Donald Chisholm
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Donald Chisholm |
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| Member of the Canadian Parliament for New Westminster |
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In office 1887–1890 |
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| Preceded by | Joshua Homer |
| Succeeded by | Gordon Edward Corbould |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1822 Antigonish, Nova Scotia |
| Died | April 5, 1890 |
| Political party | Conservative |
Donald Chisholm (1822 – April 5, 1890), also known as "Doc" Chisholm, was a Canadian Member of Parliament from British Columbia, representing the riding of New Westminster.
Chisholm was born in valley of the Lower South River near Antigonish, Nova Scotia, of parents who had migrated there from Inverness-shire, Scotland. He was educated there and became a teacher, but in 1849 he started out for the California Gold Rush with 23 other prospectors. In California, he took part in the evolution of that state's mining laws, but had little success in the goldfields but also practiced medicine, and is credited with rescuing the lives of many miners (his medical skills were later of use during a cholera epidemic in British Columbia). Staying in California only a few years, he returned to Canada and became involved in the wheat trade in Ontario. Speculating on wheat prices during the Crimean War, Chisholm was left holding thousands of bushels at the time of the declaration of a peace, incurring the loss of a small fortune had the peace come only a few more weeks later.
In the wake of this experience, he migrated to British Columbia in 1858 and became involved in many different businesses, settling in Hope, British Columbia. Possessed of "herculean strength" and standing 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) tall, and reputedly the strongest man in the Colony, he was appointed a constable during the McGowan's War and in 1860 he was elected by the people of Hope to a convention in New Westminster, the purpose of which was to frame and present an appeal to the Imperial Government to introduce proper government for the Mainland Colony, which was then still ruled near-entirely by Governor James Douglas (a Legislative Assembly for the Colony would not be created until 1864, after Douglas' retirement).
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