Alberta general election, 1955

Alberta general election, 1955

June 29, 1955

61 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 31 seats were needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party   Leader Ernest Manning James H. Prowse Party Social Credit Liberal Leader since May 31, 1943 June 25, 1947 Leader's seat Edmonton Edmonton Last election 53 seats, 56.2% 3 seats, 22.4% Seats before 53 3 Seats won 37 15 Seat change 16 12 Popular vote 175,553 117,741 Percentage 46.4% 31.1% Swing 9.8% 8.7%   Third party Fourth party   Leader John P. Page Elmer E. Roper Party Conservative Co-operative Commonwealth Leader since 1952 1942 Leader's seat Edmonton Edmonton (lost re-election) Last election 2 seats, 3.7% 1 seats, 14.1% Seats before 2 2 Seats won 3 2 Seat change 1 ±0 Popular vote 34,757 31,180 Percentage 9.2% 8.2% Swing 5.5% 5.9%

Premier before election Ernest Manning Social Credit Premier-designate

The Alberta general election of 1955 was the thirteenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on June 29, 1955 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Despite losing almost 10% of the popular vote (compared to its 1952 proportion of the vote) and 30% of its seats in the legislature, the Social Credit Party, led by Ernest C. Manning, received a slightly higher number of votes than in 1952 and won a comfortable majority for its sixth term in government.

The Liberal Party emerged as the principal opposition to the Social Credit juggernaut, winning over 30% of the popular vote, and increasing its legislative caucus from 4 members to 15. The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation won two seats however leader Elmer Roper was defeated ending his thirteen-year career in the legislature. The Conservative Party and various independents also won seats.

Snap vote

The 1955 election was brought on after Liberal leader James Harper Prowse questioned the confidence of the government in question period regarding members of the Social Credit caucus who had dealings with the Alberta Treasury Branch. Manning was angered by the question and had the Lieutenant Governor dissolve the assembly despite having two more years left in the term.

Expulsion

On the last day of the campaign Ernest Manning expelled candidates Roy Lee and John Landeryou from being official Social Credit candidates. However, due to the fact that the ballots were already printed they were still under the Social Credit name. The two candidates violated the Legislative Assembly Act for renting a building to the provincial government.^[1]

End of STV and AV

Following this election, the Social Credit government did away with the Instant-runoff voting system, that had been in place in the rural constituencies, and the Single Transferable Vote system in Edmonton and Calgary, both of which had been in place since 1924. The move was made to standardize and simplify voting results across the province. Under single transferable vote, results would take up to five days to count all the possible vote transfers, before anyone was declared elected. This was especially problematic, in Edmonton that elected seven members.

As well, the government in 1955 had lost five local elections in rural constituencies due to the IRV, when its candidate had received the largest portion of the vote in the first round but was not elected to the seat after re-distribution of the ballots in the second round. The cancellation of the IRV system was meant to prevent this in the future.

There were five constituencies where the SC had the largest number of first-choice votes but were not elected in the second round ballot count. One historian has stated that there were 20 constituencies like this in which the SC at the end won only five but that number is too high. There were 16 constituencies in which, in the first round, no candidate took the majority of the votes. In these constituencies, second round balloting (through re-distribution of some of the voters' second preferences) was held. Mostly the candidate leading in the first round won the seat in the second round, but there were five constituencies (Acadia-Coronation, Athabasca, Grouard, Lac Ste. Anne and Vermilion) in which the leading candidate in the first round did not win the second round (thus the seat), and the victim in all five cases was the SC candidate, indicating to the government that the supporters of the opposition parties were beginning to support each other in a joint effort to defeat the government.

Results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1952	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Social Credit	Ernest C. Manning	62	53	37	-30.2%	175,553	46.42%	-9.82%
	Liberal	James Harper Prowse	53	3	15	+400%	117,741	31.13%	+8.76%
	Conservative	John P. Page	26	2	3	+50.0%	34,757	9.19%	+5.52%
	Cooperative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	38	2	2	0%	31,180	8.24%	-5.81%
	Coalition	Frank Gainer	2	*	1	*	4,581	1.21%	*
	Independent		7	-	1		4,225	1.12%	+0.88%
	Liberal Conservative	Ross Ellis	2	*	1	*	4,001	1.06%	*
	Independent Social Credit		3	1	1	0.0%	2,721	0.72%	-0.69%
	Labor–Progressive		9	-	-	-	3,420	0.90%	+0.52%
Total			202	60	61	+1.7%	378,179	100%
Source: Elections Alberta

Notes:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

13th Alberta Legislative Assembly
	District	Member	Party
	Acadia-Coronation	James Sims	Liberal
	Alexandra	Anders Aalborg	Social Credit
	Athabasca	Richard Hall	Liberal
	Banff-Cochrane	Frank Gainer	Coalition
	Bonnyville	Jake Josvanger	Liberal
	Bow Valley-Empress	Bryce Stringam	Independent
	Bruce	Earl Hardy	Social Credit
	Calgary	Arthur Ryan Smith	Conservative
		Hugh John MacDonald	Liberal
		Frederick C. Colborne	Social Credit
		Rose Wilkinson	Social Credit
		Grant MacEwan	Liberal
		Arthur J. Dixon	Social Credit
	Camrose	Chester Sayers	Social Credit
	Cardston	Edgar Hinman	Social Credit
	Clover Bar	Floyd Baker	Social Credit
	Cypress	Harry Strom	Social Credit
	Didsbury	James Lawrence Owens	Social Credit
	Drumheller	Gordon Taylor	Social Credit
	Edmonton	Ernest Manning	Social Credit
		James Harper Prowse	Liberal
		Abe Miller	Liberal
		Harold Tanner	Liberal
		Joseph Donovan Ross	Social Credit
		John Page	Conservative
		Edgar Gerhart	Social Credit
	Edson	Norman Willmore	Social Credit
	Gleichen	George E. Bell	Social Credit
	Grande Prairie	Ira McLaughlin	Social Credit
	Grouard	Joseph Desfosses	Liberal
	Hand Hills	Wallace Warren Cross	Social Credit
	Lac La Biche	Michael Maccagno	Liberal
	Lac Ste. Anne	John Mills	Liberal
	Lacombe	Allen Patrick	Social Credit
	Leduc	Ronald Ansley	Independent Social Credit
	Lethbridge	John Landeryou	Social Credit
	Little Bow	Peter Dawson	Social Credit
	Macleod	James Hartley	Social Credit
	Medicine Hat	Elizabeth Robinson	Social Credit
	Okotoks-High River	Ross Ellis	Liberal and Conservative Coalition
	Olds	Frederick Niddrie	Social Credit
	Peace River	William Gilliland	Social Credit
	Pembina	Robin Jorgenson	Social Credit
	Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	William Kovach	Social Credit
	Ponoka	Glen Johnston	Social Credit
	Red Deer	Cam Kirby	Conservative
	Redwater	Alfred Macyk	Liberal
	Rocky Mountain House	Alfred Hooke	Social Credit
	Sedgewick	Jack Hillman	Social Credit
	Spirit River	Adolph Fimrite	Social Credit
	St. Albert	Arthur Soetaert	Liberal
	St. Paul	Raymond Reierson	Social Credit
	Stettler	John Clark	Social Credit
	Stony Plain	John McLaughlin	Liberal
	Taber	Roy Lee	Social Credit
	Vegreville	Stanley Ruzycki	Cooperative Commonwealth
	Vermilion	Russell Whitson	Liberal
	Wainwright	Henry Ruste	Liberal
	Warner	Leonard Halmrast	Social Credit
	Wetaskiwin	John Wingblade	Social Credit
	Willingdon	Nick Dushenski	Co-operative Commonwealth

See also

• List of Alberta political parties

References

1. "Manning Takes Belated Kick At Two Former S.C. Members". Calgary Herald. June 29, 1955. p. 1.