Alberta general election, 1940

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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.

Despite its failure to implement its key policy, providing prosperity certificates to all Albertans, the Social Credit Party of Premier William Aberhart won a second term in government. Social Credit did despite lose a significant share of the popular vote.

The Conservative and Liberal parties, recognizing the wide-spread 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, the strategy was unsuccessful in preventing Social Credit from winning a majority of the seats in the legislature. Despite the Unity Movement the Liberal party still ran two candidates under its banner.

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.

[edit] 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		59	-	19		131,172	42.47%	+41.57%
	Labour		2	-	1		3,258	1.05%	-0.63%
	Liberal		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%	308,864 ¹	100%
Source: Elections Alberta

Notes:

¹ First vote count used.

[edit] Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

	District	Member	Party
9th Alberta Legislative Assembly
	Acadia-Coronation	Clarence Gerhart	Social Credit
	Alexandria	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 #1	James Mahaffy	Independent
	Calgary #2	Fred Anderson	Social Credit
	Calgary #3	Andrew Davison	Independent
	Calgary #4	William Aberhart	Social Credit
	Calgary #5	John J. Bowlen	Independent
	Camrose	David Mullen	Social Credit
	Cardston	Nathan Eldon Tanner	Social Credit
	Clover Bar	Floyd Baker	Social Credit
	Cypress	Fay Jackson	Independent
	Didsbury	Ernest Brown	Independent
	Drumheller	Gordon Taylor	Social Credit
	Edmonton #1	Ernest Manning	Social Credit
	Edmonton #2	John P. Page	Independent
	Edmonton #3	Norman James	Social Credit
	Edmonton #4	David Milwyn Duggan	Independent
	Edmonton #5	Hugh John Macdonald	Independent
	Edson	A.J. Morrison	Labour
	Gliechen	Donald McKinnon	Independent
	Grand Prairie	Lewis O'Brien	Independent
	Grouard	Joseph Tremblay	Liberal
	Hand Hills	Wallace Warren Cross	Social Credit
	Lac St. 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 L. 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
	Vermillion	William Fallow	Social Credit
	Wainwright	William Masson	Social Credit
	Warner	James Walker	Social Credit
	Wetaskiwin	John Wingblade	Social Credit
	Willingdon	William Tomyn	Social Credit