James Ford Garden (February 19, 1847 - December 9, 1914)[1] was a Canadian engineer and the seventh Mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia, serving from 1898 to 1900. Under his tenure the city developed a street car system, sidewalks, road grades and water connections.
Born in Woodstock, New Brunswick, the son of H. M. G. and E. Jane (Gale) Garden, Garden was elected a member of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers in 1894. He was a lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps in the North-West Rebellion in 1885 and was wounded in the Battle of Batoche. From 1898 to 1900, he was mayor of Vancouver.[2] He ran unsuccessfully as the Conservative candidate for the House of Commons of Canada for the electoral district of Burrard in the 1900 federal election.[3]
After an unsuccessful attempt in the 1898 provincial election, he was elected to the British Columbia Legislative Assembly as a British Columbia Conservative Party MLA for Vancouver City in 1900 and re-elected in a 1901 byelection and in the general elections of 1903 and 1907. He did not stand for a fifth term in the 1909 provincial election.
He died of a stroke at his home at 679 Granville Street, Vancouver.[4]