Alberta general election, 1948

Alberta general election, 1948

August 17, 1948

57 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 29 seats were needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Ernest Manning Elmer E. Roper James H. Prowse Party Social Credit Co-operative Commonwealth Liberal Leader since May 31, 1943 1942 June 26, 1947 Leader's seat Edmonton Edmonton Edmonton Last election 51 seats, 50.5% 2 seats, 24.2% did not run Seats before 50 2 1 Seats won 51 2 2 Seat change 1 ±0 1 Popular vote 164,003 56,387 52,655 Percentage 55.6% 19.1% 17.9% Swing 5.1% 5.1% —

Premier before election Ernest Manning Social Credit Premier-designate Ernest Manning Social Credit

The Alberta general election of 1948 was the eleventh general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on August 17, 1948 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Ernest C. Manning led the Social Credit to a fourth term in government, increasing its share of the popular vote further above the 50% mark it had set in the 1944 election. It won the same number of seats — 51 of the 57 seats in the legislature — that it had won in the previous election.

The remaining seats were won by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the Liberal Party and independents.

Along with this election, voters got to also vote in a province wide plebiscite. The ballot asked voters about utility regulation.

Results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
				1944	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Social Credit	Ernest C. Manning	57	51	51	-	164,003	55.63%	+3.75%
	Cooperative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	51	2	2	-	56,387	19.13%	−5.79%
	Liberal	James Harper Prowse	49	*	2	*	52,655	17.86%	*
	Independent		7	3	1	−66.7%	9,014	3.05%	−13.70%
	Independent Social Credit		3	*	1	*	2,958	1.00%	*
	Independent Citizen's	John P. Page	2	*	-	*	3,969	1.35%	*
	Labour		1	*	-	*	3,579	1.21%	*
	Labor–Progressive	Ben Swankey	2	-	-	-	1,372	0.47%	−3.79%
	United Labour		1	*	-	*	856	0.30%	*
	Veterans' & Active Force		0	1	-	−100%	0	0.00%	-
Total			173	57	57	-	294,793	100%
Source: Elections Alberta

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Electrification plebiscite

The electrification plebiscite was possibly the third plebiscite conducted province-wide in Alberta's history. The ballot was not a traditional yes/no question, but presented two options on electricity regulation, asking if the province should create a Crown corporation to manage electricity, or leave the electricity industry in the hands of the companies currently in the business (a mixture of municipal operations and private companies).

The result shows how evenly divided the province was on the issue, with a plurality of only 151 votes in favour of leaving the old system in place. In fact, the majority of voters in Edmonton and in the rural areas were in favour of provincial control but an even larger majority in Calgary voted in favour of the old system.

Option A	Option B
Are you in favour of the generation and distribution of electricity being continued by the Power Companies?	Are you in favour of the generation and distribution of electricity being made a publicly owned utility administered by the Alberta Government Power Commission?
139,991     50.03%	139,840     49.97%

For a breakdown of results, please see individual districts.

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

11th Alberta Legislative Assembly
	District	Member	Party
	Acadia-Coronation	Clarence Gerhart	Social Credit
	Alexandra	Anders Aalborg	Social Credit
	Athabasca	Gordon Lee	Social Credit
	Banff-Cochrane	Arthur Wray	Independent Social Credit
	Beaver River	Harry Lobay	Social Credit
	Bow Valley-Empress	Wilson Cain	Social Credit
	Bruce	Earl Hardy	Social Credit
	Calgary	Rose Wilkinson	Social Credit
		Frederick C. Colborne	Social Credit
		Howard MacDonald	Independent
		Hugh John MacDonald	Liberal
		Aylmer Liesemer	Co-operative Commonwealth
	Camrose	Chester Sayers	Social Credit
	Cardston	Nathan Eldon Tanner	Social Credit
	Clover Bar	Floyd Baker	Social Credit
	Cypress	James Underdahl	Social Credit
	Didsbury	Howard Hammell	Social Credit
	Drumheller	Gordon Taylor	Social Credit
	Edmonton	Elmer Roper	Co-operative Commonwealth
		Lou Heard	Social Credit
		Ernest Manning	Social Credit
		James Harper Prowse	Liberal
		Clayton Adams	Social Credit
	Edson	Norman Willmore	Social Credit
	Gleichen	George Bell	Social Credit
	Grande Prairie	Ira McLaughlin	Social Credit
	Grouard	John Wood	Social Credit
	Hand Hills	Wallace Cross	Social Credit
	Lac Ste. Anne	Albert Bourcier	Social Credit
	Lacombe	Duncan MacMillan	Social Credit
	Leduc	Ronald Ansley	Social Credit
	Lethbridge	John Landeryou	Social Credit
	Little Bow	Peter Dawson	Social Credit
	Macleod	James Hartley	Social Credit
	Medicine Hat	John Lyle Robinson	Social Credit
	Okotoks-High River	Ivan Casey	Social Credit
	Olds	Norman E. Cook	Social Credit
	Peace River	William Gilliland	Social Credit
	Pembina	Robin Jorgenson	Social Credit
	Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	William Kovach	Social Credit
	Ponoka	Ora Moore	Social Credit
	Red Deer	David A. Ure	Social Credit
	Redwater	Peter Chaba	Social Credit
	Rocky Mountain House	Alfred Hooke	Social Credit
	Sedgewick	Albert Fee	Social Credit
	Spirit River	Henry DeBolt	Social Credit
	St. Albert	Lucien Maynard	Social Credit
	St. Paul	Joseph Beaudry	Social Credit
	Stettler	William Mackie	Social Credit
	Stony Plain	Cornelia Wood	Social Credit
	Taber	Roy S. Lee	Social Credit
	Vegreville	Michael Ponich	Social Credit
	Vermilion	William Cornish	Social Credit
	Wainwright	William Masson	Social Credit
	Warner	Leonard Halmrast	Social Credit
	Wetaskiwin	John Wingblade	Social Credit
	Willingdon	William Tomyn	Social Credit

See also

• 1957 Liquor Plebiscite
• 1967 Daylight Saving Plebiscite
• 1971 Daylight Saving Plebiscite
• List of Alberta political parties