1959 Alberta general election

Alberta general election, 1959

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65 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 33 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Ernest Manning Cam Kirby Party Social Credit Progressive Conservative Leader since May 31, 1943 1958 Leader's seat Strathcona East Red Deer (lost re-election) Last election 37 seats, 46.4% 3 seats, 9.2% Seats before 37 3 Seats won 61 1 Seat change 24 2 Popular vote 230,283 98,730 Percentage 55.7% 23.9% Swing 9,3% 14.7%   Third party Fourth party   CCF Leader Grant MacEwan Floyd Albin Johnson Party Liberal Co-operative Commonwealth Leader since November 1, 1958 1957 Leader's seat Calgary-North (lost re-election) ran in Denvegan (lost) Last election 4 seats, 31.1% 2 seats, 8.2% Seats before 15 2 Seats won 1 0 Seat change 14 2 Popular vote 57,408 17,899 Percentage 13.9% 4.3% Swing 17.2% 3.9%
Premier before election Ernest Manning Social Credit Premier-designate Ernest Manning Social Credit

The Alberta general election of 1959 was the fourteenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on June 18, 1959, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Ernest C. Manning, in his fifth election as party leader and provincial premier, led the Social Credit Party to its seventh consecutive term in government, with 55% of the popular vote, and all but four of the sixty five seats in the legislature.

Social Credit was also helped by a split in the opposition vote: whereas in the 1955 election, opponents were largely united behind the Liberal Party, in this election the vote was divided between the Liberals and the resurgent Progressive Conservative Party under the leadership of Cam Kirby, won almost 15% of the popular vote, placing ahead of the Liberals whose leader, Grant MacEwan lost his Calgary seat. The Tories and Liberals each won only one seat in the legislature while the Alberta CCF was shut out of the legislature for the first time in seventeen years. The other two opposition seat were taken by a Coalition candidate in Banff and an Independent Social Credit-er, both with strong local support.

Previous to this election, the Social Credit government had done away with the Instant-runoff voting system in use 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, the government claimed, to prevent the waste of votes caused by votes being declared spoiled due to unsatisfactory ballot marking, to bring Alberta in line with the other provinces who were using the First past the post systems, and to stop what the government called a conspiracy by the opposition parties to gang p on the SC government. The cancellation of STV and AV also standardized and simplified voting results across the province. Under single transferable vote and instant-runoff voting, final results would take up to five days to count the necessary vote transfers, before the last seat in a multiple-member district, Edmonton nor Calgary, was declared filled. (Manning always knew he was elected only hours after the polls closed due to his high vote count on the First Count.) The delay was especially large in the Edmonton, which elected seven members.

The 1955 election had produced a large opposition in the Legislature (large by Alberta standards anyway). Besides Liberals, Conservatives and CCF-ers electing MLAs in proportion to their numbers in the cities, the government had lost a few members in rural constituencies due to IRV, when they had received the largest portion of the vote in the constituency but were not elected to the seat due to another candidate receiving many votes (second choices votes) from a third candidate, who being last ranking had been eliminated. The cancellation of IRV system was meant to prevent this in the future.^[1]

Simultaneous with cancellation of STV/AV, the government increased the number of MLAs by creating new districts, the most since 1909, mostly in Calgary and Edmonton (two districts). This allowed drastic re-drawing of district boundaries, allowing the government to suit itself.

The change was met by some harsh criticism at the time. The government was accused of changing the rules to help itself and for failing to consult the public, but it did not hurt the government's popularity at the polls.^[2]

Contents

• 
  1 Results
  


• 
  2 Members elected
  


• 
  3 See also
  


• 
  4 References
  

Results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
				1955	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Social Credit	Ernest C. Manning	64	37	61	+64.9%	230,283	55.69%	+9.27%
	Progressive Conservative	Cam Kirby	60	3	1	−66.7%	98,730	23.88%	+14.69%
	Liberal	Grant MacEwan	51	15	1	−93.9%	57,408	13.88%	−17.25%
	Independent Social Credit		2	1	1	-	2,393	0.58%	−0.14%
	Coalition	Frank Gainer	1	1	1	-	2,279	0.55%	−0.66%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Floyd Albin Johnson	32	2	-	−100%	17,899	4.33%	−3.91%
	Independent		2	1	-	−100%	3,640	0.88%	−0.25%
	Labor–Progressive		4	-	-	-	884	0.21%	−0.69%
Total			216	61	65	+6.6%	413,516	100%
Source: Elections Alberta

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts.

14th Alberta Legislative Assembly
District		Member	Party
	Acadia-Coronation	Marion Kelts	Social Credit
	Alexandra	Anders Aalborg	Social Credit
	Athabasca	Antonio Aloisio	Social Credit
	Banff-Cochrane	Frank Gainer	Coalition
	Bonnyville	Karl Nordstrom	Social Credit
	Bow Valley-Empress	William Delday	Social Credit
	Bruce	Earl Hardy	Social Credit
	Calgary Bowness	Charles Johnston	Social Credit
	Calgary Centre	Frederick C. Colborne	Social Credit
	Calgary Glenmore	Ernest Watkins	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary North	Rose Wilkinson	Social Credit
	Calgary North East	Albert Ludwig	Social Credit
	Calgary South East	Arthur J. Dixon	Social Credit
	Calgary West	Donald S. Fleming	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
	Dunvegan	Joseph Scruggs	Social Credit
	Edmonton Centre	Ambrose Holowach	Social Credit
	Edmonton North	Ethel Wilson	Social Credit
	Edmonton Norwood	William Tomyn	Social Credit
	Edmonton North East	Lou Heard	Social Credit
	Edmonton North West	Edgar Gerhart	Social Credit
	Edson	Norman Willmore	Social Credit
	Gleichen	George Bell	Social Credit
	Grande Prairie	Ira McLaughlin	Social Credit
	Grouard	Roy Ells	Social Credit
	Hand Hills	Clinton Keith French	Social Credit
	Jasper West	Richard Jamieson	Social Credit
	Lac La Biche	Michael Maccagno	Liberal
	Lac Ste. Anne	William Patterson	Social Credit
	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	Ernest George Hansell	Social Credit
	Olds	Roderick Macleod	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	William Ure	Social Credit
	Redwater	John Dubetz	Social Credit
	Rocky Mountain House	Alfred Hooke	Social Credit
	Sedgewick	Jack Hillman	Social Credit
	Spirit River	Adolph Fimrite	Social Credit
	St. Albert	Keith Everitt	Social Credit
	St. Paul	Raymond Reierson	Social Credit
	Stettler	Galen Norris	Social Credit
	Stony Plain	Cornelia Wood	Social Credit
	Strathcona Centre	Joseph Donovan Ross	Social Credit
	Strathcona East	Ernest Manning	Social Credit
	Strathcona West	Randolph McKinnon	Social Credit
	Taber	Roy Lee	Social Credit
	Vegreville	Alex Gordey	Social Credit
	Vermilion	Ashley Cooper	Social Credit
	Wainwright	Henry Ruste	Social Credit
	Warner	Leonard Halmrast	Social Credit
	Wetaskiwin	John Wingblade	Social Credit
	Willingdon	Nicholas Melnyk	Social Credit

See also

• List of Alberta political parties

References

1. 
   ^ Bob Hesketh, "The Abolition of Preferential voting in Alberta", Prairie Forum, Spring 1987
   


2. 
   ^ Bob Hesketh, "The Abolition of Preferential voting in Alberta", Prairie Forum, Spring 1987
   

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