Alberta general election, 1921

Alberta general election, 1921

July 18, 1921 (1921-07-18)

61 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 31 seats needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party   Leader Henry Wise Wood Charles Stewart Party United Farmers Liberal Leader since 1919 1917 Leader's seat did not run Sedgewick Last election pre-creation 34 seats, 48.1% Seats before 3 32 Seats won 38 15 Seat change 35 17 Popular vote 86,250 101,584 Percentage 28.9% 34.1% Swing 28.9 14.0%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Holmes Jowett Albert Ewing Party Dominion Labor Conservative Leader since 1921 1921 Leader's seat did not run ran in Edmonton (lost) Last election 1 seat, 3.2% 19 seats, 41.8% Seats before 1 18 Seats won 4 1 Seat change 3 17 Popular vote 33,987 32,734 Percentage 11.4% 11.0% Swing 8.2% 30.8%

Premier before election Charles Stewart Liberal Premier-designate Herbert Greenfield United Farmers

The Alberta general election of 1921 was the fifth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on July 18, 1921 to elect members to the 5th Alberta Legislative Assembly.

The Liberal Party of Charles Stewart, which had governed the province since its creation in 1905, was defeated by a surging United Farmers of Alberta, an agricultural lobby organization that was contesting its first general election. The UFA was led by president, Henry Wise Wood, who declined to take the leadership of the government and become Premier. The UFA's third choice, its vice president, Herbert Greenfield, agreed to do so, and sought election to the legislature in a by-election.

In an attempt at proportional voting, each voter in Edmonton and Calgary could choose up to five candidates, while Medicine Hat voters could choose two candidates. All other districts remained one person - one vote. The United Farmers swept most of the rural area while its opposition hung onto seats within the cities. No party ran a full slate of candidates.

The campaign

Liberals

The Liberals which had governed the province since 1905 were led into the election by their third Premier and leader Charles Stewart.

AGT Scandal

The Alberta Government Telephones scandal had broke before the election. It was learned that the Liberals spent AGT money to have telephone poles crated and shipped in big stacks to remote communities in which they had no intention of installing phone lines in an effort to garner support and votes.

United Farmers

Herbert Greenfield's Premier portrait

The United Farmers of Alberta under the leadership of President Henry Wise Wood was contesting its first general election. The UFA's political wing, as a party, had come into being after the organization had decided to no longer be content with being a lobby group (and farmer supply co-operative). They merged with the Non-Partisan League of Alberta, which had formed before the 1917 general election and had elected a couple members. The Non-Partisan League activists were significant within the political machinery of the United Farmers.

The merged party experienced a significant amount of growth in the run up to the general election. It won its first by-election with the election of candidate Alexander Moore in the electoral district of Cochrane in 1919 and achieved a coup when Conservative leader George Hoadley crossed the floor. The Non-Partisan League MLAs, despite not changing their affiliation, caucused with the United Farmers.

Wise Wood knew midway through the election campaign that his party was going to form government. In a famous speech he gave in Medicine Hat on July 8, 1921 he was quoted as saying "Farmers may not be ready to take over government, but they are going to do it anyway". He also said in that speech that he would have preferred that only his 20 best candidates were elected, to form the opposition, but he said he knew there would be a lot more than that elected.^[1]

Split in the Labour forces

The campaign was contested by two provincial labour parties: a main party named the Dominion Labor and a splinter group in Edmonton named the Independent Labor Party.

Dominion Labor ran candidates in primarily urban ridings such as Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat. Its President Holmes Jowatt decided to help his candidates get elected, declining to seek office himself.

At the beginning of the election Independent Labor offered to nominate Edmonton area candidates at a joint convention to prevent the splitting of the labour vote and use the co-operation to eventually unite the parties. The Dominion Labor declined the offer stating that to do so would divide its own ticket. Among the ILP candidates was pioneer photographer Ernest Brown.^[2][3]

Conservatives

The Conservative Party which has been the primary opposition in the province since it was created in 1905 had seen a split in the ranks under the leadership of George Hoadley. The caucus divided into two separate Conservative caucuses. Hoadley left the Conservative party sitting as an Independent and then won the United Farmers nomination in Okotoks and crossed the floor. The party replaced Hoadley by selecting Albert Ewing an Edmonton area Member of the Legislative Assembly as leader.

The Conservatives spent the campaign criticizing the wasteful and extravagant spending of the Liberal government. They also reminded Alberta voters of the Alberta Government Telephones, telephone pole scandal. The Conservatives campaign for reforms to the provincial tax code as well as pressing for provincial resource rights and voter list reforms in the election act.^[4]

Despite the split in the party the Conservative campaign attracted some high profile support. Former Liberal Premier Alexander Rutherford a big supporter of Ewing, led the campaign for the five Conservative candidates contesting for seats in Edmonton.^[5]

The Conservative party was a long time recovering from the split in the party. Supporters of Hoadley and their rural base migrated to the United Farmers. The change of amalgamating the districts in Calgary and Edmonton to a block vote did not help Conservative candidates. In Edmonton the strong Liberal block dominated and all five seats were captured by Liberal candidates. The only Conservative to return was Lethbridge MLA John Stewart. Albert Ewing went down to defeat in Edmonton.

Socialist

The Socialist Party of Alberta which had been in decline since its leader got defeated in the 1913 general election fielded two candidates under the label Labour Socialist. It opposed both the Dominion Labor and Independent Labor parties.

Calgary, Edmonton and Medicine Hat

The Liberals, in fact, won a larger share of the votes cast than the UFA (about 34%, compared to 29% for the UFA). The popular vote numbers do not represent the actual number of voters however as urban voters in Calgary and Edmonton were allowed to place five votes and Medicine Hat voters 2 votes, as the districts contained 5 and 2 seats respectively, while rural voters in other constituencies only had 1 vote under the first past the post electoral system. The United Farmers did not run in Calgary and only had a single candidate in Edmonton, thus it did not benefit from the higher weighted city vote. It was also noted by defenders of the government that the UFA percentage of total seats is identical to the percentage of votes it received in the constituencies in which it ran candidates.

The Aftermath

The result of the election radically and forever altered the political landscape of the province. The United Farmers walked away with a majority government while the Liberals formed opposition with MLAs in the cities of Calgary and Edmonton and some northern strongholds.

President Henry Wise Wood was voted to lead the government as Premier unanimously from the 38 MLAs who attended the first United Farmers caucus meeting. Wood declined becoming Premier because he was more interested in operating the machinery of the United Farmers movement rather than crafting government policy. He said he feared that the UFA would repeat what had happened elsewhere when farmers movements engaged in electoral politics, rose to power and quickly destroyed themselves. He wanted to remain focused on the movement.^[6] The UFA vice-president, Percival Baker, had won his riding with a majority of votes, despite being badly injured in tree-falling accident and was speculated to have a place in the cabinet. He however died the day after the election.^[7] The United Farmers caucus finally chose Herbert Greenfield, who had not run in the election, to become Premier.

Results

Members elected

References

External links

• Elections Alberta

Elections and referendums in Alberta
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Referendums	1915 1920 1923 1948 1957 1967 1971
See also: List of Alberta by-elections