The hidden eccentric

Fading memories of Amor de Cosmos, B.C’s father of confederation
An essay by Matthew Downey

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Visitors to Victoria, if they care to look, are inundated by commemorative and interpretive historical markers. Along the harbour, the tourist hubs, and on the Parliament buildings there are obelisks, statues, Lekwungen sculptures, totem poles, and other similar visual representations. There are also numerous plaques dotted around – marking notable historical locations, such as the outline of the old fort, but also noting historical figures.

Statues often garner criticism. Their obtuse and commanding presences might create targets. Victoria’s city centre has seen two statues taken down in the relatively recent past – each with differing levels of crowd participation. Plaques can be deemed controversial as well; a 2022 review by the Canadian government found 208 plaques nationwide, commemorating individuals, locations, and events, that were deemed problematic. Parks Canada is currently planning a rewrite of over 200 plaques.

There is one figure who, though steeped in controversy for much of his life and death, enjoys a commemorative plaque that very well might slip through the cracks. Not because of his historical status, but because his inconspicuous monument has been all but painted over on the brick wall it is perched on. If one takes a left turn off Government St. down the sloping Bastion Square, past plaques commemorating Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie and the old Court House, over the spot where once public hangings took place, one is met with a lovely vista of a café patio, a nightclub above a pub, and a crosswalk leading to a wharf parking lot. If one then turns right into the café patio, the soft gleam of bronze framing a burgundy rectangle with some vague textual inscription celebrating the second British Columbian Premier, the man many hold responsible for the campaign to bring the Pacific West Coast colony into Canadian Confederation. Sweeping away the hanging flowers that obscure Amor de Cosmos’ public commemoration, one feels like the dullest parody of Indiana Jones imaginable.

Is Amor de Cosmos deserving of eroding public awareness? Just how significant was he in the grand story of our province? Certainly, the vaguely classical name he endowed himself with ensures his place as one of the more enduringly memorable parts of most BC students’ social studies education – although it’s usually only the name they remember. He did play an undeniable role in the establishment of British Columbian institutions as they are today. As founder and publisher of the British Colonist (now Times Colonist) newspaper, he started one of the provincial capital’s endearing cultural presences. As member of the legislature, founder of the province’s Confederation League, and second Premier, he was a leader in lobbying for responsible government, the union of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, and the united colonies’ membership in the Dominion of Canada.

It is not as if Amor de Cosmos has disappeared completely from cultural relevance. Rossland playwright Richard Kemick gave him the ‘Hamilton’ treatment with a one-man musical in 2023. That being said, a hit play at the Fringe festival does not denote widespread public recognition, but rather de Cosmos’ appeal as a niche provincial character. Every now and again articles such as this one pop up in the publications of this province to remind its residents of the eccentric politician who arguably prevented American annexation.

In an age where historical figures are so often judged and sentenced from the court of contemporary internet cafés, Amor de Cosmos remains strangely fondly unremembered. Was this man, who drunkenly brawled up and down government street when he wasn’t politically supporting discriminatory policies against ethnic minorities, not sufficiently reprehensible to garner an historiographical hanging?

Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, who has been targeted in recent years as the posthumously designated ‘hanging judge’ for the state execution of five Chilcotin Chiefs, has seen schools dedicated to him renamed, statues torn down, and a legacy of relative fairness towards minority populations obscured. Amor de Cosmos has not seen anything similar to this level of public outcry, despite a much more outward prejudice towards minorities and an overall more unsavoury character. Perhaps the main factor at hand is the lack of public monuments dedicated to de Cosmos. His public image has been marred by issues since he moved to Victoria from the California goldfields, so it is no wonder that there is an endearing lack of resolve to either greatly commend or contest his legacy. The B.C ‘Father of Confederation’ is noticeably absent from representation on any plinth dotting the provincial legislature, which otherwise celebrates figures from Captain Cook to Maquinna. Begbie, on the other hand, has been admired rather consistently for the past century until his historical contestation. It was admiration that created a vulnerability for criticism. Amor de Cosmos, notably lacking a knighthood in life or any public statues in death, has slipped through the cracks of public condemnation. His notoriety is a distant one, devoid of real criticism. Perhaps the biggest irony is that the gradual obscuring of his legacy has served to mostly improve de Cosmos’ reputation more than harm it, hiding his problematic personality and leaving only his political contributions.

This is not to say that Amor de Cosmos should be dragged through the mud – doubtless he was subject to that enough during his life, both metaphorically and physically. In his private and political life, he did much to shape the political and social character of British Columbia as a Province of Canada. If this article is to serve any purpose, it might be to highlight the inconstant drivers of historical conversations that we choose to have or ignore. Amor de Cosmos was undeniably one of the pivotal figures in western Canadian history. However, his eccentricity played the dual role in both making him unattractive to public monumentation and ensuring his memorability. He is therefore damned to perpetual obscure namedropping. His only significant monuments, besides a mountain, a creek, and a moderate-sized lake on northern Vancouver Island, are his grave and a plaque. The grave is covered by flowers; the plaque is hidden by them.

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Matthew Vernon Downey is an independent writer and researcher based out of Victoria, B.C.. He has degrees from UVic (BA hons) and the London School of Economics (MSc) [Editor’s note: Matthew Downey has also reviewed books by Jonathan Manthorpe, Robert Amos, Alan R. Warren, Gregor Craigie, Robert Crossland, and Donna (Yoshitake) Wuest with Joe W. Gardner for The British Columbia Review.]

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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