Alberta general election, 1935

Alberta general election, 1935
	← outgoing members members →
63 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta ; 32 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	81.8%
Premier before election; Richard G. Reid ; United Farmers	Premier-designate; William Aberhart ; Social Credit

Last updated March 07, 2019

The Alberta general election of 1935 was the eighth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on August 22, 1935, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The newly founded Social Credit Party of Alberta won a sweeping victory, unseating the 14-year government of the United Farmers of Alberta. It was one of only four times that Alberta has changed governments.

Alberta is a western province of Canada. With an estimated population of 4,067,175 as of 2016 census, it is Canada's fourth most populous province and the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces. Its area is about 660,000 square kilometres (250,000 sq mi). Alberta and its neighbour Saskatchewan were districts of the Northwest Territories until they were established as provinces on September 1, 1905. The premier has been Rachel Notley since May 2015.

Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.

The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is one of two components of the Legislature of Alberta, the other being Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, represented by the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta. The Alberta legislature meets in the Alberta Legislature Building in the provincial capital, Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly consists of 87 members, elected first past the post from single-member electoral districts.

Premier John E. Brownlee had resigned on July 10, 1934, when he was sued and found liable for the seduction of a young clerk working in the Attorney-General's office. Although the verdict was immediately set aside by the presiding judge, the scandal seriously damaged the UFA's reputation among socially conservative Albertans. Provincial Treasurer Richard G. Reid succeeded him, but was unable to recover the party's popularity. All of the UFA's 36 MLAs lost their seats in the worst defeat ever suffered by a sitting provincial government in Canada. Social Credit won 56 of the 63 seats in the legislature, and over 50% of the popular vote.

John Edward Brownlee fifth Premier of Alberta, Canada

John Edward Brownlee, was the fifth Premier of Alberta, Canada, serving from 1925 until 1934. Born in Port Ryerse, Ontario, he studied history and political science at the University of Toronto's Victoria College before moving west to Calgary to become a lawyer. His clients included the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA); through his connection with that lobby group, he was involved in founding the United Grain Growers (UGG).

The Alberta Liberals in this election ran with the tactically fatal slogan, the "rest of Canada can't be wrong"—referring to the popularity of the Liberal Party in the rest of the country. It did not work; they had their seat count cut in half. However, due to the UFA being swept from the legislature, the Liberals wound up as the Official Opposition. The Conservatives lost four of their six seats.

The Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition has been a position in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta since 1905.

The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta was a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta. The party formed the provincial government, without interruption, from 1971 until the party's defeat in the 2015 provincial election under Premiers Peter Lougheed, Don Getty, Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach, Alison Redford, Dave Hancock and Jim Prentice. At 44 years, this was the longest unbroken run in government at the provincial or federal level in Canadian history.

Not even the Socreds had expected to win the election. Indeed, they had not even had a leader during the campaign, even though the party's founder and guiding force had been William Aberhart, a Baptist pastor from Calgary. When the newly elected Socred MLAs held their first caucus meeting, the first order of business was to select a leader and premier-designate. Aberhart was the obvious choice, but had to be prodded to take the job. He was sworn in as premier on September 3.

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Calgary is a city in the Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated at the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow River in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, about 80 km (50 mi) east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The city anchors the south end of what Statistics Canada defines as the "Calgary–Edmonton Corridor".

The turnout of the 1935 election topped 80%, and no election in Alberta has come close to this mark.

This election campaign is seen as the most negative in Alberta's history, with reports of Social Credit members, operating openly and on Aberhart's directives, defacing the campaign signs of opponents and drowning their speeches by honking car horns. Many campaign ads also focused mostly on attacking the opposing parties.

After the 1935 election results were in, newspapers across North America took notice, with the Boston Herald running the headline "Alberta Goes Crazy!".^[1]

The Boston Herald is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulitzer Prizes in its history, including four for editorial writing and three for photography before it was converted to tabloid format in 1981. The Herald was named one of the "10 Newspapers That 'Do It Right'" in 2012 by Editor & Publisher.

This shift marked the first in Social Credit's nine back to back election victories. The UFA never recovered from this wipeout defeat, and withdrew from politics altogether in 1937.

Results

Overall voter turnout was 81.8%, the highest in Alberta history.^[2]

Alberta general election, 1935 ^[3]
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
Party		Party leader	# of candidates	1930	1935	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Social Credit	William Aberhart	63		56		163,700	54.25%
	Liberal	William Howson	61	11	5	-54.5%	69,845	23.14%	-1.45%
	Conservative	David Milwyn Duggan	39	6	2	-66.7%	19,358	6.41%	-8.44%
	United Farmers	Richard G. Reid	45	39	-	-100%	33,063	11.00%	-28.41%
	Communist	Jan Lakeman	9		-		5,771	1.91%
	Labour	Fred J. White	11	4	-	-100%	5,086	1.68%	-5.95%
	Independent		7	3	-	-100%	2,740	0.90%	-12.62%
	Independent Liberal		1		-		955	0.31%
	United Front		1		-		560	0.19%
	Independent Conservative		1		-		258	0.08%
	Independent Labour		1		-		224	0.07%
	Reconstruction	Elsie Wright	1		-		192	0.06%
Total			240	63	63	-	301,752	100%

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

	District	Member	Party
8th Alberta Legislative Assembly
	Acadia	Norman James	Social Credit
	Alexandra	Selmer Berg	Social Credit
	Athabasca	Clarence Tade	Social Credit
	Beaver River	Lucien Maynard	Social Credit
	Bow Valley	Wilson Cain	Social Credit
	Calgary	Edith Gostick	Social Credit
		Ernest Manning	Social Credit
		John Irwin	Conservative
		Fred Anderson	Social Credit
		John J. Bowlen	Liberal
		John Hugill	Social Credit
	Camrose	William Chant	Social Credit
	Cardston	Nathan Eldon Tanner	Social Credit
	Clover Bar	Floyd Baker	Social Credit
	Cochrane	William King	Social Credit
	Coronation	Glenville MacLachlan	Social Credit
	Cypress	August Flamme	Social Credit
	Didsbury	Edward P. Foster	Social Credit
	Drumheller	Herbert Ingrey	Social Credit
	Edmonton	William Howson	Liberal
		Samuel Barnes	Social Credit
		George Van Allen	Liberal
		David Milwyn Duggan	Conservative
		David Mullen	Social Credit
		Gerald O'Connor	Liberal
	Edson	Joseph Unwin	Social Credit
	Empress	David Lush	Social Credit
	Gleichen	Isaac McCune	Social Credit
	Grande Prairie	William Sharpe	Social Credit
	Grouard	Leonidas Giroux	Liberal
	Hand Hills	Wallace Warren Cross	Social Credit
	Innisfail	Alban MacLellan	Social Credit
	Lac Ste. Anne	Albert Bourcier	Social Credit
	Lacombe	Duncan MacMillan	Social Credit
	Leduc	Ronald Ansley	Social Credit
	Lethbridge	Hans Wight	Social Credit
	Little Bow	Peter Dawson	Social Credit
	Macleod	James Hartley	Social Credit
	Medicine Hat	John Lyle Robinson	Social Credit
	Nanton-Claresholm	Harry Haslam	Social Credit
	Okotoks-High River	William Morrison	Social Credit
	Olds	Herbert Ash	Social Credit
	Peace River	William Lampley	Social Credit
	Pembina	Harry Knowlton Brown	Social Credit
	Pincher Creek	Roy Taylor	Social Credit
	Ponoka	Edith Rogers	Social Credit
	Red Deer	Alfred Hooke	Social Credit
	Ribstone	Albert Blue	Social Credit
	Rocky Mountain	Ernest Duke	Social Credit
	Sedgewick	Albert Fee	Social Credit
	St. Albert	Charles Holder	Social Credit
	St. Paul	Joseph Beaudry	Social Credit
	Stettler	Charles Cockroft	Social Credit
	Stony Plain	William Hayes	Social Credit
	Sturgeon	James Popil	Social Credit
	Taber	James Hansen	Social Credit
	Vegreville	James McPherson	Social Credit
	Vermilion	William Fallow	Social Credit
	Victoria	Samuel Calvert	Social Credit
	Wainwright	William Masson	Social Credit
	Warner	Solon Low	Social Credit
	Wetaskiwin	John Wingblade	Social Credit
	Whitford	William Tomyn	Social Credit

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References

↑ Elliott, David R.; Miller, Iris (1987). Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart. Edmonton: Reidmore Books. ISBN 0-919091-44-X.
↑ Election Alberta (July 28, 2008). 2008 General Report (PDF). p. 158. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
↑ "Alberta provincial election results". Elections Alberta. Archived from the original on 25 June 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2009.

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See also: List of Alberta by-elections

Alberta general election, 1935

Contents

Results

Members elected

Related Research Articles

References

See also