One of his first tasks was to ban the Lt. Governor from sitting in on cabinet meetings to advise ministers. He then reduced the number of public officials, implemented the secret ballot, and, in a progressive move, extended property rights to married women.

As premier, De Cosmos was with a group of businessmen who wanted to grow the steel industry of the province using iron deposits on Texada Island, with coal from Vancouver Island. With the promise of a transcontinental railway, the steel could then be sent east, bringing financial prosperity to the new province.

Scandals and controversy

Unfortunately for De Cosmos, involving himself in the venture was considered by many to be a conflict of interest and it created the Texada Scandal. A Royal Commission was set up, and while the commission found him not guilty of conflict of interest, the public was still up in arms.

At one point, on February 7, 1874, 800 people stormed the Legislative Building, leaving De Cosmos hiding in a backroom. Two days later, De Cosmos resigned as premier and as an MLA. He remained as an MP in the House of Commons.

The rumours of corruption would follow De Cosmos for the rest of his life. Still serving in Parliament, De Cosmos pushed the government to finish the railroad. When delays stalled the entire venture, he put forward a succession motion to have British Columbia separate from Canada. It failed to pass.

Around this time, he publicly criticized bringing Chinese workers into Canada, and land concessions to the Indigenous as he felt it hindered economic growth. Throughout his life, De Cosmos was not shy about his feelings regarding other races.

He called both the Indigenous and Chinese inferior races. He considered the Indigenous to be receiving preferential treatment from the government over the needs of the white settlers.

“All the Indian men today are a horde of thieves and cutthroats and the women a community of prostitutes,” he wrote.

When Mifflin Gibbs, a Black Canadian, was elected to Victoria City Council in 1867, De Cosmos attempted to petition the governor to investigate the election and make poll books public, believing that Gibbs had been elected through corrupt means. The governor refused to do so.

In his newspaper, he called Black Canadians “lowborn, secretly branded prejudiced race of aliens.”

In 1882, De Cosmos lost his bid for re-election to Parliament and he retired to Victoria. It was around this time that his well-known eccentric tendencies began to get worse. He never married, had few friends, and became prone to public outbursts of crying, along with a temper that led to many fights. His habit of drinking began to increase in his later years.

He also started to develop various phobias including a fear of electricity.

One person said of De Cosmos at this time,

“He remained in Victoria, wandering along city streets in his familiar garb, occasionally brawling with old opponents, sometimes incoherent in his public utterances.”

By 1895, he was declared to be of unsound mind. Today, it is believed that he had dementia.

One very odd thing he tried to do was found a hot food delivery company for prospectors in the Klondike Gold Rush. The logistics and lack of available technology for this scared away investors and it never got off the ground.

In late June 1897, he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed. On July 4, 1897, he died in Victoria.

There is no major funeral for De Cosmos, like others such as James Douglas received. Only a modest funeral and few stand at his grave bidding him farewell.

Mount De Cosmos on Vancouver Island is named for him, as is Amor De Cosmos Creek near Campbell River.