1935 Alberta general election

The 1935 Alberta general election was held on August 22, 1935, to elect members of the 8th Alberta Legislature in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The newly founded Social Credit Party of Alberta won a sweeping victory, unseating the 14-year government of the United Farmers of Alberta. It was one of only five times that Alberta has changed governments.

Premier John E. Brownlee had resigned on July 10, 1934, when he was sued and found liable for the seduction of a young clerk working in the Attorney-General's office. Although the verdict was immediately set aside by the presiding judge, the scandal seriously damaged the UFA's reputation among socially conservative Albertans. Provincial Treasurer Richard G. Reid succeeded him, but was unable to change the party's fortunes. The government had fallen into disfavour as it had proven unable to address the Depression, which had hit Alberta particularly hard, and due to the government's unwillingness to accede to demands to adopt Social Credit policies and programs.

Social Credit won 56 of the 63 seats in the legislature, and over 50% of the popular vote, well beyond even the most optimistic Socred projections. Many of those gains came at the expense of the UFA, which lost all of its seats in one of the worst defeats ever suffered by a provincial government in Canada. Reid and Brownlee, for instance, were heavily defeated by Socred challengers, with Reid being pushed into third place. The UFA did receive 11 per cent of the vote so its due share was about ten members - the province's limited use of PR did not ensure that it won any seats at all.

The UFA's wipeout happened just a month after the Prince Edward Island Tories lost all 18 of their seats at that year's provincial election. A similar wipeout would not happen again until the 1987 New Brunswick general election, when the governing New Brunswick Tories lost all 39 of their seats.

The Alberta Liberals in this election ran with the tactically fatal slogan, the "rest of Canada can't be wrong"—referring to the popularity of the Liberal Party in the rest of the country. It did not work; they had their seat count cut in half. However, due to the UFA being swept from the legislature, the Liberals wound up as the Official Opposition. The Conservatives lost four of their six seats.

The Socreds' expectations for the election had been so low that they had not even named a formal leader for the campaign. When the newly elected Socred MLAs held their first caucus meeting, the first order of business was to select a leader and premier-designate. The obvious choice was the party's founder and guiding force, Calgary-based Baptist pastor William Aberhart. Persuaded to accept the mantle of leadership, Aberhart was sworn in as premier on September 3.

This provincial election, like the previous two, 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.

The turnout of the 1935 election topped 80%, and no election in Alberta has come close to this mark.

This election campaign is seen as the most negative in Alberta's history, with reports of Social Credit members, operating openly and on Aberhart's directives, defacing the campaign signs of opponents and drowning their speeches by honking car horns. Many campaign ads also focused mostly on attacking the opposing parties.

After the 1935 election results were in, newspapers across North America took notice, with the Boston Herald running the headline "Alberta Goes Crazy!".

This shift marked the first in Social Credit's nine consecutive election victories, for a total of 36 years in office–one of the longest unbroken runs in government in the Commonwealth. The UFA never recovered from this wipeout defeat, withdrawing from politics altogether in 1937. Many of UFA's erstwhile supporters shifted to supporting the CCF, whose full name "CCF (Farmer-Labour-Socialist)" indicates how it was a merging of UFA and other previous farmer and labor parties.

Results +Elections to the 8th Alberta Legislative Assembly (1935)PartyLeaderCandidatesFirst-preference votesSeats Votes ± % Change (pp) 1930 1935 ±William Aberhart63 163,700 163,700 54.25 –56Richard G. Reid45 33,063 41,124 11.00 3939William R. Howson61 69,845 23,570 23.14 116David M. Duggan39 19,358 8,596 6.41 64Fred J. White11 5,086 9,268 1.68 447 2,740 20,526 0.90 33Jan Lakeman9 5,771 3,588 1.91 1 955 955 0.31 1 560 560 0.19 1 258 258 0.08 1 224 224 0.07 1 192 192 0.06Total 240301,752 100.00% Rejected ballots 8,269 562 Turnout 310,021 114,095 81.8% 15.1 Registered voters 378,249 84,454

MLAs elected

Synopsis of results + Results by riding1935 Alberta general election (all except Calgary and Edmonton) Riding First-preference votes Turnoutincluding spoilt ballots Final counts Winning partyName SC UFA Total SC UFA 1930 1935   Acadia1,834 628 289 – – – – 2,75190.3%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Alexandra2,479 924 561 202 – 197 – 4,363 78.3%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Athabasca1,764 – 950 315 – – – 3,029 71.0%Elected on 1st count Lib SC Beaver River1,751 572 775 147 – – – 3,245 66.8%Elected on 1st count Lib SCBow Valley1,776 401 591 – – – 204 2,97285.9%Elected on 1st count Ind SC Camrose4,335 1,039 1,395 – – – – 6,76986.7%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Cardston2,027 565 471 – – – – 3,06395.4%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Clover Bar2,503 844 1,105 264 – – – 4,71686.0%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Cochrane1,880 591 628 337 – – – 3,43687.9%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Coronation2,674 844 625 – – – – 4,14387.4%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Cypress1,689 587 798 – – – 51 3,12583.0%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Didsbury2,731 610 607 303 – – – 4,25185.0%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Drumheller2,158 – 341 – – 342 778 3,61984.4%Elected on 1st count Ind SC Edson2,154 – 1,620John Sedgwick Cowper was previously a member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. – 1,414 – – 5,188 76.0% 2,443 – 2,068 – Lab SC Empress1,453 324 239 – – – – 2,01684.5%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Gleichen2,093 895 569 439 – – – 3,99684.3%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Grande Prairie2,741 1,809 2,387 464 – – – 7,401 75.6% 3,142 – 3,061 – UFA SC Grouard1,447 346 2,272 – – – – 4,065 78.1%Elected on 1st count Lib Lib Hand Hills3,270 707 552 – – – – 4,52986.5%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Innisfail2,805 386 583 318 – – – 4,09287.5%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Lac Ste. Anne1,668 1,080 897 133 – – – 3,778 75.6% 1,791 1,518 – – UFA SC Lacombe3,483 721 838 519 – – – 5,56186.6%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Leduc2,940 357 1,305 166 – – – 4,76882.0%Elected on 1st count Lib SC Lethbridge3,700 – 1,946 341 654 – – 6,641 81.6%Elected on 1st count Lab SC Little Bow2,322 704 474 – – – – 3,50087.9%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Macleod1,680 650 387 – – – – 2,71786.1%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Medicine Hat3,236 – 1,252 653 – – – 5,14183.3%Elected on 1st count Lib SC Nanton-Claresholm1,767 612 512 269 – – – 3,16586.3%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Okotoks-High River3,062 1,005 970 452 – – – 5,48985.8%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Olds3,538 694 955 167 – – – 5,35491.6%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Peace River2,474 994 1,389 308 – – – 5,165 69.6% 2,269 – 1,898 – UFA SC Pembina3,133 1,030 1,145 183 – – – 5,491 80.1%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Pincher Creek1,214 296 528 312 – – – 2,35088.4%Elected on 1st count Lib SC Ponoka2,295 879 696 – – – – 3,87086.6%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Red Deer3,565 – 788 612 – 291 622 5,87885.6%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Ribstone2,684 499 589 – – – – 3,77287.3%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Rocky Mountain2,996 – 1,033 – – 1,080 389 5,49882.0%Elected on 1st count Ind SC St. Albert1,431 116 446 – – – 1,253Lucien Boudreau (Ind-Liberal) - 955 votes; A.S. McRae (Ind-Conservative) - 258 votes. 3,20686.4% 1,619 – – 1,445 UFA SC St. Paul2,567 946 1,963 – – – – 5,47682.2% 2,679 – 2,364 – Lib SC Sedgewick3,642 933 632 – – – – 5,10788.7%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Stettler3,603 522 882 271 – – – 5,27889.9%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Stony Plain2,832 312 1,472 171 – – – 4,78782.8%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Sturgeon2,465 857 1,533 361 – – 560 5,776 80.8% 2,729 – 2,053 – UFA SC Taber2,879 757 642 – – – – 4,278 79.9%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Vegreville2,817 995 1,681 109 – – – 5,60282.5% 3,047 – 2,065 – UFA SC Vermilion2,452 876 1,062 244 – 838 – 5,47282.8% 2,664 – 1,437 – UFA SC Victoria2,045 319 1,181 141 – – – 3,686 77.8%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Wainwright2,382 811 953 194 – – – 4,34083.6%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Warner1,702 588 534 – – – 227 3,05182.7%Elected on 1st count UFA SC Wetaskiwin2,762 506 1,149 187 – 141 – 4,74585.7%Elected on 1st count Lib SC Whitford1,265 940 615 – – 966 – 3,786 77.8% 1,370 1,121 – – UFA SC

= Open seat = turnout is above provincial average = Candidate was in previous Legislature = Incumbent had switched allegiance = Previously incumbent in another riding = Not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature = Incumbency arose from by-election gain = previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada = Multiple candidates

Multi-member districts

District Seats won(in order declared)Calgary            Edmonton            

  Social Credit   Liberal   Conservative

= Candidate was in previous Legislature = First-time MLA = Previously incumbent in another district.

STV analysis Exhausted votes Twelve districts went beyond first-preference counts in order to determine winning candidates:

+ Exhausted votes (1935)DistrictCountsExhausted 1st preference Final Votes% of 1st prefCalgary41,193 37,827 3,366 Edmonton37,267 35,625 1,642 Edson5,188 4,511 677 Grande Prairie7,401 6,203 1,198 Lac Ste. Anne3,778 3,309 469 Peace River5,165 4,167 998 St. Albert3,206 3,064 142 St. Paul5,476 5,043 433 Sturgeon5,776 4,782 994 Vegreville5,602 5,112 490 Vermilion5,472 4,101 1,371 Whitford3,786 2,491 1,295

Calgary There were more contestants in the race compared to 1930, but only Social Credit ran a full slate of candidates:

PartyCandidatesMLAs elected 1935 1930 ± 1935 1930 ±4 4 1 3 23 3 – 1 14 3 1 1 2 16 – 6 4 – 41 1 – – –1 – 1 – – –1 2 1 – – –Total20 13 7 6 6

Eighteen counts were needed to determine the outcome, but count-by-count results are not available. There are only detailed results for the later counts. Manning, Irwin, Anderson, Bowlen and Gostick achieved quota, and Hugill obtained the next best result on the final count.

Edmonton The 1935 race had a broader field of candidates compared to 1930:

PartyCandidatesMLAs elected 1935 1930 ± 1935 1930 ±6 6 1 3 26 4 2 – 1 16 4 2 3 1 26 – 6 2 – 21 1 – 1 11 1 – – –1 – 1 – – –– 1 1 – – –Total27 17 10 6 6

As a result, the number of counts needed to select the six MLAs expanded from 14 to 23. Howson, Barnes and Van Allen won on achieving quota; Duggan, Mullen and O'Connor had the best results in the final round.

+ Initial terminal transfer rates for votes (1930)Transferred from Non-transferrable % transferred to TotalSocred Liberal UFA Conservative Dominion LaborCommunist Reconstruction (Howson)4 55 3,551 58 106 28 9 4 3,8150.10% 1.44% 93.08% 1.52% 2.78% 0.73% 0.24% 0.10% 100.00% (Jamieson)12 68 193 124 872 – 11 – 1,2800.94% 5.31% 15.08% 9.69% 68.13% – 0.86% – 100.00% (King)7 836 14 3 7 1 3 – 8710.80% 95.98% 1.61% 0.34% 0.80% 0.11% 0.34% – 100.00% (Lymburn)349 320 1,110 – 1,526 – – – 3,30510.56% 9.68% 33.59% – 46.17% – – – 100.00% (Lakeman)585 290 341 199 76 – – – 1,49139.24% 19.45% 22.87% 13.35% 5.10% – – – 100.00%

Notes

References

Further reading

Party platforms

See also List of Alberta political parties