Alberta PR and Electoral Reform in books

Here I give book titles that exemplify or hint at different advances and foibles of Alberta provincial election system.

1917 "Give your other vote to the sister" by

The campaign slogan of Roberta MacAdams that capitalized on the two votes cast by soldiers in the army, in the only use of Block voting in the 1917 Alberta election.

MacAdams and Louise McKinney (back in Alberta) were elected, the first women legislators elected in the British Empire.

1921    Politics and Perennials by Barbara Villy Cormack

Irene Parlby  first woman cabinet minister in Alberta, in the UFA government.

The UFA government brought in "PR-light" - STV in the cities.

Brownlee by Franklin

John E. Brownlee became premier in 1925.

1924     A Key to PR by John D. Hunt was self-published

1929 Person's Case

 Emily Murphy never in gov't

appointed Senate

Ernest Manning

1956 cancelled PR and IRV 

FPTP came in, and that helped his government take more seats next time.

And stay in power another 15 years.

Grant Notley by Howard Leeson

unsuccessful in Edm  (ran in Edm-Norwood in 1967 -

actually no CCF or NDP elected in Edmonton from when FPTP was brought in until 1982

1971 he ran in Spirit River-Fairview as parachute candidate, 

saw it would be easier to be elected there (less susceptible to gerrymandering)

became voice for workers and farmers across the province

1993 NDP MLAs not re-elected in part, due to gerrymandering

the city being divided into 16 or so districts made it easy to gerrymander.

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More info on Alberta political history and democratic reform

1910s democratic strivings expressed by drive for Direct Legislation

Direct Legislation is Initiative, Referendum and Recall

achieved Initiative

1912 tenants getting vote in Edmonton city elections

first labour-oriented city councillors elected - James East, Rice Sheppard, James Kinney

1917 "Give your other vote to the sister" Roberta MacAdams

1921 drive for PR

but Liberal gov't merely brought in city-wide districts and Block Voting

1921 UFA elected usually with majority of votes in rural districts.

Liberals took all five Edm seats with about a third of the city vote.

1924 UFA fulfilled its promise to have PR partially just in cities

1935 Social Credit gov't elected

brought in Recall then dropped it

1955 SC felt snubbed by "losing" four seats in districts where SC candidate was first in the 1st Round of counting.

SC used "high" incidence of spoiled votes as rationale

but that was partially self-caused. (changed its rules concerning use of X voting)

government thought that FPTP would give it more seats 

after change to FPTP, the government's expectations were proved right in 1959 when it took every seat in Edm and all but one in Calgary

SC then suffered un-desired defeat in 1971 when it took about a third of seats with 40 percent of votes

-- Conservatives were more popular with 46 percent of votes, and took about 20 percent more seats than its vote share.

1975 election result was even worse for Social Credit party, as it suffered even more under FPTP --

- it took only four seats with 18 percent of the vote (it was due about 15).

But that merely demonstrated that SC party was not that important 

by 1971 SC had become just a conservative party.

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