Alberta general election, 1940

Alberta general election, 1940
	← outgoing members members →
57 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta ; 29 seats were needed for a majority
Premier before election; William Aberhart ; Social Credit	Premier-designate; William Aberhart ; Social Credit

Last updated March 07, 2019

The Alberta general election of 1940 was the ninth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada, was held on March 21, 1940, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

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.

William Aberhart, also known as Bible Bill for his outspoken Baptist views, was a Canadian politician and the seventh Premier of Alberta. He was the founder and first leader of the Alberta Social Credit Party, which believed the Great Depression was caused by ordinary people not having enough to spend. Therefore, Aberhart argued that the government should give each Albertan $25 per month to spend to stimulate the economy, by providing needed purchasing power to allow needy customers to buy from waiting businesses.

Unity Movement

The Conservative and Liberal parties as well as the remains of the United Farmers, recognizing the widespread popularity of the Social Credit party, ran joint candidates as independents in what was called the "Independent Movement" or the "Unity Movement". Although independent candidates won almost as many votes as Social Credit, their support was not concentrated in enough areas to translate into seats. The Independent Movement lost a number of races by small margins. However, due to the first past the post system, which awards power solely on the basis of seats won, Social Credit was returned for a second term, albeit with a considerably reduced majority.

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.

The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1905, it was the dominant political party until the 1921 election, with the first three provincial Premiers being Liberals. Since 1921, it has formed the official opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta several times, most recently from 1993 until 2012. Fourteen Liberals have served as Leader of the Opposition of Alberta.

The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) is an association of Alberta farmers that has served different roles in its 100-year history – as a lobby group, a successful political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. As a political party, it formed the government of Alberta from 1921 to 1935.

The Liberal party under leader Edward Gray chose only to support Independent candidates that it played a hand in nominating and it nominated other candidates under its own banner. Gray felt that candidates should not be machined into the field and left it up to the individual Liberal constituency associations to decide if they would support a candidate or not.^[1]

Edward Leslie Gray was a politician and member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from Alberta, Canada.

Co-operative Commonwealth

The social democratic Cooperative Commonwealth Federation nominated candidates for the first time, but failed to win any seats in the legislature, despite winning over 10% of the popular vote under the leadership of former United Farmers of Alberta MLA Chester Ronning. Like Ronning, most of the CCF's candidates had run in the 1935 election for the UFA.

Alberta New Democratic Party centre-left political party in Alberta

The Alberta New Democratic Party, commonly shortened to Alberta NDP, is a social-democratic political party in Alberta, Canada, which succeeded the Alberta section of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the even earlier Alberta wing of the Canadian Labour Party and the United Farmers of Alberta. From the mid-1980s to 2004, the party abbreviated its name as the "New Democrats" (ND).

Chester Alvin Ronning, was a Canadian educator, politician, and diplomat.

Results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	1935	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Social Credit	William Aberhart	56	56	36	−35.7%	132,507	42.90%	−11.35%
	Independent	Andrew Davison	59	-	19		131,172	42.47%	+41.57%
	Labour		2	-	1		3,258	1.05%	-0.63%
	Liberal	Edward Gray	2	5	1	−80.0%	2,755	0.89%	−22.25%
	Cooperative Commonwealth	Chester Ronning	36		-		34,316	11.11%
	Independent Progressive		4		-		1,726	0.56%
	Independent Liberal		1	-	-		1,136	0.37%	0.06%
	Communist		1	-	-	-	1,067	0.35%	−1.56%
	Independent Social Credit		1		-		362	0.12%
	Independent Farmer		2		-		314	0.10%
	Independent Labour		1	-	-	-	251	0.08%	+0.01%
Total			165	63	57	-9.5%	308,864¹	100%
Source: Elections Alberta

Notes:

¹ First vote count used.

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

	District	Member	Party
9th Alberta Legislative Assembly
	Acadia-Coronation	Clarence Gerhart	Social Credit
	Alexandra	Selmer Berg	Social Credit
	Athabasca	Gordon Lee	Social Credit
	Banff-Cochrane	Frank Laut	Independent
	Beaver River	Lucien Maynard	Social Credit
	Bow Valley-Empress	Wilson Cain	Social Credit
	Bruce	James L. McPherson	Social Credit
	Calgary	James Mahaffy	Independent
		Fred Anderson	Social Credit
		Andrew Davison	Independent
		William Aberhart	Social Credit
		John J. Bowlen	Independent
	Camrose	David B. Mullen	Social Credit
	Cardston	Nathan Eldon Tanner	Social Credit
	Clover Bar	Floyd Baker	Social Credit
	Cypress	Fay Jackson	Independent
	Didsbury	Ernest M. Brown	Independent
	Drumheller	Gordon Taylor	Social Credit
	Edmonton	Ernest Manning	Social Credit
		John P. Page	Independent
		Norman James	Social Credit
		David Milwyn Duggan	Independent
		Hugh John Macdonald	Independent
	Edson	Angus James Morrison	Labour
	Gleichen	Donald McKinnon	Independent
	Grande Prairie	Lewis O'Brien	Independent
	Grouard	Joseph Tremblay	Liberal
	Hand Hills	Wallace Cross	Social Credit
	Lac Ste. Anne	Albert Bourcier	Social Credit
	Lacombe	Duncan MacMillan	Social Credit
	Leduc	Ronald Ansley	Social Credit
	Lethbridge	Peter M. Campbell	Independent
	Little Bow	Peter Dawson	Social Credit
	Macleod	James Hartley	Social Credit
	Medicine Hat	John Lyle Robinson	Social Credit
	Okotoks-High River	John Broomfield	Independent
	Olds	Norman E. Cook	Social Credit
	Peace River	Eld J. Martin	Independent
	Pembina	George MacLachlan	Independent
	Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	Ernest Duke	Social Credit
	Ponoka	Percy McKelvey	Independent
	Red Deer	Alfred Speakman	Independent
	Redwater	James Popil	Social Credit
	Rocky Mountain House	Alfred Hooke	Social Credit
	Sedgewick	Albert Fee	Social Credit
	Spirit River	Henry DeBolt	Social Credit
	St. Albert	Lionel Tellier	Independent
	St. Paul	Joseph Beaudry	Social Credit
	Stettler	Chester Reynolds	Social Credit
	Stony Plain	Cornelia Wood	Social Credit
	Taber	Roy S. Lee	Social Credit
	Vegreville	George Woytkiw	Social Credit
	Vermilion	William Fallow	Social Credit
	Wainwright	William Masson	Social Credit
	Warner	James H. Walker	Independent
	Wetaskiwin	John Wingblade	Social Credit
	Willingdon	William Tomyn	Social Credit

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References

↑ "Liberals Against Independents If "Machined into Field" - Gray". XXXIII No 36. The Lethbridge Herald. January 23, 1940. p. 7.

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See also: List of Alberta by-elections