1971 Alberta general election

Alberta general election, 1971

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75 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 38 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   PC SC NDP Leader Peter Lougheed Harry Strom Grant Notley Party Progressive Conservative Social Credit New Democratic Leader since 1965 December 12, 1968 1968 Leader's seat Calgary-West Cypress ran in Spirit River-Fairview Last election 6 seats, 26.0% 55 seats, 44.6% 0 seats, 16.0% Seats before 10 55 0 Seats won 49 25 1 Seat change 39 30 1 Popular vote 296,934 262,953 73,038 Percentage 46.4% 41.1% 11.4% Swing 20.4% 3.5% 4.6%
Popular vote by riding. As this is a first-past-the-post election, seat totals are not determined by total popular vote, but instead by results in each riding.
Premier before election Harry Strom Social Credit Premier-designate Peter Lougheed Progressive Conservative

The Alberta general election of 1971 was the seventeenth general election in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on August 30, 1971, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by Peter Lougheed, won a large majority, thereby ending the Social Credit Party's thirty-six years of government. Ernest C. Manning had resigned as Social Credit leader and premier in 1968, a year after leading the Socreds to their ninth consecutive majority government. His successor, Harry E. Strom, had been unable to revive a government increasingly seen as tired, complacent and old-fashioined. The Socreds had been in government for almost two generations, having won their first victory more than a decade before oil was found in a big way in Alberta.

The Progressive Conservatives, on the other hand, had significant momentum going into the 1971 election. Over the past four years, their caucus had increased from the six members elected in 1967 to ten, after two MLAs from other parties crossed the floor and the Tories won two by-elections (one in Manning's former riding). The collapse of the other opposition parties made the PCs the only credible challenger to the Socreds. The Tories took 46% of the popular vote and won 49 of the 75 seats in the legislature, enough for a strong majority government. This would be the first of twelve consecutive victories for the PCs; they would remain in government without interruption until their defeat in 2015, making them the longest serving political dynasty in Canadian history.^[1] The 1971 election is considered a classic example of a realigning election.

Social Credit garnered a record number of votes in this election compared to previous elections, which had been plagued by low turn-outs. The party lost only a small share of their popular vote from 1967 and finished only five points behind the Tories. However, the Tories converted this slim lead into a large lead in seats due to their success in the province's two largest cities: Edmonton, where the Tories won every seat, and Calgary, where they took all but five. While many of the Social Credit losses came by small margins, those losses were enough to cost the party almost half of its caucus. Strom resigned as Social Credit leader a few months after the defeat.

The defeat sent Social Credit into headlong decline. Its membership in the Assembly shrank over the next ten years and disappeared altogether by 1982.

The Liberal Party was shut out of the legislature. One Liberal, Bill Dickie, had crossed the floor to the PCs. Another, William Switzer, died in 1969. The remaining Liberal, Michael Maccagno, resigned to run, unsuccessfully as it turned out, for the federal Parliament.

Alberta New Democratic Party leader Grant Notley was the only one in his party to win election. He sat as the only New Democrat in the legislature until 1982. His daughter Rachel would lead the NDP to victory over the Tories in 2015, ending its 44 years in office.

Contents

• 
  1 Results
  


• 
  2 Daylight saving time plebiscite
  


• 
  3 Members elected
  


• 
  4 See also
  


• 
  5 References
  

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
				1967	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Progressive Conservative	Peter Lougheed	75	6	49	+717%	296,934	46.40%	+20.40%
	Social Credit	Harry E. Strom	75	55	25	-54.5%	262,953	41.10%	-3.5%
	New Democrats	Grant Notley	70	-	1		73,038	11.42%	-4.56%
	Liberal	Bob Russell	20	3	-	-100%	6,475	1.01%	-9.80%
	Independent		3	1	-	-100%	462	0.07%	-1.31%
Total			243	65	75	+15.4%	639,862	100%
Source: Elections Alberta

Daylight saving time plebiscite

Alberta voters also voted in a province-wide plebiscite whether or not to endorse a proposal to adopt daylight saving time (summer time). The proposal had been rejected by a very slim margin in 1967. This time however it passed with a wide margin of 61.37% of the vote.

Do you favour province-wide daylight saving time?
For	Against
386,846   61.47%	242,431   38.53%

For break down of results see individual districts

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts.

17th Alberta Legislative Assembly
	District	Member	Party
	Athabasca	Frank Appleby	Progressive Conservative
	Banff-Cochrane	Clarence Copithorne	Progressive Conservative
	Barrhead	Hugh Horner	Progressive Conservative
	Bonnyville	Donald Hansen	Progressive Conservative
	Bow Valley	Fred Mandeville	Social Credit
	Calgary-Bow	Roy Wilson	Social Credit
	Calgary-Buffalo	Ron Ghitter	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Currie	Fred Peacock	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Elbow	David Russell	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Egmont	Merv Leitch	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Foothills	Len Werry	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Glenmore	Bill Dickie	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-McCall	George Ho Lem	Social Credit
	Calgary-McKnight	Calvin Lee	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Millican	Arthur J. Dixon	Social Credit
	Calgary-Mountain View	Albert Ludwig	Social Credit
	Calgary-North Hill	Roy Farran	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-West	Peter Lougheed	Progressive Conservative
	Camrose	Gordon Stromberg	Progressive Conservative
	Cardston	Edgar Hinman	Social Credit
	Clover Bar	Walt Buck	Social Credit
	Cypress	Harry Strom	Social Credit
	Drayton Valley	Rudolph Zander	Progressive Conservative
	Drumheller	Gordon Taylor	Social Credit
	Edmonton-Avonmore	Horst Schmid	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Belmont	Bert Hohol	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Beverly	Bill Diachuk	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Calder	Tom Chambers	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Centre	Gordon Miniely	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Glenora	Lou Hyndman	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Gold Bar	William Yurko	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Highlands	David Thomas King	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Jasper Place	Leslie Young	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Kingsway	Kenneth Paproski	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Meadowlark	Gerard Amerongen	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Norwood	Catherine Chichak	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Ottewell	John Ashton	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Parkallen	Neil Crawford	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Strathcona	Julian Koziak	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Whitemud	Don Getty	Progressive Conservative
	Edson	Robert Dowling	Progressive Conservative
	Grande Prairie	Winston Backus	Progressive Conservative
	Hanna-Oyen	Clinton French	Social Credit
	Highwood	Edward Benoit	Social Credit
	Innisfail	Clifford Doan	Progressive Conservative
	Lac La Biche-McMurray	Damase Bouvier	Social Credit
	Lacombe	Jack Cookson	Progressive Conservative
	Lesser Slave Lake	Dennis Barton	Social Credit
	Lethbridge-East	John Anderson	Social Credit
	Lethbridge-West	Richard Gruenwald	Social Credit
	Little Bow	Raymond Speaker	Social Credit
	Lloydminster	Bud Miller	Progressive Conservative
	Macleod	Leighton Buckwell	Social Credit
	Medicine Hat-Redcliff	William Wyse	Social Credit
	Olds-Didsbury	Robert Curtis Clark	Social Credit
	Peace River	Al Adair	Progressive Conservative
	Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	Charles Drain	Social Credit
	Ponoka	Don McCrimmon	Progressive Conservative
	Red Deer	James Foster	Progressive Conservative
	Redwater-Andrew	George Topolnisky	Progressive Conservative
	Rocky Mountain House	Helen Hunley	Progressive Conservative
	Sedgewick-Coronation	Ralph Sorenson	Social Credit
	Smoky River	Marvin Moore	Progressive Conservative
	Spirit River-Fairview	Grant Notley	NDP
	St. Albert	Ernie Jamison	Progressive Conservative
	St. Paul	Mick Fluker	Progressive Conservative
	Stettler	Jack Robertson	Progressive Conservative
	Stony Plain	William Purdy	Progressive Conservative
	Taber-Warner	Douglas Miller	Social Credit
	Three Hills	Allan Warrack	Progressive Conservative
	Vegreville	John Batiuk	Progressive Conservative
	Vermilion-Viking	Ashley Cooper	Social Credit
	Wainwright	Henry Ruste	Social Credit
	Wetaskiwin-Leduc	James Henderson	Social Credit
	Whitecourt	Peter Trynchy	Progressive Conservative

See also

• 1948 Electrification Plebiscite


• 1957 Liquor Plebiscite


• 1967 Daylight Saving Plebiscite


• List of Alberta political parties

References

1. 
   ^ "Alberta PCs win historic 12th straight majority". CTV Calgary. April 23, 2012. Retrieved May 11, 2012..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   

v t e Elections and referendums in Alberta
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See also: Elections in Canada

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