James Douglas: Father of British Columbia

By Julie H. Ferguson; Dundurn; 240 pages; $19.99

If you've often wondered why the name Douglas is on a street and a mountain, relief is at hand.

This book will make you aware of Sir James Douglas, the man who chose the location of Victoria, ran the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, and was the most powerful person in the land as a bunch of gold-hungry miners stormed into the Interior.

James Douglas: Father of British Columbia is part of a comprehensive series of biographies that has already covered many people with Vancouver Island connections, including Emily Carr, Tommy Douglas, Robert Dunsmuir, Nellie McClung and Phyllis Munday.

Douglas was more important to this province than any of the others, so it's fitting that the series include a book about him.

And this book, by Port Moody writer Julie H. Ferguson, will serve as a fine introduction to the story of Douglas, an illegitimate boy from the West Indies who did well for himself, running the western part of British North America on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company and later Queen Victoria.

James Douglas: Father of British Columbia won't be for everyone. It's a starting point, history written for casual readers and not for purists. The author has included dialogue, for example, that we can only hope was close to what was actually said. There is no record of the conversations, so what has been written is a guess, based on archival material and imagination.

Ferguson brings together highlights of the research compiled by other writers and historians over the years. Notable among the sources cited -- and cited often -- is Old Square-Toes and His Lady, by John Adams, which was published in 2001 and remains the best book on the life of Douglas.

Another book of note is James Douglas: Servant of Two Empires, by Derek Pethick and published in 1969. Admittedly, that one is harder to find than the Adams one, but it's a safe bet that some of the people who read James Douglas: Father of British Columbia will want to learn more after having their curiosity aroused by Ferguson's lighter treatment.

Editorial page editor Dave Obee is author of Making

The News: A Times Colonist Look at 150 Years of History.