Английская Википедия:1921 Alberta general election

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Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Use mdy dates Шаблон:Infobox election The 1921 Alberta general election was held on July 18, 1921, to elect members to the 5th Alberta Legislative Assembly. It was one of only five times that Alberta has changed governments.

The Liberal Party, which had governed the province since its creation in 1905, led by Charles Stewart at the time of the election, was defeated by a very-new United Farmers of Alberta political party. The UFA was an agricultural lobby organization that was contesting its first general election. It had previously elected one MLA in a by-election.

Under the Block Voting system, each voter in Edmonton and Calgary could vote for up to five candidates, while Medicine Hat voters could vote for up to two candidates. All other districts remained one voter – one vote.

No party ran a full slate of candidates province-wide. The UFA ran candidates in most of the rural constituencies, and one in Edmonton. The Liberal Party ran candidates in almost all the constituencies. The Conservatives ran a bare dozen candidates, mostly in the cities. Labour mostly avoided running against UFA candidates, by running candidates in the cities and in Rocky Mountain, where it counted on coal miners' votes.

The United Farmers took most of the rural seats, doing particularly well in the heavily Protestant south of the province. A majority of the votes in the constituencies where the UFA ran candidates went to the UFA.

Labour took five seats, two in Calgary. One Labour MLA was named to the UFA government cabinet, in a sort of coalition government.

The Liberals took all the seats in Edmonton, due to the block-voting system in use. This multiple-vote system also skewed the vote count.

The campaign

Liberals

The Liberal Party, which had governed the province since 1905, were led into the election by its third Premier and leader, Charles Stewart.

AGT scandal

The Alberta Government Telephones scandal 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

Файл:Herbert Greenfield - circa 1921-25.jpg
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. 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 victory 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 two 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 expected 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 declining to seek office himself, instead devoting his energies help other candidates.

At the beginning of the election Independent Labor offered to nominate Edmonton area candidates at a joint convention with the DLP, to prevent the splitting of the labour vote and use the co-operative good-will 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, soon after to lead meetings of the Communist Party.[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 had been in decline since O'Brien lost his seat in the 1913 general election. Two Socialist candidates ran in this election, under the banner Labour Socialist, Frank Williams in Calgary and Marie Mellard in Edmonton. Marie Mellard would join the new Communist Party within the year.

Calgary, Edmonton and Medicine Hat voters cast multiple votes

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 exaggerate the actual number of Liberal party supporters however. Urban voters in Calgary and Edmonton were allowed to place five votes and Medicine Hat voters 2 votes, as Edmonton and Calgary contained 5 seats each and Medicine Hat 2 seats, while voters in the other constituencies, most of which were contested by the UFA, only had 1 vote each 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.

This over-representation of big-city voters was so significant that there were more than 120,000 more votes counted than there were voters voting—significant as no single party received more than 102,000 votes. The Liberal Party received 28,000 votes in Edmonton and 20,000 votes in Calgary, almost half of their total across the province, under this system where each big-city Liberal voter could lodge five votes for the party. If you give the Liberal Party only one-fifth of their vote tally in Edmonton and Calgary, the Liberal Party total vote count decreases to well below the UFA total. Now it could be that each voter in Edmonton gave one of his/her votes to the Liberals (but not likely), but even so the Liberal candidates in Edmonton received 8,000 more votes in Edmonton than there were voters who voted. This 8,000 is more than half the difference between the Liberal's and the UFA's tallies province-wide.[6]

As well, in Calgary 17,000 voters cast about 76,000 votes. As none of these went to UFA candidates (none ran in Calgary) this massive multiple voting going elsewhere gave the UFA a lower proportion overall.

It was also noted by defenders of the government that the UFA percentage of total seats (62 percent) is identical to the percentage of votes it received in the constituencies in which it did run candidates.

Aftermath

The result of the election radically and forever altered the political landscape of the province. The United Farmers won a majority government, mostly with rural MLAs predominantly from the south of the province, while the Liberals, formerly in power, were moved to the opposition side of the Chamber with MLAs in the cities of Calgary and Edmonton and some northern strongholds. The Liberals have never won power again; the closest they have come since then was winning 39 seats and opposition status in 1993. As well starting in 1921 and lasting until 1971, the Alberta provincial government was not the same as either of the two largest parties in the House of Commons. From 1921 to 1979 the Alberta provincial government and the House of Commons were not controlled by parties of the same name. (This made for interesting meetings between premiers and the Prime Minister, later conducted under the name First Ministers' Conference.)

The 38 MLAs who attended the first United Farmers caucus meeting voted unanimously for UFA President Henry Wise Wood to lead the government as Premier. Wood declined becoming premier because he was more interested in operating the machinery of the United Farmers movement rather than crafting government policy. He had actually opposed the UFA becoming a political party for fear that political in-fighting would break up the movement. 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 farmers movement as a non-partisan movement and as an economic group instead of as a political party.[7]

The UFA vice-president, Percival Baker, had won his riding with a majority of votes, but had been badly injured in a tree-falling accident during the campaign. He died the day after the election. It was speculated he would have had at least a place in the cabinet if he had lived.[8]

The United Farmers caucus finally chose Herbert Greenfield, a UFA executive member who had not run in the election, to become premier.

Results

Шаблон:Alberta provincial election, 1921 Шаблон:Bar boxШаблон:Bar box

Members elected

Шаблон:More citations needed

Шаблон:Canadian politics/candlist header |- |Acadia | |James C. Cottrell
906
22.58% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Lorne Proudfoot
3,106
77.42% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |John A. McColl |- |Alexandra | |Theodore H. Currie
282
11.38% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Peter J. Enzenauer
2,195
88.62% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |James R. Lowery |- |Athabasca |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George Mills
1,043
70.43% | | | |John Angelo
438
29.57% | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Alexander Grant MacKay |- |Beaver River |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Joseph M. Dechene
1,560
62.33% | |H. Montambault
943
37.67% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Wilfrid Gariepy |- |Bow Valley |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Charles Richmond Mitchell
1,694
72.30% | |George A. Love
649
27.70% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Charles Richmond Mitchell |- |Camrose | |George P. Smith
2,391
44.03% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Vernor W. Smith
3,040
55.97% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George P. Smith |- |Cardston | |Martin Woolf
615
31.46% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George Lewis Stringam
1,340
68.54% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Martin Woolf |- |Claresholm | | | |Louise McKinney
763
48.54% | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Thomas Charles Milnes (Ind.)
809
51.46% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Louise McKinney |- |rowspan="2"|Clearwater |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Joseph E. State
234
41.94% | | | | | | | |Robert G. Campbell
117
20.97% |rowspan="2" Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |rowspan="2"|Joseph E. State |- | |O.T. Lee
147
26.34% | | | | | | | |S.W. Chambers
60
10.75% |- |Cochrane | |A.S. McDonald
541
36.02% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Alexander Moore
961
63.98% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Alexander Moore |- |Coronation | |Arthur M. Day
960
20.44% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George Norman Johnston
3,736
79.56% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |William Wallace Wilson |- |Didsbury | |George H. Webber
1,734
40.69% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Austin Bingley Claypool
2,528
59.31% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Henry B. Atkins |- |Edson |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Charles Wilson Cross
1,321
57.94% | | | |John Diamond
959
42.06% | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Charles Wilson Cross |- |Gleichen | |Harry Scott
1,065
40.49% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |John C. Buckley
1,565
59.51% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Fred Davis |- |Grouard |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Jean Léon Côté
963
57.84% | |Henry George Dimsdale
702
42.16% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Jean Léon Côté |- |Hand Hills | |Robert Berry Eaton
1,583
27.13% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Gordon A. Forster
4,252
72.87% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Robert Berry Eaton |- |High River | |J.V. Drumheller
867
46.09% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Samuel Brown
1,014
53.91% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George Douglas Stanley |- |Innisfail | |Daniel J. Morkeberg
741
30.85% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Donald Cameron
1,661
69.15% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Daniel J. Morkeberg |- |Lac Ste. Anne | |C.J. Stiles
837
32.98% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Charles Milton McKeen
1,574
62.02% | | | | | |J.H. Mackay (Ind.)
127
5.00% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George R. Barker |- |Lacombe | |William Franklin Puffer
1,539
42.14% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Mary Irene Parlby
2,113
57.86% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Andrew Gilmour |- |Leduc |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Stanley G. Tobin
1,351
50.19% | |D.S. Muir
1,341
49.81% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Stanley G. Tobin |- |Lethbridge | | | | | | | |John Marsh
1,374
37.89% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |John S. Stewart (Ind.)
2,252
62.11% | | |- |Little Bow | |James McNaughton
856
35.52% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Oran Leo McPherson
1,554
64.48% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |James McNaughton |- |Macleod | |George Skelding
620
46.03% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |William H. Shield
727
53.97% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George Skelding |- |Medicine HatШаблон:Efn | |Oliver Boyd
2,278
18.9%
H. H. Foster
2,013
16.7% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Perren E. Baker
4,165
34.5% | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |William G. Johnston
3,602
29.9% | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Nelson C. Spencer |- |Nanton | |John M. Glendenning
458
38.65% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Daniel Harcourt Galbraith
727
61.35% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |James Weir |- |Okotoks | |Ernest Austin Daggett
390
25.67% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George Hoadley
1,129
74.33% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George Hoadley |- |Olds | |Duncan Marshall
1,238
39.50% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Nelson S. Smith
1,896
60.50% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Duncan Marshall |- |Peace River | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Donald MacBeth Kennedy
3,291
62.69% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |William A. Rae |- |Pembina | |J.H. Phillips
540
21.40% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George MacLachlan
1,838
72.85% | | | | | |F.D. Armitage (Ind.)
145
5.75% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Gordon MacDonald |- |Pincher Creek | |Harvey Bossenberry
471
34.43% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Earle G. Cook
572
41.81% | | | | | |A.E. Cox
192
14.01%
Donald Randolph McIvor
133
9.72% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |John H.W.S. Kemmis |- |Ponoka | |William A. Campbell
815
36.94% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |P. Baker
1,391
63.06% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Charles Orin Cunningham |- |Red Deer | |John J. Gaetz
1,146
34.66% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George Wilbert Smith
2,160
65.34% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Edward Michener |- |Redcliff | |Charles S. Pingle
1,387
41.56% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |William C. Smith
1,950
58.44% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Charles S. Pingle |- |Ribstone | |James Gray Turgeon
909
29.31% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Charles O.F. Wright
2,192
70.69% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |James Gray Turgeon |- |Rocky Mountain | |Alexander M. Morrison
1,143
35.08% | |Wallace James Sharpe
811
24.89% | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Philip Martin Christophers
1,304
40.02% | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Robert E. Campbell |- |Sedgewick |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Charles Stewart
Acclaimed | | | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Charles Stewart |- |St. Albert | |Lucien Boudreau
1,000
44.76% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Telesphore St. Arnaud
1,234
55.24% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Lucien Boudreau |- |St. Paul | |Prosper-Edmond Lessard
984
41.66% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Laudas Joly
1,378
58.34% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Prosper-Edmond Lessard |- |Stettler | |Edward H. Prudden
1,608
34.11% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Albert L. Sanders
3,106
65.89% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Edward H. Prudden |- |Stony Plain | |Jacob Miller
647
32.33% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Willard M. Washburn
1,001
50.02% | |Frederick W. Lundy
306
15.29% | | | |Dan Brox (Ind.)
47
2.35% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Frederick W. Lundy |- |Sturgeon | |John Robert Boyle
7,310
153.44% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Samuel Allen Carson
2,815
59.09% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |John Robert Boyle |- |Taber | |Archibald J. McLean
1,991
46.30% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Lawrence Peterson
2,309
53.70% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Archibald J. McLean |- |Vegreville | |Joseph S. McCallum
1,325
30.31% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Archibald Malcolm Matheson
3,047
69.69% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Joseph S. McCallum |- |Vermilion | |Arthur W. Ebbett
939
24.11% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Richard Gavin Reid
2,955
75.89% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Arthur W. Ebbett |- |Victoria | |Francis A. Walker
1,288
47.90% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Wasyl Fedun
1,401
52.10% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Francis A. Walker |- |Wainwright | |Harcus Strachan
913
28.10% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |John Russell Love
1,877
57.77% | |George LeRoy Hudson
459
14.13% | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |George LeRoy Hudson |- |Warner | |Frank S. Leffingwell
490
39.36% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Maurice Joy Conner
755
60.64% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Frank S. Leffingwell |- |Wetaskiwin | |Hugh John Montgomery
1,216
44.64% |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Evert E. Sparks
1,508
55.36% | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Hugh John Montgomery |- |Whitford |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Andrew S. Shandro
Acclaimed | | | | | | | | |Шаблон:Canadian party colour| |Andrew S. Shandro |- |}

10 by-elections were held in the months after the election. Some were held to sit several UFA MLAs and one Labour MLA in the new cabinet. Herbert Greenfield after being chosen to serve as premier ran for a seat in a by-election. John Brownlee after being chosen to serve as a cabinet minister ran for a seat in a by-election. Another was held after a Liberal MLA (Andrew Shandro) was thrown down for taking a seat under suspicious circumstances. All were successful for the UFA (and one Labour).

Calgary

5th Alberta Legislative Assembly
  District Member Party

Шаблон:Canadian party colour

Calgary Alex Ross Dominion Labor

Шаблон:Canadian party colour

Robert Edwards Independent

Шаблон:Canadian party colour

Fred White Dominion Labor

Шаблон:Canadian party colour

Robert Marshall Liberal

Шаблон:Canadian party colour

Robert Pearson Independent

Edmonton

5th Alberta Legislative Assembly
  District Member Party

Шаблон:Canadian party colour

Edmonton Andrew McLennan Liberal

Шаблон:Canadian party colour

John C. Bowen Liberal

Шаблон:Canadian party colour

Nellie McClung Liberal

Шаблон:Canadian party colour

John Boyle Liberal

Шаблон:Canadian party colour

Jeremiah Heffernan Liberal

Notes

Шаблон:Notelist

References

Шаблон:Reflist

Further reading

External links

Шаблон:AlbertaElections