1971 Alberta general election

1971 Alberta general election

← 1967 August 30, 1971 (1971-08-30) 1975 →
← outgoing members members →
75 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 38 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   SC 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 after election Peter Lougheed Progressive Conservative

The 1971 Alberta general election was held on August 30, 1971, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Background[]

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by Peter Lougheed, won a large majority, thereby ending the Social Credit Party's 36-year run in government–one of the longest such runs at the provincial level in Canada at the time. Ernest C. Manning had resigned as Social Credit leader and premier in 1968 after 25 years in office, 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-fashioned. 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 political realignment.

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.

A number of electoral districts were redistributed following 1970 amendments to The Elections Act,^[2] which were informed by the 1968 Report of the Alberta Committee on Redistribution Procedure written by the Special Committee on Redistribution chaired by SoCred member Frederick C. Colborne.^[3]

Results[]

Daylight saving time plebiscite[]

Daylight saving time plebiscite

August 30, 1971 (1971-08-30)
Do you favour province-wide daylight saving time?
Location	Alberta
Results
Response Votes % Yes 386,846 61.47% No 242,431 38.53% Total votes 629,277 100.00%

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

Background[]

In 1948, the Government of Alberta formally set the province's time zone with the passage of The Daylight Saving Time Act,^[4] which mandated the entire province observe Mountain Standard Time, and prevented any municipality from observing daylight saving time or any other time zone. The bill came after Calgary ( and ), and Edmonton (1946) held municipal plebiscites which approved the move to daylight saving time.

Alberta's urban municipalities were largely in favour of daylight saving time and pressured the provincial government to hold a provincial plebiscite or permit municipalities to observe daylight saving time.^[5] The effort in the Legislature was spearheaded by Liberal MLA and Calgary Alderman Bill Dickie, who in March 1964 brought forward a motion to permit municipalities to hold plebiscites on the issue; the motion was defeated by the Social Credit government. At the time, Social Credit MLA William Patterson describing daylight saving time as "that fandangled thing", and Minister Allen Russell Patrick stating municipal daylight saving time would be difficult for tourists to understand.^[6]

The Social Credit government finally gave into the request for a provincial plebiscite on daylight saving time, approving a motion by Bill Dickie put forward in February 1966.^[7] the government responded on March 29, 1966, Minister Alfred Hooke introduced An Act to amend The Daylight Saving Time Act (Bill 75) which amended the Daylight Saving Time Act^[8] to permit the government to hold a plebiscite on the issue. Alberta voters were asked the question "Do you favour Province-wide Daylight Saving Time?", during the 1967 Alberta general election. A narrow majority of 51.25 per cent of voters rejected daylight saving time, which were primarily located in rural areas, while strong support for daylight saving time was seen in Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge, and Medicine Hat.

Across Canada, by 1967, each province besides Alberta and Saskatchewan had adopted daylight saving time. Many Alberta businesses provided for modified summer hours, including the Alberta Stock Exchange which started at 7 a.m. to align with exchanges in Toronto and Montreal. Air Canada released a statement expressing the difficulty of distributing flight schedules with flights in Alberta.^[9]

After 25 years as Premier, Social Credit leader Ernest Manning stepped down officially on December 12, 1968, and his successor Harry Strom was sworn in as Premier. Only a few months later in April 1969, the Strom announced Albertans would once again be asked to vote on daylight saving time in conjunction with the next scheduled provincial general election. During the announcement Strom stated he was neutral on the topic and did not have a preference one way or another.^[10]

Campaign[]

Once again Calgary residents and businessmen Bill Creighton and David Matthews led a campaign for daylight saving times, just as they did in 1967, arguing the benefits of an additional hour of late sunlight for sports.^[11] Creighton learned from the successful and well funded "no" campaign on 1967 led by the Alberta Council for Standard Time and Calgary lawyer and drive-in movie operator R. H. Barron. Creighton and Matthews formed the "Yes for Daylight Saving Society" to advocate during the leadup to the 1971 plebiscite, mirroring the organized approach of the no campaign during 1967.^[12][13] The Edmonton chapter had a $1,000 budget for advertising and even crowned "Miss Daylight Saving Time", who made appearances throughout Edmonton.^[13] The arguments made for daylight saving time were similar to 1967, more amateur sport time, saving 150 hours of electricity each summer and fixing the time difference between Alberta and the 8 other provinces which observed daylight saving time.^[13]

The primary opposition to daylight saving time was described by members of the "Yes for Daylight Saving Society" as farmers, housewives and drive-in movie operators. In the 1967 campaign, the Alberta Council for Standard Time was able to raise $30,000 for advertisements, but were much less vocal during the 1971 campaign. Unifarm, an agricultural organization opposed the move but was not willing to spend significantly on a campaign against daylight saving time.^[14]

Aftermath[]

The 1971 plebiscite on daylight saving time resulted in an overwhelming majority of the Alberta population approving the transition. A statement from Unifarm, a farmer representative organization which opposed daylight saving time admitted that the organization anticipated the proposal would pass, but also downplayed the consequences for farmers.^[15] The new Progressive Conservative government highlighted the change to observe daylight saving in the Speech from the Throne in early March 1972,^[16] and Attorney-General Merv Leitch announced on March 14, 1972 that Alberta will official observe daylight saving time, with the start date set for April 30, 1972, and lasting until October 29, 1972.^[17]

Results[]

For break down of results see individual districts

Results by riding[]

See also[]

• 1948 Electrification Plebiscite
• 1957 Liquor Plebiscite
• 1967 Daylight Saving Plebiscite
• List of Alberta political parties

References[]

Further reading[]

• Long, John Anthony (1969). "Maldistribution in Western Provincial Legislatures: The Case of Alberta". Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne De Science Politique. 2 (3). ISSN 1744-9324. JSTOR 3231781.