Alberta general election, 1944

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The Alberta general election of 1944 was the tenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The Assembly was dissolved on July 8, 1944 and the vote for was held on August 8, 1944 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

The election was the first contested by leader Ernest C. Manning. He became leader after the death of Social Credit Party founder and premier William Aberhart in 1943. Manning steered the party down a more moderate path, largely dispensing with the party's social credit policies of monetary reform that it had been unable to implement.

Manning led Social Credit to a third term in government with a resounding victory in the 1944 election, winning over 50% of the popular vote on the first count of ballots. The Conservative party and former United Farmers continued their strategy of running joint candidates as independents. They were not supported by the Liberals who left the coalition and lost a significant share of the popular vote.

The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation entered the election with only one seat in the legislature belonging to party leader Elmer Roper who had won a 1942 by-election. Despite winning almost a quarter of the popular vote the party won only two seats in the general election.

Servicemen and veterans from World War II voted in the first phase of the election on August 4, 1944. There was also a second vote held to elect three Canadian Armed Forces representatives from Albertans who were in active service overseas, or those who missed the first vote.

Contents 1 Results 2 The campaign 2.1 Social Credit 2.2 Indpendents 2.3 Cooperative Commonwealth 2.4 Labor Progressive 2.5 Farmer-Labor 2.6 Election night 3 Soldiers' vote 4 Key races 4.1 Edmonton 4.2 Red Deer 4.3 Rocky Mountain House 4.4 Warner 5 Members elected 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Results

Party		Party Leader	candidates	Seats				Popular Vote
				1940	Dissolution	Elected	% Change	First	%	% Change
	Social Credit	Ernest C. Manning	57	36	35	51	+41.7%	146,367	50.46%	+7.56%
	Independent	James H. Walker	36	19	15	3	-84.2%	47,239	16.28%	-26.19%
	Canadian Armed Forces		32	*	*	3	*	7,985	2.75%	*
	Cooperative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	57	-	1	2	+50%	70,307	24.24%	+13.13
	Veteran's & Active Force	William J. Williams	1	*	*	1	*	3,532	1.22%	*
	Labor Progressive 1	James A. MacPherson	30	-	-	-	-	12,003	4.14%	+3.79%
	Labor United	Enoch Williams	1	*	*	-	*	1,788	0.62%	*
	Single Tax	W.M. Madge	1	*	*	-	*	480	0.16%	*
	Farmer-Labor	Victor Johanson	1	*	*	-	*	390	0.13%	*
	Others		0	2	5	See the 9th Legislative Assembly of Alberta
	Vacant			*	1
	Totals		216	57	57	60	+5.26%	290,091	100%

Notes:

¹ Compared to the Communist Party results from the previous election.

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

[edit] The campaign

The 1944 election, was the first general election contested by Premier Ernest Manning. Manning had taken over the Social Credit Party from William Aberhart who died unexpectedly a year earlier. Social Credit faced opposition from the Independents lead by James Walker who had also just been elected leader and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation who had just managed to win a seat in a by-election in Edmonton and win a majority in the 1944 Saskatchewan general election. Like Social Credit and the Independents they were also contesting their first general election with new leader Elmer Roper.

The stage for the general election was set when Social Credit won a critical by-election in Red Deer in December 1943. The by-election win gave momentum to Social Credit as they picked it up from the Independents. After the election they decided to speed up their plans and hold the election in the summer time.^[1]

Two major changes occurred this election with the way that votes were to be counted and who could vote. Ballots in single member electoral districts were now allowed to be marked with an "X" to indicate a first choice preference. Prior to this election high numbers of ballots had been declared as spoiled because they were not marked with a "1". Preferences beyond the first choice still had to be marked with a number indicating that preference.^[2] The 1944 election also marked the first time that Japanese Canadians were eligible to vote in a provincial election. There were two thousand Japanese who had previously been evacuated from British Columbia to Alberta under war time provisions who were qualified to vote under the eligibility rules.^[3]

After the writ was dropped the single biggest issue of the campaign turned out to be a referendum on the future of the Coopeative Commonwealth. The Independents and Social Credit were each asking their supporters to vote "1" and "2" for their respective parties to ensure the Commonwealth is defeated.^[4]

[edit] Social Credit

Social Credit had been re-elected to with a thin majority government in 1940 after failing to implement its monetary theory policy that had allowed it to sweep to power in the 1935 election. The party was also rebounding in popularity since Ernest Manning became Premier in 1943 after the death of William Aberhart. Manning steered the party away from its previous policies that included Social Credit monetary theory and media control.

The centre piece of Social Credit's policy in this election was a plan on refunding Alberta's large debt that had been built up under the Liberal and United Farmer administrations.

[edit] Indpendents

The Independents lead into the election by James Walker had been organized as a coalition of Conservatives, Liberals and United Farmers who grouped together to defeat the Social Credit government in 1937. The coalition which was organized under the parent group, the Independent Citizen's Association. Despite being an organized party all candidates ran and those who were elected did so as Independents. The coalition started falling apart when the Alberta Liberal Party left just before the 4th Legislative Session opened in February 1944.^[5]

Walker was elected leader of the Independent Citizens Association at a convention held in Calgary on January 23, 1944. He defeated David Elton in a two way contest.^[6] There was considerable interest in the convention as over 300 delegates from across Alberta showed up to vote. Walker was elected on the first ballot winning a decisive victory. This was the first time since the Association had been created that a permanent leader was selected.^[7]

[edit] Cooperative Commonwealth

The Cooperative Commonwealth federation had enjoyed tremendous growth over the past couple of years. In 1942 the provincial branch reorganized at a convention in Edmonton and merged the provincial branch of the Canadian Labor Party into the Cooperative Commonwealth. Prior to that date the two parties had been an affiliated but operated separately.^[8]. After the merger the party won a by-election to elect their leader to the Assembly in Edmonton on September 22, 1942.^[9] Shortly before the writs were dropped in this election the Saskatchewan C.C.F had just swept the 1944 Saskatchewan general election. Manning had called the general election to defuse a possible surge in support for the CCF.^[5]

The Cooperative Commonwealth provincially had struck a deal with the Labor Progressive to run fusion candidates some electoral districts. The first time this agreement was put to work was in the December 1943 Red Deer by-election where James MacPherson Labor Progressive leader came out and endorsed C.C.F. candidate E.J. Johns. This was the first provincial election to date where the C.C.F. had managed to field a full slate of candidates. They were the only other party in 1944 to do so other then Social Credit.

[edit] Labor Progressive

The Labor Progressive party lead by James MacPherson had aimed to run candidates in the major cities and in mining communities.^[5] The party had contested elections previously under the Communist banner, but had changed names to be in line with the federal party. In electoral districts where Labor Progressive candidates did not run, the party ran fusion candidates with the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation.^[10] A proposal by the Labor Progressive party to run fusion candidates at the federal level with the Cooperative Commonwealth and rejected by the national council.

[edit] Farmer-Labor

The Farmer-Labor election committee was a minor political party created by Victor Johanson. He was a farmer residing near the small town of Bentley, Alberta. Johanson was originally selected as a fusion candidate for the Labor Progressive and Cooperative Commonwealth to contest the Rocky Mountain House electoral district. Shortly before the general election was called the Rocky Mountain House Cooperative Commonwealth electoral district association broke away and voted not to support Johanson and nominate their own candidate instead. Johanson decided to create his own Farmer-Labor banner that he and his supporters operated under.^[11]

Johanson's Farmer-Labor banner was the least successful of the four single candidate banners that operated in the general election. Johanson would finish last in his district and the provincial standings winning just 0.13% of the total popular vote in the province. After the election Johanson did not return to contest another provincial election and effectively ending the party.

The Farmer-Labor 1944 general election platform consisted of seven policy planks. These planks covered primarily local issues to appeal to coal miners working and living at Nordegg, Alberta. Crop insurance and raised commodity prices was also promised to appeal to area farmers. Policy planks were also added to help veterans returning from the war. Improvements for local transportation infrastructure issues rounded out the rest of the Farmer-Labor platform.^[12]

Farmer-Labor Platform

• Adequate prices for all farm produce.
• Better system for providing for crop losses and improvement in the Prairie Farmers' Assistance Act.
• More liberal grants for roads in rural areas, based on funds collected from car and truck licenses and taxes collected from gasoline sales in each district.
• A hard-surfaced road to the company town of Nordegg. Labor Legislation and a Labor Code of Rights to be administered by the Minister of Labor.
• Old age pensions at a younger age, regardless of property owned. A more liberal monthly pay so that the pensioners can enjoy a better life then at present.
• Rehabilitation of the Armed Forces in Peacetime Production and a higher standard of living than in the past.
• Better opportunities for the youth in the post-war years.

[edit] Election night

On election night Manning's Social Credit party won a landslide majority with many rural districts being decided on first ballot results. The opposition was contained in Calgary and Edmonton as Social Credit swept the rural districts. The Independents failing to run a candidate in every riding were seen by the voters as lacking credibility, most of their voters swung to Social Credit as a strategic vote to prevent the Cooperative Commonwealth from electing members.^[13]

[edit] Soldiers' vote

Royal Canadian Army vote official results[14]
Service Rank	Name	Votes	%	Home
Captain	James Harper Prowse	1,050	17.14%	Edmonton
Lieutenant Colonel	Eric Wyld Cormack	1,020	16.65%	Alix
Colonel	E.B. Wilson	514	8.39%	Edmonton
Sapper	Eric Joseph Poole	472	7.71%	Red Deer
Brigadier M.C.	Gernard Renvoize Bradbrook	384	6.27%	Calgary
Captain	James Blakley Corbet	236	3.85%	Edmonton
Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant	A. Begg	224	3.66%	Medicine Hat
Captain	William Thomas Sabine	224	3.66%	Edmonton
Craftsman	Arthur Frank Balfour	221	3.61%	Calgary
Sergeant	Clarence Alexander Mumford	203	3.31%	Calgary
Corporal	Donald Hugh McLeod	201	3.28%	Calgary
Captain	Robert Hugh Miller	187	3.05%	Edmonton
Sergeant	Douglas Sterling McLaughlin	170	2.78%	Kinuso
Sergeant	Alfred Sigman Brooks	160	2.61%	Purple Springs
Major	Wilford Addinell	157	2.56%	Edmonton
Lieutenant	James Reginald Dowdell	120	1.96%	Edmonton
Squadron Quartermaster Sergeant	David Elliot Scott	118	1.93%	Stony Plain
Major	William Graham Ledingham	110	1.80%	Calgary
Corporal	Alex Brown Johnston	106	1.73%	Picture Butte
Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant	H.A.L. Duffin	102	1.67%	Calgary
Warrant Officer Class II	Robert Duncan McIlroy	92	1.50%	Vulcan
Support	Bernard LaFleur	54	0.88%	McLennan
Total Valid Ballots		6,125	100%

The second phase of the general election took place beginning in November 1944 and ending January 1945. Three members of the armed forces commissioned in World War II were elected to represent Alberta service men and women fighting or stationed overseas. In addition those who were in veterans hospitals at the time of the vote and retired service personnel who already returned from duty but missed the August 4, 1944 vote. This election was not run under the Elections Act and was instead run from an executive council order. This meant that the laws regarding eligibility by age and the Single Transferable Vote system did not apply to the soldiers' vote. Saskatchewan was the only other province or state to implement an election for service men in World War II.^[15]

The service men vote had been pushed for by the Cooperative Commonwealth opposition. Elmer Roper harshly criticized the Social Credit government for having no plans to make voting options available for men serving overseas. The Social Credit government responded by announcing that there would be an election of the soldiers' representatives, but it had not decided the date of the vote prior to the first phase of general election being completed.^[16] The soldiers' Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) were meant to be non-partisan and sat on the opposition side of the Assembly. The order in council forebode any candidate running in the election from contesting it along party lines. The vote also temporarily increased the number of seats in the Assembly from 57 to 60. One member represented each branch of the service: Army, Navy and Air Force. This was the second at-large soldiers' war time vote held in the province's history, the first being the soldiers' and nurses vote held as the second part of the 1917 Alberta general election.

The writ period began in late November 1944. A total of 32 candidates registered to run in the election. The seat provided for the Army was hotly contested with 22 candidates, the navy had 3 candidates and the Air Force had 7 candidates. The polls were open a record length of time as the voting was conducted from January 8, 1945 to January 20, 1945. Polling stations were setup on the front lines and at army bases where Albertans were stationed around the world. Four Chief Returning Officers were appointed to conduct the vote, a record that stands to this day. The vote was conducted under First Past the Post rules with no ballot transfers. The official results from the vote conducted in Alberta were released on January 31, 1945. The votes for the rest of the world were released on January 6, 1945.

An oddity of this vote is that the Government of Alberta did not print an official document detailing the election results or expenses of operating the election for the general public as it did with the rest of the general election that year. This was because the executive council order made by the Social Credit government did not require it. Full printing of the official results did appear in both the Calgary Herald and The Albertan as they were announced by the Chief Electoral Officer at a press conference held in Edmonton on February 5, 1945. The Herald was the only newspaper to breakdown the results by counting station.^[17]

Royal Canadian Air Force vote official results[14]
Service Rank	Name	Votes	%	Home
Wing Commander	Frederick C. Colborne	252	20.88%	Calgary
Warrant Officer	Joseph Roy Burton	244	20.22%	Edmonton
Sergeant	James Melville Bell	181	14.99%	Edmonton
Flight Officer	Niel Allen Bell	178	14.75%	Wayne
Sergeant	Frank Pierpoint Appleby	149	12.34%	Athabasca
Flight Officer	Claude Andrew Cambell	126	10.44%	Edmonton
Flight Officer	Harold E. Bronson	77	6.38%	Cherhill
Total Valid Ballots		1,207	100%

Turnout for this election was generally low, the election came during the closing months of World War II when Germany was on its heels and starting to collapse. In addition to the heavy fighting there were also large numbers of troops in transit during the voting period. Chief Returning Officer Robert Addison estimated that almost 3,300 Alberta soldiers eligible were unable to vote because of being in transit to various fronts. The returns themselves were counted in four places, voting conducted in Alberta was counted and released in Edmonton first, while voting conducted overseas was counted in London and sent to Edmonton by telegraph. The highest turnout came by Army soldiers fighting in Italy and the lowest turnout was in the Mediterranean with only five service-men voting. No statistics were released on how many service men and woman were eligible to vote in total.

Voters for this election were eligible to cast a ballot if they were a resident of Alberta for one full calender year prior to enlisting in the military. The only other eligibility requirement was that they missed casting a ballot in their home electoral district during the first phase of the election.

The Government of Alberta commissioned four Chief Electoral Officers to help run the election. The election proved to be a logistical challenge as no similar election had ever been conducted on a world wide scale. Robert Addison was in charge of overseeing the election in Edmonton and coordination operations around the world. James Thompson was Chief Returning Office in charge of overseeing the vote in the Mediterranean and the Franco-Belgian Fighting Fronts. A.P. Van Buren was in charge of Canada, United States and Alaska, Newfoundland, Bermuda, Nassau and Jamaica. L.P. Danis was the Chief Returning Officer for France, Belgium and Holland. The jobs of the Chief Electoral Officers included finding out where Albertans were stationed, setting up polling stations, overseeing collection of ballots. In some cases polling stations were setup directly in the trenches causing delays to the election as election staff came under hostile fire.^[18]

Royal Canadian Navy vote official results[14]
Service Rank	Name	Votes	%	Home
Chief Petty Officer	Loftus Dudley Ward	293	44.87%	Calgary
Lieutenant	John P. Dewis	191	29.25%	Canmore
Leading Writer	John Francis McVean	169	25.88%	Edmonton
Total Valid Ballots		653	100%

Not much is known about the election campaigns, as there was very little information published in the press about the election. The results showed there were no clear front runners in all three races. The Navy vote saw Loftus Dudley Ward hold a lead when the first votes for Alberta were released by the Chief Electoral Officer on January 31, 1945. Ward managed to hang on to win despite getting very few overseas votes. In the Air Force vote, Joseph Roy Burton was marginally leading the field after the Alberta votes were released. On the final total Frederick Colbourne won with a surge of overseas votes. James Harper Prowse was the biggest surprise in the Army race as he had only 34 votes before surging to win with 1,050 after the final totals were released.

[edit] Key races

[edit] Edmonton

Edmonton candidate composition
Affiliation		#
	Cooperative Commonwealth	5
	Independent	4
	Labor Progressive	5
	Social Credit	5
	Veterans' and Active Force	1

The Edmonton electoral district returned five members by single transferable vote on election night. There were twenty candidates in place in the district including four party leaders. Social Credit leader Ernest Manning, who had been appointed Premier in 1943 was easily the most recognizable candidate in the field. Elmer Roper Cooperative Commonwealth leader had won a seat in Edmonton almost two years earlier in a by-election. The other party leaders were James MacPherson Labor Progressive leader and William J. Williams, leader of the Veterans' and Active Force.

[edit] Red Deer

[edit] Rocky Mountain House

Farmer-Labor candidate and leader Victor Johanson was nominated at a joint Cooperative Commonwealth Labor Progressive convention on February 17, 1944. Shortly before the election the Cooperative Commonwealth riding association broke off and nominated candidate George Morrison to run under their banner.^[11] Incumbent Social Credit MLA Alfred Hooke had just been appointed by Premier Manning as Provincial Secretary, when he formed his government in 1943. The Independents did not nominate a candidate in this riding. On election night Hooke was easily re-elected winning on the first ballot.^[19]

[edit] Warner

[edit] Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

[20]	District	Elected Member	Party	Incumbent		Party	Result
	Acadia-Coronation	Clarence Gerhart	Social Credit		Clarence Gerhart	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Alexandria	Selmer Berg	Social Credit		Selmer Berg	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Athabasca	Gordon Lee	Social Credit		Gordon Lee	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Banff-Cochrane	Arthur Wray	Social Credit		Frank Laut	Independent	Defeated
	Beaver River	Lucien Maynard	Social Credit		Lucien Maynard	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Bow Valley-Empress	Wilson Cain	Social Credit		Wilson Cain	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Bruce	James L. McPherson	Social Credit		James L. McPherson	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Calgary	Andrew Davison	Independent		Andrew Davidson	Independent	Re-elected
		Howard Macdonald	Independent		John J. Bowlen	Independent	Defeated
		Rose Wilkinson	Social Credit		James Mahaffey	Liberal	Retired
		Fred Anderson	Social Credit		Fred Anderson	Social Credit	Re-elected
		Aylmer Liesemer	Cooperative Commonwealth		Vacant
	Camrose	Chester Sayers	Social Credit		Chester Sayers	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Cardston	Nathan Eldon Tanner	Social Credit		Nathan Eldon Tanner	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Clover Bar	Floyd Baker	Social Credit		Floyd Baker	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Cypress	Edith Thurston	Social Credit		Fay Jackson	Independent	Retired
	Didsbury	Howard Hammell	Social Credit		Ernest Brown	Independent	Retired
	Drumheller	Gordon Taylor	Social Credit		Gordon Taylor	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Edmonton	Elmer Roper	Cooperative Commonwealth		Elmer Roper	Cooperative Commonwealth	Re-elected
		Ernest Manning	Social Credit		Ernest Manning	Social Credit	Re-elected
		John P. Page	Independent		John P. Page	Independent	Re-elected
		William J. Williams	Veteran's & Active Force		Hugh John MacDonald	Independent	Retired
		Norman James	Social Credit		Norman James	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Edson	Norman Willmore	Social Credit		Angus James Morrison	Labor	Retired
	Gleichen	George E. Bell	Social Credit		Donald James McKinnon	Independent	Defeated
	Grande Prairie	Ira McLaughlin	Social Credit		Lewis O'Brien	Independent	Retired
	Grouard	William Fallow	Social Credit		Joseph Tremblay	Liberal	Retired
	Hand Hills	Wallace Warren Cross	Social Credit		Wallace Warren Cross	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Lac St. Anne	Albert Bourcier	Social Credit		Albert Bourcier	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Lacombe	Duncan MacMillan	Social Credit		Duncan MacMillan	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Leduc	Ronald Ansley	Social Credit		Ronald Ansley	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Lethbridge	John Landeryou	Social Credit		Peter M. Campbell	Independent	Retired
	Little Bow	Peter Dawson	Social Credit		Peter Dawson	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Macleod	James Hartley	Social Credit		James Hartley	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Medicine Hat	John Lyle Robinson	Social Credit		John Lyle Robinson	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Okotoks-High River	Ivan Casey	Social Credit		John Broomfield	Independent	Defeated
	Olds	Norman E. Cook	Social Credit		Norman E. Cook	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Peace River	William Gilliland	Social Credit		Eld Martin	Independent	Defeated
	Pembina	Robin Jorgenson	Social Credit		George MacLachlan	Independent	Defeated
	Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	Ernest Duke	Social Credit		Ernest Duke	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Ponoka	Ora Moore	Social Credit		Percy McKelvey	Independent	Retired
	Red Deer	David Ure	Social Credit		David Ure	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Redwater	James Popil	Social Credit		James Popil	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Rocky Mountain House	Alfred Hooke	Social Credit		Alfred Hooke	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Sedgewick	Albert Fee	Social Credit		Albert Fee	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Spirit River	Henry DeBolt	Social Credit		Henry DeBolt	Social Credit	Re-elected
	St. Albert	Charles Holder	Social Credit		Lionel Tellier	Independent	Retired
	St. Paul	Joseph Beaudry	Social Credit		Joseph Beaudry	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Stettler	William Mackie	Social Credit		Chester Reynolds	Independent Social Credit	Retired
	Stony Plain	Cornelia Wood	Social Credit		Cornelia Wood	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Taber	Roy S. Lee	Social Credit		Roy S. Lee	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Vegreville	Michael Ponich	Social Credit		Solon Low	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Vermillion	William Cornish	Social Credit		William Fallow	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Wainwright	William Masson	Social Credit		William Masson	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Warner	Solon Low	Social Credit		James Walker	Independent	Defeated
	Wetaskiwin	John Wingblade	Social Credit		John Wingblade	Social Credit	Re-elected
	Willingdon	William Tomyn	Social Credit		William Tomyn	Social Credit	Re-elected

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Elections Alberta

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