1921 Alberta general election

1921 Alberta general election

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61 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 31 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	not available [lower-alpha 1]
Majority party Minority party   Leader Henry Wise Wood [lower-alpha 2] Charles Stewart Party United Farmers Liberal Leader since 1919 1917 Leader's seat Did not run Sedgewick Last election Pre-creation 34 seats, 48.1% Seats before 2 32 Seats won 38 15 Seat change 36 17 Popular vote 86,250 101,584 [lower-alpha 3] Percentage 28.9% 34.1% Swing 28.9 14.0%   Third party Fourth party   DLP Leader Holmes Jowett Albert Ewing Party Dominion Labor Conservative Leader since 1921 1921 Leader's seat Did not run Ran in Edmonton (lost) Last election 1 seat, 3.2% 19 seats, 41.8% Seats before 1 18 Seats won 4 1 Seat change 3 17 Popular vote 33,987 32,734 Percentage 11.4% 11.0% Swing 8.2% 30.8%
Premier before election Charles Stewart Liberal Premier after election Herbert Greenfield [lower-alpha 2] United Farmers

The 1921 Alberta general election was held on July 18, 1921, to elect members to the 5th Alberta Legislative Assembly. It was one of only five times that Alberta has changed governments.

The Liberal Party, which had governed the province since its creation in 1905, led by Charles Stewart at the time of the election, was defeated by a very-new United Farmers of Alberta political party. The UFA was an agricultural lobby organization that was contesting its first general election. It had previously elected one MLA in a by-election.

Under the Block Voting system, each voter in Edmonton and Calgary could vote for up to five candidates, while Medicine Hat voters could vote for up to two candidates. All other districts remained one voter – one vote.

No party ran a full slate of candidates province-wide. The UFA ran candidates in most of the rural constituencies, and one in Edmonton. The Liberal Party ran candidates in almost all the constituencies. The Conservatives ran a bare dozen candidates, mostly in the cities. Labour mostly avoided running against UFA candidates, by running candidates in the cities and in Rocky Mountain, where it counted on coal miners' votes.

The United Farmers took most of the rural seats, doing particularly well in the heavily Protestant south of the province. A majority of the votes in the constituencies where the UFA ran candidates went to the UFA.

Labour took four seats, two in Calgary. Alex Ross, Labour MLA, was named to the UFA government cabinet, in a sort of coalition government.

The Liberals took all the seats in Edmonton, due to the block-voting system in use. This multiple-vote system also skewed the vote count.

The campaign

Liberals

The Liberal Party, which had governed the province since 1905, were led into the election by its third Premier and leader, Charles Stewart.

AGT scandal

The Alberta Government Telephones scandal broke before the election. It was learned that the Liberals spent AGT money to have telephone poles crated and shipped in big stacks to remote communities in which they had no intention of installing phone lines in an effort to garner support and votes.

United Farmers

Herbert Greenfield's Premier portrait

The United Farmers of Alberta under the leadership of President Henry Wise Wood was contesting its first general election. The UFA's political wing, as a party, had come into being after the organization had decided to no longer be content with being a lobby group. They merged with the Non-Partisan League of Alberta, which had formed before the 1917 general election and had elected a couple members. The Non-Partisan League activists were significant within the political machinery of the United Farmers.

The merged party experienced a significant amount of growth in the run up to the general election. It won its first victory with the election of candidate Alexander Moore in the electoral district of Cochrane in 1919 and achieved a coup when Conservative leader George Hoadley crossed the floor. The two Non-Partisan League MLAs, despite not changing their affiliation, caucused with the United Farmers.

Wise Wood knew midway through the election campaign that his party was going to form government. In a famous speech he gave in Medicine Hat on July 8, 1921, he was quoted as saying "Farmers may not be ready to take over government, but they are going to do it anyway". He also said in that speech that he would have preferred that only his 20 best candidates were elected, to form the opposition, but he said he expected there would be a lot more than that elected. ^[1]

Split in the Labour forces

The campaign was contested by two provincial labour parties: a main party named the Dominion Labor and a splinter group in Edmonton named the Independent Labor Party.

Dominion Labor ran candidates in primarily urban ridings such as Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Its President Holmes Jowatt declining to seek office himself, instead devoting his energies help other candidates.

At the beginning of the election Independent Labor offered to nominate Edmonton area candidates at a joint convention with the DLP, to prevent the splitting of the labour vote and use the co-operative good-will to eventually unite the parties. The Dominion Labor declined the offer stating that to do so would divide its own ticket.

Among the ILP candidates was pioneer photographer Ernest Brown, soon after to lead meetings of the Communist Party. ^{[2] [3]}

Conservatives

The Conservative Party which has been the primary opposition in the province since it was created in 1905 had seen a split in the ranks under the leadership of George Hoadley. The caucus divided into two separate Conservative caucuses. Hoadley left the Conservative party sitting as an Independent and then won the United Farmers nomination in Okotoks and crossed the floor. The party replaced Hoadley by selecting Albert Ewing an Edmonton area Member of the Legislative Assembly as leader.

The Conservatives spent the campaign criticizing the wasteful and extravagant spending of the Liberal government. They also reminded Alberta voters of the Alberta Government Telephones, telephone pole scandal. The Conservatives campaign for reforms to the provincial tax code as well as pressing for provincial resource rights and voter list reforms in the election act. ^[4]

Despite the split in the party the Conservative campaign attracted some high-profile support. Former Liberal Premier Alexander Rutherford a big supporter of Ewing, led the campaign for the five Conservative candidates contesting for seats in Edmonton. ^[5]

The Conservative party was a long time recovering from the split in the party. Supporters of Hoadley and their rural base migrated to the United Farmers. The change of amalgamating the districts in Calgary and Edmonton to a block vote did not help Conservative candidates. In Edmonton the strong Liberal block dominated and all five seats were captured by Liberal candidates. The only Conservative to return was Lethbridge MLA John Stewart. Albert Ewing went down to defeat in Edmonton.

Socialist

The Socialist Party of Alberta had been in decline since O'Brien lost his seat in the 1913 general election. Two Socialist candidates ran in this election, under the banner Labour Socialist, Frank Williams in Calgary and Marie Mellard in Edmonton. Marie Mellard would join the new Communist Party within the year.

Calgary, Edmonton and Medicine Hat voters cast multiple votes

The Liberals, in fact, won a larger share of the votes cast than the UFA (about 34%, compared to 29% for the UFA).

The popular vote numbers exaggerate the actual number of Liberal party supporters however. Urban voters in Calgary and Edmonton were allowed to place five votes and Medicine Hat voters 2 votes, as Edmonton and Calgary contained 5 seats each and Medicine Hat 2 seats, while voters in the other constituencies, most of which were contested by the UFA, only had 1 vote each under the first past the post electoral system. The United Farmers did not run in Calgary and only had a single candidate in Edmonton, thus it did not benefit from the higher weighted city vote.

This over-representation of big-city voters was so significant that there were more than 120,000 more votes counted than there were voters voting—significant as no single party received more than 102,000 votes. The Liberal Party received 28,000 votes in Edmonton and 20,000 votes in Calgary, almost half of their total across the province, under this system where each big-city Liberal voter could lodge five votes for the party. If you give the Liberal Party only one-fifth of their vote tally in Edmonton and Calgary, the Liberal Party total vote count decreases to well below the UFA total. Now it could be that each voter in Edmonton gave one of his/her votes to the Liberals (but not likely), but even so the Liberal candidates in Edmonton received 8,000 more votes in Edmonton than there were voters who voted. This 8,000 is more than half the difference between the Liberal's and the UFA's tallies province-wide. ^[6]

As well, in Calgary 17,000 voters cast about 76,000 votes. As none of these went to UFA candidates (none ran in Calgary) this massive multiple voting going elsewhere gave the UFA a lower proportion overall.

It was also noted by defenders of the government that the UFA percentage of total seats (62 percent) is identical to the percentage of votes it received in the constituencies in which it did run candidates.

Aftermath

The result of the election radically and forever altered the political landscape of the province. The United Farmers won a majority government, mostly with rural MLAs predominantly from the south of the province, while the Liberals, formerly in power, were moved to the opposition side of the Chamber with MLAs in the cities of Calgary and Edmonton and some northern strongholds. The Liberals have never won power again; the closest they have come since then was winning 39 seats and opposition status in 1993.

As well from 1921 to 1971, the Alberta provincial government was not the same as either of the two largest parties in the House of Commons. From 1917 to 1979 the Alberta provincial government and the House of Commons were not controlled by parties of the same name. (This made for interesting meetings between premiers and the Prime Minister, later conducted under the name First Ministers' Conference.)

The 38 MLAs who attended the first United Farmers caucus meeting voted unanimously for UFA President Henry Wise Wood to lead the government as Premier. Wood declined becoming premier because he was more interested in operating the machinery of the United Farmers movement rather than crafting government policy. He had actually opposed the UFA becoming a political party for fear that political in-fighting would break up the movement. He said he feared that the UFA would repeat what had happened elsewhere when farmers movements engaged in electoral politics, rose to power and quickly destroyed themselves. He wanted to remain focused on the farmers movement as a non-partisan movement and as an economic group instead of as a political party. ^[7]

The UFA vice-president, Percival Baker, had won his riding with a majority of votes, but had been badly injured in a tree-falling accident during the campaign. He died the day after the election. It was speculated he would have had at least a place in the cabinet if he had lived. ^[8]

The United Farmers caucus finally chose Herbert Greenfield, a UFA executive member who had not run in the election, to become premier.

Results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
				1917	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	United Farmers	Henry Wise Wood	45	*	38	*	86,250	28.92%	*
	Liberal	Charles Stewart	61	34	15	-55.9%	101,584	34.07%	-8.99%
	Dominion Labor	Holmes Jowett	10	1	4	+300%	33,987	11.40%	+8.56%
	Independent		18	2	3	+50.0%	28,794	9.66%	+4.44%
	Conservative	Albert Ewing	13	19	1 [9]	-94.7%	32,734	10.98%	-26.4%
	Independent Labour		7	*	-	*	10,733	3.60%	*
	Socialist		2	-	-	0.0%	2,628	0.88%	+0.26%
	Independent Liberal		1	*	-	*	1,467	0.49%	*
Sub-total			157	56	61	+8.9%	298,177	100%
	Soldiers' vote (Province at large)		0	2	-	-	-	-	-20.33%
Total			157	58	61	+5.2%	298,177	100%
Sources: Elections Alberta; "Alberta provincial election results". Elections Alberta. Archived from the original on February 11, 2008. Retrieved January 13, 2008.

Popular vote Liberal   34.07% United Farmers   28.92% Dominion Labor   11.40% Conservative   10.98% Others   14.63%

Seats summary United Farmers   62.30% Liberal   24.59% Dominion Labor   6.56% Conservative   1.64% Others   4.92%

Members elected

Electoral district	Candidates										Incumbent
	Liberal		United Farmers		Conservative		Labour		Other
Acadia		James C. Cottrell 906 22.58%		Lorne Proudfoot 3,106 77.42%								John A. McColl
Alexandra		Theodore H. Currie 282 11.38%		Peter J. Enzenauer 2,195 88.62%								James R. Lowery
Athabasca		George Mills 1,043 70.43%				John Angelo 438 29.57%						Alexander Grant MacKay
Beaver River		Joseph M. Dechene 1,560 62.33%		H. Montambault 943 37.67%								Wilfrid Gariepy
Bow Valley		Charles Richmond Mitchell 1,694 72.30%		George A. Love 649 27.70%								Charles Richmond Mitchell
Camrose		George P. Smith 2,391 44.03%		Vernor W. Smith 3,040 55.97%								George P. Smith
Cardston		Martin Woolf 615 31.46%		George Lewis Stringam 1,340 68.54%								Martin Woolf
Claresholm				Louise McKinney 763 48.54%						Thomas Charles Milnes (Ind.) 809 51.46%		Louise McKinney
Clearwater		Joseph E. State 234 41.94%								Robert G. Campbell 117 20.97%		Joseph E. State
		O.T. Lee 147 26.34%								S.W. Chambers 60 10.75%
Cochrane		A.S. McDonald 541 36.02%		Alexander Moore 961 63.98%								Alexander Moore
Coronation		Arthur M. Day 960 20.44%		George Norman Johnston 3,736 79.56%								William Wallace Wilson
Didsbury		George H. Webber 1,734 40.69%		Austin Bingley Claypool 2,528 59.31%								Henry B. Atkins
Edson		Charles Wilson Cross 1,321 57.94%				John Diamond 959 42.06%						Charles Wilson Cross
Gleichen		Harry Scott 1,065 40.49%		John C. Buckley 1,565 59.51%								Fred Davis
Grouard		Jean Léon Côté 963 57.84%		Henry George Dimsdale 702 42.16%								Jean Léon Côté
Hand Hills		Robert Berry Eaton 1,583 27.13%		Gordon A. Forster 4,252 72.87%								Robert Berry Eaton
High River		J.V. Drumheller 867 46.09%		Samuel Brown 1,014 53.91%								George Douglas Stanley
Innisfail		Daniel J. Morkeberg 741 30.85%		Donald Cameron 1,661 69.15%								Daniel J. Morkeberg
Lac Ste. Anne		C.J. Stiles 837 32.98%		Charles Milton McKeen 1,574 62.02%						J.H. Mackay (Ind.) 127 5.00%		George R. Barker
Lacombe		William Franklin Puffer 1,539 42.14%		Mary Irene Parlby 2,113 57.86%								Andrew Gilmour
Leduc		Stanley G. Tobin 1,351 50.19%		D.S. Muir 1,341 49.81%								Stanley G. Tobin
Lethbridge								John Marsh 1,374 37.89%		John S. Stewart (Ind.) 2,252 62.11%
Little Bow		James McNaughton 856 35.52%		Oran Leo McPherson 1,554 64.48%								James McNaughton
Macleod		George Skelding 620 46.03%		William H. Shield 727 53.97%								George Skelding
Medicine Hat [lower-alpha 4]		Oliver Boyd 2,278 18.9% H. H. Foster 2,013 16.7%		Perren E. Baker 4,165 34.5%				William G. Johnston 3,602 29.9%				Nelson C. Spencer
Nanton		John M. Glendenning 458 38.65%		Daniel Harcourt Galbraith 727 61.35%								James Weir
Okotoks		Ernest Austin Daggett 390 25.67%		George Hoadley 1,129 74.33%								George Hoadley
Olds		Duncan Marshall 1,238 39.50%		Nelson S. Smith 1,896 60.50%								Duncan Marshall
Peace River				Donald MacBeth Kennedy 3,291 62.69%								William A. Rae
Pembina		J.H. Phillips 540 21.40%		George MacLachlan 1,838 72.85%						F.D. Armitage (Ind.) 145 5.75%		Gordon MacDonald
Pincher Creek		Harvey Bossenberry 471 34.43%		Earle G. Cook 572 41.81%						A.E. Cox 192 14.01% Donald Randolph McIvor 133 9.72%		John H.W.S. Kemmis
Ponoka		William A. Campbell 815 36.94%		P. Baker 1,391 63.06%								Charles Orin Cunningham
Red Deer		John J. Gaetz 1,146 34.66%		George Wilbert Smith 2,160 65.34%								Edward Michener
Redcliff		Charles S. Pingle 1,387 41.56%		William C. Smith 1,950 58.44%								Charles S. Pingle
Ribstone		James Gray Turgeon 909 29.31%		Charles O.F. Wright 2,192 70.69%								James Gray Turgeon
Rocky Mountain		Alexander M. Morrison 1,143 35.08%		Wallace James Sharpe 811 24.89%				Philip Martin Christophers 1,304 40.02%				Robert E. Campbell
Sedgewick		Charles Stewart Acclaimed										Charles Stewart
St. Albert		Lucien Boudreau 1,000 44.76%		Telesphore St. Arnaud 1,234 55.24%								Lucien Boudreau
St. Paul		Prosper-Edmond Lessard 984 41.66%		Laudas Joly 1,378 58.34%								Prosper-Edmond Lessard
Stettler		Edward H. Prudden 1,608 34.11%		Albert L. Sanders 3,106 65.89%								Edward H. Prudden
Stony Plain		Jacob Miller 647 32.33%		Willard M. Washburn 1,001 50.02%		Frederick W. Lundy 306 15.29%				Dan Brox (Ind.) 47 2.35%		Frederick W. Lundy
Sturgeon		John Robert Boyle 7,310 153.44%		Samuel Allen Carson 2,815 59.09%								John Robert Boyle
Taber		Archibald J. McLean 1,991 46.30%		Lawrence Peterson 2,309 53.70%								Archibald J. McLean
Vegreville		Joseph S. McCallum 1,325 30.31%		Archibald Malcolm Matheson 3,047 69.69%								Joseph S. McCallum
Vermilion		Arthur W. Ebbett 939 24.11%		Richard Gavin Reid 2,955 75.89%								Arthur W. Ebbett
Victoria		Francis A. Walker 1,288 47.90%		Wasyl Fedun 1,401 52.10%								Francis A. Walker
Wainwright		Harcus Strachan 913 28.10%		John Russell Love 1,877 57.77%		George LeRoy Hudson 459 14.13%						George LeRoy Hudson
Warner		Frank S. Leffingwell 490 39.36%		Maurice Joy Conner 755 60.64%								Frank S. Leffingwell
Wetaskiwin		Hugh John Montgomery 1,216 44.64%		Evert E. Sparks 1,508 55.36%								Hugh John Montgomery
Whitford		Andrew S. Shandro Acclaimed										Andrew S. Shandro

10 by-elections were held in the months after the election. Some were held to sit several UFA MLAs and one Labour MLA in the new cabinet. Herbert Greenfield after being chosen to serve as premier ran for a seat in a by-election. John Brownlee after being chosen to serve as a cabinet minister ran for a seat in a by-election. Another was held after a Liberal MLA (Andrew Shandro) was thrown down for taking a seat under suspicious circumstances. All were successful for the UFA (and one Labour).

Calgary

5th Alberta Legislative Assembly
	District	Member	Party
	Calgary	Alex Ross	Dominion Labor
		Robert Edwards	Independent
		Fred White	Dominion Labor
		Robert Marshall	Liberal
		Robert Pearson	Independent

Edmonton

5th Alberta Legislative Assembly
	District	Member	Party
	Edmonton	Andrew McLennan	Liberal
		John C. Bowen	Liberal
		Nellie McClung	Liberal
		John Boyle	Liberal
		Jeremiah Heffernan	Liberal

Notes

1. turn-out figure not available because the official Report on Alberta Elections does not give turn-out figure and does not give number of eligible voters in Edmonton and Calgary. Also block voting in those cities confuses strict accounting; as does election of one MLA by acclamation, but in 1926 when about the same number of voters turned out in the cities, the turn-outs there were about 50-60 percent.
2. Henry Wise Wood was president of the UFA but did not contest a seat himself. Following the election, he declined to become premier, and the UFA caucus selected Herbert Greenfield instead.
3. Vote count skewed by multiple voting in Calgary, Edmonton, and Medicine Hat.
4. Medicine Hat elected two members to the Legislative Assembly

References

1. "President Wood of U.F.A. Wants But 20 Farmers In The Next House". Vol 17, No. 301. Edmonton Journal. July 8, 1921. p. 1.
2. "Futile Effort To Unite Branches Of Labor Party". Vol. 17, no. 301. Edmonton Journal. July 8, 1921. p. 1.
3. Monto, Tom. Protest and Progress, Three Labour Radicals in Early Edmonton. Edmonton: Crang Publishing, Alhambra Books. p. 86.
4. "Conservatives Stand For Alberta Controlling Her Own Natural Resource". Edmonton Journal. July 13, 1921. p. 3.
5. "Old Party Lines Completely Shattered". Edmonton Journal. July 12, 1921. p. 4.
6. A Report on Alberta Elections, 1905-1982
7. Leslie Young McKinney (September 3, 1921). "Henry Wise Wood The Man Who Would Not Be Premier". The Lethbridge Daily Herald. p. 3.
8. "Member-elect Ponoka riding died as result farm accident". Edmonton Journal. July 20, 1921. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
9. "U.F.A. Now Has 39 Members In Legislature So Recount Shows". Edmonton Journal. July 19, 1921. p. 1.

Further reading

• Hopkins, J. Castell (1922). The Canadian Annual Review of Public Affairs, 1921. Toronto: The Annual Review Company.

External links

• Elections Alberta