Edgar Dewdney

The Honourable Edgar Dewdney PC
Edgar Dewdney, 1883
5th Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia
In office November 1, 1892 – November 18, 1897
Monarch	Victoria
Governors General	The Lord Stanley of Preston The Earl of Aberdeen
Premier	Theodore Davie John Herbert Turner
Preceded by	Hugh Nelson
Succeeded by	Thomas Robert McInnes
4th Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories
In office December 3, 1881 – July 1, 1888
Monarch	Victoria
Governors General	Marquess of Lorne The Marquess of Lansdowne The Lord Stanley of Preston
Preceded by	David Laird
Succeeded by	Joseph Royal
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Yale
In office October 12, 1872 – June 6, 1879
Preceded by	none
Succeeded by	Francis Jones Barnard
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Assiniboia East
In office September 12, 1888 – October 26, 1892
Preceded by	William Dell Perley
Succeeded by	William Walter McDonald
Personal details
Born	(1835-11-05)November 5, 1835 Bideford, England
Died	August 8, 1916(1916-08-08) (aged 80) Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Jane Shaw Moir ​ (m. 1864)​
Occupation	engineer, railway surveyor
Profession	Politician

Edgar Dewdney, PC (November 5, 1835 – August 8, 1916) was a Canadian surveyor, road builder, Indian commissioner and politician born in Devonshire, England. He emigrated to British Columbia in 1859 in order to act as surveyor for the Dewdney Trail that runs through the province. In 1870, Dewdney decided to take up a role in Canadian government. In this year, he was elected to the Legislative Council of British Columbia as a representative from the Kootenay region. In 1872, he was elected as a Member of the Parliament of Canada for the Yale region representing the Conservative party. He was reelected to this position in 1874 and again in 1878. Dewdney served as Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Territories from 1879 to 1888, and the fifth Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia from 1892 to 1897. Additionally, he served as the Indian commissioner in the North-West Territories from 1879 until 1888. In 1897, Dewdney retired from politics and began working as a financial agent until his death in 1916.^[1]

Throughout his political career, Dewdney played a role in the settlement of western Canada and defining the relationship between the government of Canada and the Indigenous peoples of the North-West in the nineteenth century. Dewdney experienced several political and humanitarian issues throughout his political appointments. As Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories, Dewdney had to manage with a starvation crisis faced by the Indigenous peoples after years of deliberate extermination of buffalo herds, promoted by the Government of Canada to force the Indigenous inhabitants off the land prior to its settlement. Additionally, as Indian Commissioner, Dewdney subsequently tackled issues pertaining to the North-West Rebellion of 1885.