Alexander Cameron Rutherford

Alexander Cameron Rutherford was an Ontario-born lawyer who moved west to Strathcona (now Edmonton) in 1899. When the province of Alberta was created on September 1, 1905, Lieutenant Governor George Bulyea appointed Rutherford as the inaugural Premier of Alberta, leading the Liberal Party to an overwhelming majority in the province's first election.

Rutherford built Alberta's fundamental institutions from the ground up: creating the supreme court system, organizing public school districts, purchasing private telephone companies to establish Alberta Government Telephones (AGT), and enacting legislation in 1906 to establish the University of Alberta, personally serving as its Chancellor from 1927 until his death.