Timeline of progressive history of Alberta

work in progress

1908 federal election

miners' union leader Frank Sherman of the Socialist Party was put forward as a candidate in this election. (Edmonton Bulletin, October 19, 1908)

As well, J. George Anderson ran on a strongly-socialist platform when he ran in this election as an Independent (farmers) candidate in the riding of Strathcona.

His platform included this statement: "railroads, mines, forests, factories and such other public utilities and necessities that cannot be operated individually [by one person] must be taken over and operated by the state in the best interests of the people. We would have this but for the fact that the corporate interests control the big papers and thus queer public opinion." (Strathcona Chronicle, October 9, 1909)

1909 provincial election

SPC Charles M. O'Brien was elected to the Alberta legislature by coal miners in the Rocky Mountain district. (McKay, ''Reasoning Otherwise,'' p. 167-68)

A speech on socialism he gave in the Legislature was transcribed and published as The Proletarian in Politics (1910). (Vancouver: Socialist Party of Canada. OCLC 1083877116)

Also George Howell ran as a Socialist in the city of Calgary; however, his run was unsuccessful. (Saturday News, March 20, 1909)

1913

In the 1913 election, five socialists ran as candidates. Incumbent SPC MLA Charlie O'Brien and SPC members Alf Budden (author of two publications entitled The Slave of the Farm), Joe Knight, H.R. Burge, and Thomas Smith ran as candidates, all unsuccessfully. (''A Century of Democracy, Alberta Centennial series'', p. 55-61)

O'Brien doubled his vote from the previous election, but the collapse of the Liberal vote in the constituency allowed the Conservative to win.

The other socialist candidates barely made a showing.

1910s -- in effort to get control of the government Albertans called for Direct Legislation (initiative, referendum and recall). Initiative was obtained but it was ineffective (Prohibition being only legislation achieved this way). Instead farmers and workers then called for Proportional Representation.

1917

In the 1917 Alberta general election, Joe Knight, J. Reid, G. Paton, S.R. Keeling and H. Thomas ran as SPC candidates. None of them were elected. (Milne, History of the Socialist Party of Canada. https://www.worldsocialism.org/canada/historym.pdf)

1919 - One Big Union founded in Calgary (carrying on anarcho-syndicalist radical-labour philosophy after the government's banning of the Industrial Workers of the World)

1919 - General strikes in Edmonton and Calgary

1921 - United Farmers of Alberta elected, in part on promise of electoral reform. (see 1924)

1924 - the UFA government fulfilled its promise of electoral reform by adopting STV in city-wide multi-seat districts in Edmonton, Calgary and Medicine Hat, and a single-winner majoritarian election system (Instant-Runoff Voting) was put into use everywhere else.

1932 - CCF founded in Calgary.

1932/1933 - the UFA joined the CCF.

1932 by-election - Chester Ronning elected in Wetaskiwin -- could be seen as the first CCF MLA elected.

1942 Edmonton federal by-election - A.A. Macleod ran as LPP candidate. (he was an uncle of actors Warren Beatty and Shirley Maclaine)

1944 - CCF leader Elmer Roper campaigned on socialist agenda - he said he expected if the CCF was elected to government, it would take over Calgary Power.

This was not as faint hope as it sounds now - just prior to the Alberta election, Tommy Douglas's CCF was elected in Saskatchewan. Tommy Douglas came to Alberta to speak in Calgary and Edmonton. ("CCF plans tax on interest...", Edmonton Bulletin, August 5. 1944, p. 1)

1956 - The Social Credit government, in a fit of anti-democratic sentiment, cancelled STV that was used in Edmonton and Calgary and also the single-winner majoritarian system used outside the two main cities. The CCF, and then the NDP after 1961, would not elect anyone in the cities until the 1980s - Edmonton in 1982, Calgary in 1986.

1959 - CCF not win any seats in Edmonton and Calgary, and never would again until the 1980s.

1961 - NDP founded. would elect only three MLAs between 1961 and 1986, but importantly the three included Grant Notley who occupied a seat from 1971 to 1984. Over the next 21 years the NDP never had more than one MLA at any one time, despite receiving about 10 percent of Alberta's votes.

1984 - Grant Notley died in plane crash. NDP candidate Jim Gurnett won the by-election.

1986 - NDP made a (temporary) breakthrough by electing 16 MLAs, 12 in Edmonton area, two in Calgary, two in rural areas.

1988 - Ross Harvey elected to House of Commons. first NDP MP in Alberta. (next would not be until 2008

1989 - NDP again elected to 16 seats. (but in 1993 all of them lost seats, partly due to changing economics but also due to gerrymandering (made possible by the 87 micro-districts used in Alberta, particularly small in the cities.)

2008 - Linda Duncan elected in the riding of Edmonton Strathcona. She was only the second NDP MP elected in Alberta, despite the NDP repeatedly taking more than ten percent of the Alberta vote.

Edmonton-Strathcona would elect an NDP MP from 2008 to the present.

2015 - NDP elected to majority government but unstable government as the NDP had received less than 42 percent of the votes. The Alberta election system - first past the post - is prone to mis-representation due to vote splitting and the right wing was split between a radical rightist party, the Wild Rose, and the older Conservative Party.

2019 - NDP took more votes than even their winning 2015 total but this time right-wing voters were not divided among two or more parties. The so-called United Conservative Party took 72 percent of Alberta's 87 sets with just 54 percent of the votes.

As well as the seat windfall to the most-popular party, FPTP also artificially created regionalized unbalanced representation - NDP won most seats in Edmonton, UCP won almost all rural seats.

Due to the non-proportional representation First Past the Post election system that is used in Alberta, in 2019 the NDP swept all but one of the Edmonton seats, while the UCP swept almost all the seats in Calgary and 39 of the 41 seats in rural Alberta.

NDP MLAs were elected in 20 of the 21 Edmonton districts, 3 of the 26 Calgary districts, and 2 of the 41 districts outside the major cities: suburban St. Albert and Lethbridge-West (Shannon Phillips).

2010s-2020s

The provincial government's revenue, although it is often described as predominantly coming from the province's resource base, actually is derived from a variety of sources. Nonrenewable resource revenue provided the government with 24 percent of its revenue in 2010–11, with about the same coming from individual income tax, 14 per cent from grants from the [[politics of Canada|federal government]], and about eight percent coming from both corporations and the government's own business activities.

Alberta is the only province in Canada without a provincial [[sales tax]] (see also [[Sales taxes in Canada]]).

2025 - Strathcona MP Heather Macpherson running for leadership of the federal NDP.

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See also multi-part Montopedia blog "Radical and reform-minded books ... in Alberta and Saskatchewan"

Montopedia: "Timeline of Riots and disturbances in Canadian history"

Montopedia: "Intentional communities in Canada"

See also Wikipedia "Timeline of labour issues and events in Canada"

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Also, check out the many fine books available at Alhambra Books, Edmonton.