1944 Alberta general election

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60 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 31 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   IM Leader Ernest Manning James H. Walker Party Social Credit Independent Movement Leader since May 31, 1943 1944 Leader's seat Edmonton Warner (lost re-election) Last election 36 seats, 42.9% 19 seats, 42.5% Seats before 35 15 Seats won 51 3 Seat change 16 12 Popular vote 146,367 47,239 Percentage 50.5% 16.3% Swing 7.6% 26.2%   Third party Fourth party   V&AF Leader Elmer E. Roper William J. Williams Party Co-operative Commonwealth Veterans' and Active Force Leader since 1942 1944 Leader's seat Edmonton Edmonton Last election 0 seats, 11.1% pre-creation Seats before 1 0 Seats won 2 1 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 70,307 3,532 Percentage 24.2% 1.2% Swing 13.1% —
Premier before election Ernest Manning Social Credit Premier after election Ernest Manning Social Credit

The 1944 Alberta general election was held on August 8, 1944 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

In this election, Armed Forces voters voted for separate representation - by electing an Army, an Air Force and a Navy representative.^[1]

The election was the first contested by leader Ernest C. Manning. Previously Provincial Secretary, he became leader of the Social Credit Party and premier after party founder, Premier William Aberhart, died 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 mostly unable to implement. The provinces's improved economic position meanwhile made such reforms less pressing.

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. Not supported by the Liberals, who left the coalition, the anti-SC joint effort lost much of its previous 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.

Albertan servicemen and veterans from World War II were able to vote 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 amongst the Albertans who were in active service overseas, or those who missed the first vote.

This provincial election, like the previous four, saw district-level proportional representation (Single transferable voting) used to elect the MLAs of Edmonton and Calgary. City-wide districts were used to elect multiple MLAs in the cities. All the other MLAs were elected in single-member districts through Instant-runoff voting. All voters in the province had the opportunity to cast ranked ballots.

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 led 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.^[2]

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.^[3] 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.^[4]

After the writ was dropped the single biggest issue of the campaign turned out to be a referendum on the future of the Cooperative 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.^[5]

Social Credit

The Social Credit governmenthad been re-elected with a thin majority government in 1940 after failing to fulfill many of its promises of monetary reform whose popularity had allowed it to sweep to power in the 1935 election. The party was also rising 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 centrepiece 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 by the United Farmer and Social Credit governments during the Depression.

Independents

The Independents, led 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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8]

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)

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 CCF. Prior to that date the two parties had been affiliated but had operated separately.^[9] After the merger the party won an Edmonton by-election on September 22, 1942 to elect their leader Elmer Roper to the Assembly.^[10] Shortly before the writs were dropped in this election the Saskatchewan CCF swept the 1944 Saskatchewan general election. Manning called the general election to defuse a possible surge in support for the CCF.^[6]

The CCF provincially had struck a deal with the Labor Progressive Party (the Communist Party) to run fusion candidates in some electoral districts. The first time this agreement was put to work was in the December 1943 Red Deer by-election where James MacPherson, LPP leader, endorsed CCF candidate E.P. Johns. This was the first provincial election where the CCF fielded a full slate of candidates. They were the only other party in 1944 to do so other than Social Credit. (The need for fusion candidates was not great as transferable votes used at that time in all districts in Alberta avoided the harmful effects of vote splitting.)

Labor Progressive Party

The LPP had contested elections previously under the Communist banner, but had changed its name to be in line with the federal party, after they had all been outlawed.

The Labor Progressive Party, led by James MacPherson, aimed to run candidates in the major cities and in mining communities.^[6] They did run 30 candidates.

In some electoral districts where LPP candidates did not run, the LPP and the CCF ran fusion candidates.^[11] A proposal by the Labor Progressive Party to run fusion candidates with the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation at the federal level was rejected by the national council.

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 Party and Cooperative Commonwealth Federation to contest the Rocky Mountain House electoral district.

Shortly before the general election was called, the Rocky Mountain House CCF constituency association broke away and voted not to support Johanson and to nominate its own candidate instead.

Johanson then created his own Farmer-Labor banner that he and his supporters operated under.^[12]

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

Farmer-Labor's 1944 election platform had 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. Other policy planks promised help to veterans returning from the war. Improvements for local transportation infrastructure rounded out the Farmer-Labor platform.^[13]

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.

Election night

On election night Manning's Social Credit party won a landslide victory with 52 percent of the vote.

Opposition MLAs were contained in Calgary and Edmonton, where STV ensured proportional results, and Social Credit swept the rural districts. Many rural districts were decided in SC's favour on the First Counts, But in others, where no candidate took a majority of the votes in the First Count, the Alternative Voting system used at the time necessitating vote transfer(s). Even where votes were transferred, the final winner in each single-member district was the same as would have won under First past the post.

The anti-SC coalition Independents had failed to run a candidate in every riding and 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 Federation from electing members.^[14]

The anti-SC coalition had lost its whipping boy, William Aberhart. The 1944 election was fought mostly as a two-party contest between the conservative Ernest Manning government and the leftist CCF, running relatively high due to wartime anti-fascist sentiment.

The opposition parties conceded defeat just twenty six minutes after the polls closed.^[15]

Key races

Edmonton

The Edmonton electoral district elected five members by single transferable vote. There were twenty candidates running 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, CCF leader, had won a seat in Edmonton almost two years earlier in a by-election and was running for re-election. The other party leaders were James MacPherson, of the Labor Progressive Party, and William J. Williams, of the Veterans' and Active Force group.

Manning won his seat in the First Count. It took 16 vote transfers to fill the last seat but in the end candidates of four different groups were elected to represent Edmonton - 2 SC, 1 (anti-SC) Independent, 1 CCF and Williams of the Veterans and Active Force group.^[16] The three opposition MLAS elected in Edmonton joined with the three elected in Calgary. Those six were the only opposition MLAs elected to the Legislature in this election.

Red Deer

The results of the December 1943 by-election in Red Deer had led Social Credit government to speed up plans for the general election. Incumbent Social Credit MLA David Ure was running for his second term in office.

Rocky Mountain House

Farmer-Labor candidate and leader Victor Johanson was nominated at a joint Cooperative Commonwealth Federation/Labor Progressive convention on February 17, 1944. Shortly before the election the CCF riding association broke off and nominated candidate George Morrison to run under their banner.^[12] Incumbent Social Credit MLA Alfred Hooke was running for re-election. He had been appointed by Premier Manning as Provincial Secretary, when he had formed his cabinet in 1943, after Aberhart's death. The Independents did not nominate a candidate in this riding. On election night Hooke was easily re-elected, winning a majority of the votes on the first count.^[17][18]

Warner

The Warner electoral district was hotly contested by Independent leader James Walker and Provincial Treasurer Solon Low. Low had been defeated by Walker in the 1940 general election and won a by-election held in the Vegreville electoral district on June 20, 1940. The field of candidates was rounded out by W.M. Madge who ran under the Single Tax banner and R.B. Eshorn of the CCF. On election night, Low won a stunning first count victory, taking a majority of the votes first off and defeating Walker.

Results