Timeline of Edmonton's progressive history - Farmer, labour, socialist, utopian and more (a work in progress)
- Tom Monto
- May 28
- 16 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
A miscellany of advances and attempts to make social progress in our history.
1880
1883 Miss Frances Willard made tour of western U.S .and Canada to propagnadize for prohibition.
she may have viisted Edmonton.
1880s
Knights of Labour active in Edmonton?
1880s
Patrons of Industry active in Edmonton see Montopedia blogs
1890s? Patrons of Industry (farm-based lobby group) were influential in elections.
see Montopedia blog "Patrons of Industry"
1892 Edmonton became a town.
first election in January 1893.
property owners - males and widows and unmarried women - could vote.
wives who owned property could authorize their husbands to vote for them.
(see Rek, p. 7-8)
1895 Count Kropotkin visited Edmonton area.
possibly got some ideas about mutual-aid while here.
see Montopedia blog
1897 Canada-wide prohibition referendum.
District of Alberta voted dry. Edmonton?
1905 first provincial election
Edmonton elected a Liberal
Strathcona (at the time a separate municipality):
Rutherford, a fair-minded Liberal, was Strathcona's MLA and Alberta's premier.
owner of union factory Great Western Garment.
passed an eight-hour law.
1907 financial crash
railway construction west out of Edmonton cancelled, and hundreds out of work.
1907 Edmonton municipal election John Galbraith
John Galbraith was a labour-activist lawyer. He ran for an aldermanic seat in the 1907 Edmonton municipal election. He was author of the futuristic utopian-socialist novel In the New Capital (originally 1897; Penumbra Press reprint 1999).
Galbraith had had experience fighting aggressive businessmen in Ontario.
(Edmonton Bulletin, Dec. 7, 1907, p. 10)
see Montopedia blog.
December 1907 John Galbraith ran in one of Edmonton's few municipal by-elections in December 1907, to replace James Walker who resigned.
D.R. Fraser took the seat.
(Edmonton Bulletin, Dec. 23, 1907; Dec. 31, 1907)
for info on Galbraith, see 1907)
1909 UFA formed in Edmonton by merger of two Edmonton-based farmer groups - the Alberta Farmers association and the local branches of the Society of Equity. merger was set in motion by Rice Sheppard and John Ball.
Old Man Owens also on the amalgamation committee.
(see Montopedia blog
The UFA, like its two forerunner organizations, engaged in group buying. Twine (baling wire), seed and fruit were common items for group purchases.
"Wolf Willow" in a letter to the editor supported that position (GGG, Sept. 3, 1913)
farmers also shared in threshing machines
1908-1912 runaway prosperity (but it did not last)
land speculation
new subdivisions envisioned and surveyed but never developed before 1912/1913crash came
1909 prov. election John Galbraith Independent
"George Brown" Liberal. (Edmonton Bulletin, March 3, 1909) I assume this means a socially progressive Liberal with an interest in labour and social concerns.
Galbraith and a Conservative shared the opposition slate against two Liberals.
the two Liberals elected
Edmonton was a two-seat district at that time. used block voting.
(for info on Galbraith, see 1907)
1910
1911 Edmonton municipal election
1912 provincial by-election
Joe Knight of the Socialist Party of Canada
1912 January Edmonton municipal election January
for first time tenants (people who did not own property) could vote.
This opened it up those who rented their homes but also (informally) that meant any adult male could vote.
also (informally) married women could vote.
James East elected
Joe Clarke, the "stormy petrel" of the labour movement, also elected.
James and his brother Elisha served together on council in the 1930s, the only time two brothers served in city hall at same time.
Elisha East was a Social Credit-er, and James East also expressed an interest in monetary reform.
(In 1920 James endorsed R.C. Owens's work "Daylight on the money and banking questions" saying "Shall we wait until our financial troubles became as acute as those of European nations before we attempt a cure?"
(East's important work on monetary reform was noted in
Published: 1925
Chandler credits George Bevington and James East "who have been doing their bit for a good many years." He also credits W.C. Paynter of Tantallon, SK
and MP Woodsworth for successfully pushing for investigation into money matters in the HofC in 1923.
(Pierce, Herbert Chandler, 1869-1940.
Born in Wisconsin; part of education received in Portage la Prairie; settled at Wadena where secretary-treasurer of H.C. Pierce Land Co.; MLA in Saskatchewan Legislature, 1908-1916 (Canadian Parliamentary Guide , 1908-1915; Who's who in Western Canada))
1912 Edmonton public school board election
Frank Crang and S.A.G. Barnes - and others - elected.
Barnes was later a Social Credit MLA, then thrown out of party.
Frank Crang was father of Margaret Crang, born about this time who grew up to be a Labour Party city councillor.
1913 prov. election
Edmonton Edmonton was a two-seat district.
Blayney
Blayney was a temperance candidate. (Edmonton Bulletin, April 18, 1913, p. 1)
1914 home rule movement to get elective commission form of city government.
the change to new form of city government came with Proportional Representation (STV).
Elmer Roper, alderman James East were backers.
elected mayor McNamara
but McNamara and East got in trouble and resigned, and that crippled the "Home Rule" movement.
A referendum held on the change failed to see majority in favour of change.
Encyclopedia of Social Reform "municipal reform" talks about how in Europe cities are given responsibility and elect good politicians,
in North America cities are stunted and denied scope, and weak politicians are elected.
WWI
James East enlisted and served on hospital ship making 25 trips across Atlantic.
Nellie McClung In Times Like These (1915)
during WWI prices surged and wages stayed about same. (see "Economic Aspects of the War" (hathi trust)
By 1918 workers were upset and launched "Labour Revolt" that lasted until early 1920s.
=====
1915 Edmonton had massive parade in support of Prohibition.
1915 referendum found majority of votes (men in those days) in favour of change.
July 1, 1916 Prohibition became law.
some illegal stills found in Edmonton over next few years
(Prohibition finally partially repealed in 1923)
1916 John Whitnah Leedy author of What’s the Matter with Canada?, A discussion of the credit situation in Canada, published in Edmonton in 1916
Leedy was former governor of Kansas and former mayor of Valdez, Alaska.
1919 debated with a bank official at the UFA convention and helped prepare ground for social credit debates of the 1920s and the election of SC in 1935.
he died in 1935, just a couple months before Aberhart's SC breakthrough.
later part of WWI
Canada government encouraged farmers to incest in their operations, even to borrow money to do so.
then when war ended, floor dropped out of prices.
William Ball lost his farm - I think so anyway.
Rice
1917 federal election
Edmonton East almost re-elected Liberal MP Frank Oliver. Election was fraught with manipulations including government self-serving placement of the soldiers' votes.
(Oliver ran again in next election but then the political scene had moved on past workers voting for Liberal candidates.)
(In AB: NPL -- Leedy, D.H. Galbraith,
SPC --
1918
with end of war free transit of booze across provincial borders until Alberta could hold another referendum this time on banning cross-prov trade in booze.
it passed but by then drinking Albertans had imported and squirrelled away whole rooms full of booze.
this ready access to booze helped cause even UFA government to soften on prohibition and finally hold a referendum on cancellation in 1923.
1919 January UFA convention at Edmonton
John W. Leedy debated with Vere Cecil Brown on need for banking reform.
The UFA was leery of addressing bank reform and it published the Brown's presentation in defence of private banks "The Western farmer and the bank. An address given ... in reply to Mr. J.W. Leedy's advocacy of local banks" (Peel 4459) but the UFA would not print Leedy's side of the question. He had to do that job himself, as Rice Sheppard disgustedly reported in his memoirs.
Leedy's publication was entitled What's the Matter with Canada? (Peel 4501).
1919 Edmonton general strike
Joe and Sarah Knight Socialist Party activists
Mayor Joe Clarke refused to push police to attack strikers.
police did not go on strike and that prevented Citizens Committee from enrolling "specials" to brutalize the strikers.
1920
Robert Owens ("R.C. Owens"; "Old Man Owens") Daylight on the Money and Banking Questions and Other Problems. Edmonton: Western Veteran Publishing Co., 1920.
(see Montopedia blog:
endorsed by James East and Rice Sheppard (Sheppard later became very pro-SC in 1930s)
endorsed by Rev. George L. Ritchie, of the Labour Church.
(James East and George Bevington engaged in much work on behalf of monetary reform and banking reform, and they were recognized by H.C. Pierce in his 1925 book on the subject.)
1920 Labour majority on Edmonton city council
McCoppen and McKenzie elected in 1918, serving to 1920
Kinney, James East and Rice Shepard elected in 1919
Joe Clarke elected mayor for 1920.
so six seats of the eleven on council were taken by Labour men or pro-labour man mayor Clarke.
only five seats left for Citizens Committee - Abbot, Bowen, McLennan, Hepburn, Martin.
short-lived Labour majority.
in 1920 December election Labour lost Clarke, McKenzie and Kinney.
1921 provincial election
Block Voting used in Edmonton -- Liberals took all five seats.
27 candidates ran in Edmonton including two labour parties and
"Labour Socialist" Marie Mellard
Independent Labour Party slate included famous pioneer Edmonton photographer Ernest Brown, UFA champion William Ball and Mary Cantin.
Canadian Labour Party (the Labour Party that was connected to the trade unions)
slate consisted of A.A. Campbell, Robert McCreath (, and Elmer Roper (later mayor of Edmonton).
Independents included John Cornwall, Alfred L. Marks (husband of Rice Sheppard's daughter) and William Short.
The elected included Nellie McClung, elected as Liberal but worked with UFA cabinet minister Irene Parlby in the Legislature. (Later, McClung and Parlby joined with former Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards and Emily Murphy to form the Famous Five who pursued the Persons Case.
1921 Communist Party founded.
Philip Christophers (newly-elected AB MLA) was expected at CP meeting but never showed.
later he publicly stated he was not a Communist.
1921 Edmonton city election
Izena Ross first woman elected to city council. elected as Citizens Committee candidate
(see Montopedia blog "From Izena Ross to Jan Reimer"
Bickerton Pratt elected as Citizens Committee candidate (overall a business slate) but was pro-labour.
Pratt, Ross and Labour Party councillors - East and McCoppen, and likely Joe Adair too - pushed for vote on change to PR.
Bickerton Pratt was author of The protection of the manufacturing, railway and shipping corporations by the Unionist government. A criticism and plea for free trade. [1921? self-published?] (Peel 4711: https://archive.org/details/P004711)
pushes for free trade saying even protection for revenue is self-defeating and on page 15 points out that allowing increased freight rates for the new nationalized railway (the Canadian National) actually mostly put profit in the hands of the PR and other private railways.
1921 federal election -- every seat in Alberta taken by UFA or Labour candidates.
Edmonton East and Edm West elected two UFA MPs:
Donald Kellner and Donald Kennedy.
(by 1925 both had moved up north to represent Athabasca and Peace River respectively and were elected in 1925 or 1926 there.
the Edmonton seats were filled by a Conservative and a Liberal respectively.)
1922 Bickerton Pratt ran for mayor unsuccessfully.
his platform Edmonton Bulletin, Nov. 18, 1922.
(resigned as city councillor)
1923 Edmonton vote held on switching to PR (STV).
majority of votes were in favour of the change.
(Edmonton city elections used STV 1923-1927, Labour dependably got four seats in each council during this period.)
(1923 collapse of the Home Bank encouraged further discussion of bank reform. (already this had been seen in 1919)
Calgary Labour MP William Irvine and Woodsworth pushed for royal commission into bank reform
George Bevington of Winterburn, a self-taught authority on banks and money, spoke to the commission.
Bevington, author of Nationalization of Credit, An Address on banking reform. delivered at the annual convention of the UFA, Jan. 19, 1921.
(available at University of Saskatchewan Library
1924 UFA government brought in STV in cities and Instant-Runoff Voting elsewhere.
John D. Hunt's booklet The Key to PR assisted many in understanding how the new system would work.
1924 R.C. Owens "Old Man Owens" published The People's Financial Catechism
1924 Edmonton prov. by-election (provincially Edmonton was city-wide district)
H.M Bartholomew Communist Party
first by-election where Instant-Runoff Voting used to determine winner
on second round of counting, Bartholomew came in a close third to a Conservative, in next round Bartholomew was eliminated.
A Liberal took the seat.
1925 Bartholomew left Edmonton [see my memory stick]
1925 school board election - Elmer Roper elected.
He served as trustee 1926-1929.
He would go on to be MLA, 1942-1955, and Edmonton mayor, 1959-1963.
1926 provincial election -
the first Labour MLA and the first farmer MLA elected in Edmonton, likely due to STV.
Labour MLA Lionel Gibbs (see Montopedia blog for more info)
Farmer MLA J.F. Lymburn.
many candidates ran in Edmonton
At the age of 77, John Whitnah Leedy ran as an Independent on a bank-reform platform.
1926 R.C. Owens "Old Man Owens" published Bridge to Liberty: a plan to evolve from a capitalist system to a co-operative system.
1920s sociaist Scott Nearing spoke in Edmonton.
befriends Margaret Crang
1928 Edmonton city election
Labour got four of the six seats up for grabs.
with two members elected in previous election, Labour had a slight majority.
In 1929 Labour took just two of the six seats up for grabs, but maintained its majority due to the four elected in 1928 continuing in place.
However in 1930 it elected just one - Lionel Gibbs. and it fell to just 3 of the 11 seats.
1929 Persons Case
Emily Murphy, an Edmontonian, got the ball rolling.
invited four other women to a meeting at her house on 88th Avenue.
Former Edmonton MLA Nellie McClung, UFA cabinet minister Irene Parlby, Henrietta Muir Edwards and former MLA Louise McKinney signed the petition.
see Montopedia blog on the Famous Five.
1930
1931 Edmonton municipal election
Dan Knott Labour Party elected mayor. served until 1934
Findlay, Sheppard and Ainlay elected, to serve to end of 1933.
1932 Nov. 9 Edmonton municipal election
Dan Knott Labour re-elected as mayor.
James East and Gibbs elected as councillor.
these three plus three Labour-men elected as councillors in 1931 meant 6/11 Labour majority in 1933.
1932 Dec. 20 Hunger March
marchers led by Andrew Irvine.
Andrew Irvine "Once a farm labourer, Irvine became radicalized at the Great Depression’s onset — with no chance of work, he was unable to support his dying mother. Expelled from the Unemployed Ex-Servicemen’s Association for his increasingly militant beliefs, the lean Great War veteran took to heading the provincial chapter of the National Unemployed Workers’ Association, a communist organization" (from https://www.forgottenedmonton.com/blog/the-edmonton-hunger-march-of-1932
Labour Party Mayor Knott and UFA premier Brownlee called out police to stop the march.
(You would think this would have ended Knott's political career but he was re-elected in 1933 November election.)
1933 municipal election:
1934 Labour majority on Edmonton city council
Gibbs, East elected in 1932, serving to 1934
Sheppard, Margaret Crang, Ainlay and Findlay elected in 1933
Knott elected mayor in 1933
so seven seats taken by Labour.
only four seats left for Citizens Committee - Bellamy, Fry, Ogilvie, McCreath
short-lived Labour majority -- in 1934 November election, Labour lost Gibbs (died), Sheppard (resigned to run unsucc. as mayor), Knott (not re-elected).
Labour emerged with just 5 seats out of 11, if we include Clarke as small-l labour
(It would never again have a majority on council (although sometimes electing a Labour man -- or a NDP woman -- to the mayor's seat)
in 1934 election the Independent Labour Party ran in opposition to CLP, especially against mayor Knott. (says Finkel, Labour Party)
Knott suffered defeat. FPP used so Clarke was elected mayor with 36 percent of the vote.
1934-1935 much discussion on social credit:
Canada. House of Commons Debates. Speeches on the Revision of the Bank Act by G.G. Coote, H.E. Spencer, J.S. Woodsworth, and E. J. Garland, and on the Act to Incorporate the Bank of Canada by. W. Irvine delivered in the House of Commons on Thursday March 1 and March 8, 1934.
Forming the Bank of Canada was important to regulate operation of private banks.
1935 provincial election Aberhart's SC party took majority of seats.
Edmonton Social Credit took two seats, electing S.A.G. Barnes and D.B. Mullen.
meanwhile elsewhere, SC took vast majority of seats.
Barnes soon was "read out" of the SC party as he publicly objected to Aberhart's "dictatorial" behaviour.
1935 federal election
Edm East Hall SC elected
1935 Edmonton municipal election
3 Social Credit aldermen elected - Elisha East, Charles Gould and Guy Patterson
Margaret Crang re-elected. despite being only 25 years old she was the most-popular candidate in the city.
in the 1936 council, Crang and James East were the only Labour members. but likely they found common ground with the SC aldermen including James's own brother Elisha.
1936 Edmonton prov. by-election (provincially Edmonton was city-wide district)
Margaret Crang
1937 Norman Bethune spoke in Edmonton on need to support Spanish government against fascist rebels.
city alderman Margaret Crang went touring with him across Alberta to raise money for the cause.
She later recalled he was already talking about how China's fight against Japanese militarism, not the Spanish civil war, was where the real action was.
1937 Edmonton prov. by-election (provincially Edmonton was city-wide district)
Margaret Crang
1938 federal by-election Edmonton East Orvis Kennedy SC elected
1940
1941 June federal by-election
Communist Alexander MacLeod (uncle of Warren Beatty and Shirley Maclaine)
1942 provincial by-election Roper CCF MLA elected
he was not front runner in first count but came up from behind to win seat.
perhaps this was when Aberhart and his sidekick Manning began to lose interest in ranked voting. Manning abolished PR and IRV in 1956)
1944 provincial election Roper CCF MLA elected
1948 provincial election Roper CCF MLA elected
1950
1952 provincial election Elmer Roper CCF MLA re-elected.
1955 provincial election Elmer Roper CCF MLA not re-elected.
Roper later said that government dropped STV in 1956 to prevent him getting back in.
1956 SC government dropped ranked voting.
1959 provincial election - Social Credit won all the Edmonton seats mostly due to the SC government ending the use of STV.
no CCF or NDP MLA elected in Edmonton until 198 -- Ray Martin
1960
1961 NDP founded.
in Edmonton the old CCF carried on by the creation of the Woodsworth-Irvine Socialist Fellowship.
housed in the home of Betty and Tony Mardiros.
Tony was author of biography of William Irvine.
the basement main room was a meeting room,
WISF is covered by a chapter in the book Bucking Conservatism Alternative stories of Alberta from the 1960s and 1970s, written by Mack Penner.
1964-1975 Mill Creek Ravine Park Movement
when city planned to drive freeway from Argyll north to river (to give Millwoods commuters) better access to downtown), local residents objected.
the election of progressives (and cousins) Bill Mclean and Una Maclean Evans to council in 1971 helped win the fight for preservation.
1971 was fist election in which Edmonton used wards. previously election of city councillors had been at-large.
and even in 1971, each ward elected three councillors so PR was still possible.
(2020 election was first election in which single-winner first past the post was used to elect city councillors.)
The fight is covered by a chapter in the book Bucking Conservatism Alternative stories of Alberta from the 1960s and 1970s, written by Pearlann Reichwin and Jan Olson.
a memorial to the Nutters who helped lead the fight against the highway has been constructed
1965 Harry Hubach crept into aircraft repair shop at the municipal airport to damage planes being repaired to go to the Vietnam War.
killed security guard Threnton Richardson and blew up three planes with dynamite.
see https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-1965-airport-bombing-the-untold-story-1.2513220
1967
James Brady was Communist and Metis activist and leader.
He went missing while prospecting in the North lands in 1967.
story goes he was killed.
Cold Case North: The Search for James Brady and Absolom Halkett by Michael Nest et al covers recent attempts to unlock the facts of the deaths of him and his companion.
Wiki "James P. Brady"
1971 provincial election
Edmontonian Grant Notley finally elected in Spirit River-Fairview.
he had run in Edmonton-Norwood in 1967 and Edmonton Northeast in 1963. but like all other CCF and NDP candidates in Edmonton since 1959 he had been unsuccessful.
so he thought he would try his luck in rural area and was lucky.
Even though elected in that Peace River district, he was a voice for workers and farmers across the province, including Edmonton where he had not been elected.
1971 Keegano, Edmonton's first housing co-op, established.
Arthur Davies was one of its first residents
author of many books on sociology.
here is interview online about him and his involvement with James Brady:
(Around 1970s)
Plan to build freeway through Old Strathcona, now a landmark and tourist destination in the city, and a historical district while other old sections have been totally redeveloped.
city bought houses along 104th Street and Saskatchewan Drive for demolition.
when plan cancelled due to overwhelming opposition from locals, the city sold the houses off in mid 1980s.
Hromada Housing Co-op bought many.
some of the city-owned houses were in too rough shape to be saved and were immediately demolished and replaced by the duplexes that now show up in two large sections of the block along 86 and 87th Avenues.
1973 Terry Pettit and Ronald Yakimchuk, editor of the UofA's alternative newspaper Poundmaker, travelled from Edmonton to (or toward) Ontario. Somewhere along the way they went missing (or worse) - their bodies have never been found.
A gravestone in Ron's home town -- Andrew, Alberta -- gives his death date as "June 1973".
1986 12 NDP MLAs elected in Edmonton
1988 Ross Harvey elected MP, the only NDP MP elected in Alberta until 2008
spoke at one of last major events hosted by Woodsworth-Irvine Fellowship.
"Looking Forward."
Tony Benn, a leader of the left wing of the British Labour Party, came and gave a speech on the progress of leftist leadership through time, touching on the Diggers, Mao and many other high points.
Harvey spoke on "As a socialist in power, what would I do?"
Event organizer Betty Mardiros said she phrased it that way to make Ross be on spot to say he was a socialist.
A member of the Nicaraguan socialist party also spoke on the successful Sandinista revolution in that country, assisted by translation by NDP MLA Gerry Gibeault, as I recall.
(event was poorly attended due to late issue of publicity.)
A booklet was published (by the great Tom Monto!) after the event with transcript of Benn's speech and other material of the event, including a brief history of W-ISF.
=====================
1989 - 12 NDP MLAs re-elected in Edmonton
1990
1993 provincial districts re-drawn and all NDP MLAs lost their seats.
still about 38,000 Edmonton voters voted for the NDP but they got no seats.
Liberals took every Edmonton seat.
1993 federal election
Ross Harvey not re-elected.
with 4 percent of the vote across Alberta, NDP was due at least one seat but was shut out by FPP.
2000
2008 federal election
Edmonton-Strathcona elected Linda Duncan, only the second NDP MP elected in Alberta.
FPTP was no friend of the NDP. Despite repeatedly getting about 10 percent of the vote (enough to get 3-4 seats), it did not elect an MP in Alberta from 1961 to 1988, then none again from 1991 to 2008.
2010
2015 NDP, led by Strathcona MLA Rachel Notley, elected to government in Alberta
2020
2023 NDP took every provincial seat in Edmonton
dis-proportional result as the NDP was only due about two-thirds of the Edmonton seats proportionally.
2024 NDP elected new leader after Strathcona MLA Rachel Notley stepped down as leader.
she later resigned as Strathcona MLA as well, causing 2025 by-election.
2025 June 23 -- Edmonton-Strathcona by-election -- new NDP leader Nenshi (former Calgary mayor) strives to have seat in the Legislature.
2025 - Premier Danielle Smith's UCP government lowered threshold for citizen-initiated referendum.
her hope seems to be that a successful referendum on separation from Canada will give her leverage on federal government to push for increased exploitation of the tar sands and for pipelines to tidewater forced through BC, or actually to separate and likely then to join with the U.S.
Canadian government passed a strong bill that gave it over-ride on environmental protection in cases of projects of national importance.
Unfortunately the intended recipient of these new powers seems not to be projects to be more self-sufficient, but instead to support or enlarge industries geared to export markets such as steel, oil and gas.
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