"[1] Hawkes soon owned one of the largest wheat farms on the Prairies, and during the hard times following the crop failures of 1893 and 1894 rendered great assistance to his suffering subjects.

The incumbent, Daniel Mowat, had decamped to British Columbia, and in the months leading up to the election the newspaperman William Trant was perceived to be the front-runner, and although many other men were discussed as potential candidates, by June "the only one who is admittedly an opponent is Mr. J.B. Hawkes of Balgonie.

An attempt was made during the campaign to use his pronounced Conservative loyalties against him, he responded by declaring that although he was opposed at present to the introduction of partisan politics in the Territorial Legislature, when they came everyone knew full well on which side he would be found.

When it became known that he had won the election "a tremendous demonstration took place in Regina.... a procession was formed, bonfires lighted and the successful candidate was carried around the town shoulder high.

""[4] It was widely speculated that he would be the Conservative candidate for the Dominion House of Commons to replace his friend and sometime business partner Nicholas Flood Davin but in the event he chose not to run.

Calder, Hawkes ran in 1908 for the Provincial Rights nomination in Regina County, the area that Premier Thomas Walter Scott represented.

The nomination campaign against Frederick Clarke Tate proved particularly acrimonious, and after Hawkes suffered a close defeat many of his supporters said that it was unacceptable that a man who had given so much for the Tory cause should be deprived of the candidacy.

In 1911 Hawkes sold most of his farmland and moved to Regina, serving as President and Manager of Regent Financial Corporation Ltd. a real estate company with a portfolio including C.P.R.

In 1922 he sold the Regina home that was adjacent to that of Sir Frederick Haultain, then Chief Justice of Saskatchewan, but formerly the Premier of the Northwest Territories when James Hawkes had served in the Legislature, in order to move to Peachland, British Columbia.

Mr. and Mrs. Hawkes brought with them their youngest daughter as well as James' mother in law, Ann Pilkington Shaw, who had already been residing with the family in Regina for a number of years.