It is said that the closer a party comes to power, the less it talks about electoral reform. A hundred years ago, Alberta had the rare privilege of seeing a party come to power in part on the promise of electoral reform and to see that government then proceed to do what it had promised.
July 18, 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the election of the United Farmers government. For years, Alberta farmers and workers had been calling for an end to the winner-take-all First Past The Post elections. They had called for its replacement by a system of proportional representation that would produce mixed representation that reflected the mixed sentiment of the voters. But the Liberal government of Alberta had ended it by replacing it with a system where each voter cast multiple votes for the election of MLAs in Edmonton and Calgary.
The UFA campaigned on a promise to bring in PR, which at the time meant Single Transferable Voting, a district-level PR system where each voter cast one transferable preferential vote. And then found itself elected, to its surprise in that summer of 1921.
Three years later, it fulfilled its promise when it passed legislation to adopt STV for the election of Edmonton and Calgary MLAs. STV proved its value and was kept in place for eight provincial elections, through a Depression, a world war and the early years of Alberta's oil boom.
Alberta should be proud of its Farmers government, for doing what it promised and for giving at least some of its voters a taste of life under a system where representation was proportional.
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