Alberta general election, 1982

Alberta general election, 1982

1979 ← members November 2, 1982 (1982-11-02) members → 1986 members

79 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 40 seats were needed for a majority Turnout 66.00%   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Peter Lougheed Grant Notley Gordon Kesler Party Progressive Conservative NDP WCC Leader since 1965 1968 1982 Leader's seat Calgary-West Spirit River-Fairview ran in Highwood (lost) Last election 74 seats, 57.4% 1 seat, 15.8% pre-creation Seats before 73 1 1 Seats won 75 2 0 Seat change +2 +1 -1 Popular vote 588,485 177,166 111,131 Percentage 62.3% 18.7% 11.8% Swing +4.9% +2.9% —   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader George Richardson Tom Sindlinger Party Social Credit Reform Movement Leader since 1982 1982 Leader's seat ran in Whitecourt (lost) Calgary-Buffalo (lost re-election) Last election 4 seats, 19.9% pre-creation Seats before 1 1 Seats won 0 0 Seat change -1 -1 Popular vote 7,843 6,258 Percentage 0.8% 0.7% Swing -19.1% —

Premier before election Peter Lougheed Progressive Conservative Elected Premier Peter Lougheed Progressive Conservative

The Alberta general election of 1982 was the twentieth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on November 2, 1982 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Less than four years had passed since the Progressive Conservatives won their landslide victory in 1979. Premier Peter Lougheed decided to call a snap election to catch fledgling new parties off guard, most notably the separatist Western Canada Concept which was capitalizing on anger over Lougheed's perceived weakness in dealings with the federal government, in particular his acceptance of the hugely unpopular National Energy Program. The WCC had won a by-election earlier in the year, and Lougheed decided that it would be wise to stage a showdown with the WCC sooner rather than later.

Lougheed then proceeded to mount a campaign based largely on scare tactics, warning Albertans angry with Ottawa but yet uneasy with the WCC that they could end up with a separatist government by voting for a separatist party. The strategy worked for the Tories, who won their fourth consecutive term in government, and returned to the 62% popular vote level it had attained in the 1975 election. The PC party won 75 of the 79 seats in the legislature.

The Alberta Liberal Party was punished in the wake of the NEP. Barely able to field candidates in a third of the ridings, it went down to one of its worst showings in party history.

The Social Credit Party collapsed. Its share of the popular vote fell from almost 20% to less than one percent after two of its remaining three MLAs (WCC had taken a former Socred seat in the by-election) resigned from the party and the third opted not to run for reelection. Two of its members won re-election as independents, and later formed the Representative Party of Alberta. The party was shut out of the legislature for the first time since 1935, and has never elected another MLA.

The New Democratic Party, led by Grant Notley, became the official opposition when it doubled its legislative caucus from one member to two.

The WCC, a party that advocated the separation of the four western provinces of Canada to form a new country, had surprised Canadians when Gordon Kesler won his by-election and took a seat in the Alberta legislature. Although Kesler lost his seat in this election after he changed electoral districts from Olds-Didsbury and ran in Highwood, the WCC won almost 12% of the popular vote.

The Alberta Reform Movement a new party founded by ex-Progressive Conservative Tom Sindlinger was not ready for the election and ended up losing its only seat in Calgary Buffalo

Contents 1 Results 2 Members elected 3 See also 4 References

Results

Overall voter turnout was 66.00%.^[1]

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats				Popular vote
				1979	Diss.	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Progressive Conservative	Peter Lougheed	79	74	73	75	+1.4%	588,485	62.28%	+4.88%
	New Democrats	Grant Notley	79	1	1	2	+100%	177,166	18.75%	+3.00%
	Independent		34	-	2	2	-	36,590	3.87%	+3.10%
	Western Canada Concept	Gordon Kesler	78	*	1	-	*	111,131	11.76%	*
	Liberal	Nicholas Taylor	29	-	-	-	-	17,074	1.81%	-4.35%
	Social Credit	George Richardson	23	4	1	-	-100%	7,843	0.83%	-19.04%
	Alberta Reform Movement	Tom Sindlinger	14	*	1	-	-100%	6,258	0.66%	*
	Communist		8	-	-	-	-	389	0.04%	-0.01%
Total			344	79	79	79	-	944,936	100%
Source: Elections Alberta

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

20th Alberta Legislative Assembly
	District	Member	Party
	Athabasca	Frank Pierpoint Appleby	Progressive Conservative
	Banff-Cochrane	Greg Stevens	Progressive Conservative
	Barrhead	Ken Kowalski	Progressive Conservative
	Bonnyville	Ernie Isley	Progressive Conservative
	Bow Valley	Tom Musgrove	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Bow	Neil Webber	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Buffalo	Brian Lee	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Currie	Dennis Anderson	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Egmont	David J. Carter	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Elbow	David John Russell	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Fish Creek	William Edward Payne	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Foothills	Janet Koper	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Forest Lawn	John Zaozirny	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Glenmore	Hugh Planche	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-McCall	Stan Nelson	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-McKnight	Eric Musgreave	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Millican	Gordon Shrake	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Mountain View	Bohdan Zip	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-North Hill	Ed Oman	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-North West	Sheila Embury	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-West	Peter Lougheed	Progressive Conservative
	Camrose	Gordon Stromberg	Progressive Conservative
	Cardston	John Thompson	Progressive Conservative
	Chinook	Henry Kroeger	Progressive Conservative
	Clover Bar	Walt Buck	Independent
	Cypress	Alan Hyland	Progressive Conservative
	Drayton Valley	Shirley Cripps	Progressive Conservative
	Drumheller	Lewis Clark	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Avonmore	Horst Schmid	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Belmont	Walter Szwender	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Beverly	Bill Diachuk	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Calder	Tom Chambers	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Centre	Mary LeMessurier	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Glengarry	Rollie Cook	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Glenora	Lou Hyndman	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Gold Bar	Al Hiebert	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Highlands	David Thomas King	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Jasper Place	Leslie Young	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Kingsway	Carl Paproski	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Meadowlark	Gerard Amerongen	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Mill Woods	Milt Pahl	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Norwood	Ray Martin	NDP
	Edmonton-Parkallen	Neil Stanley Crawford	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Sherwood Park	Henry Woo	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Strathcona	Julian Koziak	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Whitemud	Robert Keith Alexander	Progressive Conservative
	Edson	Ian Reid	Progressive Conservative
	Grande Prairie	Bob Elliott	Progressive Conservative
	Highwood	Harry Alger	Progressive Conservative
	Innisfail	Nigel Pengelly	Progressive Conservative
	Lac La Biche-McMurray	Norm Weiss	Progressive Conservative
	Lacombe	Ronald Moore	Progressive Conservative
	Lesser Slave Lake	Larry Shaben	Progressive Conservative
	Lethbridge-East	Archibald D. Johnston	Progressive Conservative
	Lethbridge-West	John Gogo	Progressive Conservative
	Little Bow	Raymond Speaker	Independent
	Lloydminster	Bud Miller	Progressive Conservative
	Macleod	LeRoy Fjordbotten	Progressive Conservative
	Medicine Hat	Jim Horsman	Progressive Conservative
	Olds-Didsbury	Stephen Stiles	Progressive Conservative
	Peace River	Al Adair	Progressive Conservative
	Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	Frederick Deryl Bradley	Progressive Conservative
	Ponoka	Halvar Jonson	Progressive Conservative
	Red Deer	Jim McPherson	Progressive Conservative
	Redwater-Andrew	George Topolnisky	Progressive Conservative
	Rocky Mountain House	John Murray Campbell	Progressive Conservative
	Smoky River	Marvin Moore	Progressive Conservative
	Spirit River-Fairview	Grant Notley	NDP
	St. Albert	Myrna Fyfe	Progressive Conservative
	St. Paul	John Drobot	Progressive Conservative
	Stettler	Graham Harle	Progressive Conservative
	Stony Plain	William Purdy	Progressive Conservative
	Taber-Warner	Robert Bogle	Progressive Conservative
	Three Hills	Connie Osterman	Progressive Conservative
	Vegreville	John Batiuk	Progressive Conservative
	Vermilion-Viking	Tom Lysons	Progressive Conservative
	Wainwright	Robert Fischer	Progressive Conservative
	Wetaskiwin-Leduc	Donald H. Sparrow	Progressive Conservative
	Whitecourt	Peter Trynchy	Progressive Conservative

See also

• List of Alberta political parties

References

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