Alberta general election, 1935

Alberta general election, 1935

August 22, 1935 (1935-08-22)
63 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 32 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	81.8%
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader William Aberhart (de facto) William R. Howson David M. Duggan Party Social Credit Liberal Conservative Leader since September 3, 1935 October 21, 1932 1930 Leader's seat None Edmonton Edmonton Last election pre-creation 11 seats, 24.6% 6 seats, 14.8% Seats before 0 13 6 Seats won 56 5 2 Seat change 56 8 4 Popular vote 163,700 69,845 19,358 Percentage 54.2% 23.1% 6.4% Swing — 1.5% 8.4%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Richard G. Reid Fred J. White Party United Farmers Labour Leader since 1934 between 1921 & 1926 Leader's seat Vermilion (lost seat) Last election 39 seats, 39.4% 4 seats, 7.6% Seats before 36 4 Seats won 0 0 Seat change 36 4 Popular vote 33,063 5,086 Percentage 11.0% 1.7% Swing 28.4% 5.9%
Premier before election Richard G. Reid United Farmers Premier-designate William Aberhart Social Credit

The Alberta general election of 1935 was the eighth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on August 22, 1935, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The newly founded Social Credit Party of Alberta won a sweeping victory, unseating the 14-year government of the United Farmers of Alberta. It was one of only four times that Alberta has changed governments.

Premier John E. Brownlee had resigned on July 10, 1934, when he was sued and found liable for the seduction of a young clerk working in the Attorney-General's office. Although the verdict was immediately set aside by the presiding judge, the scandal seriously damaged the UFA's reputation among socially conservative Albertans. Provincial Treasurer Richard G. Reid succeeded him, but was unable to recover the party's popularity. All of the UFA's 36 MLAs lost their seats in the worst defeat ever suffered by a sitting provincial government in Canada. Social Credit won 56 of the 63 seats in the legislature, and over 50% of the popular vote.

The Alberta Liberals in this election ran with the tactically fatal slogan, the "rest of Canada can't be wrong"—referring to the popularity of the Liberal Party in the rest of the country. It did not work; they had their seat count cut in half. However, due to the UFA being swept from the legislature, the Liberals wound up as the Official Opposition. The Conservatives lost four of their six seats.

Not even the Socreds had expected to win the election. Indeed, they had not even had a leader during the campaign, even though the party's founder and guiding force had been William Aberhart, a Baptist pastor from Calgary. When the newly elected Socred MLAs held their first caucus meeting, the first order of business was to select a leader and premier-designate. Aberhart was the obvious choice, but had to be prodded to take the job. He was sworn in as premier on September 3.

The turnout of the 1935 election topped 80%, and no election in Alberta has come close to this mark.

This election campaign is seen as the most negative in Alberta's history, with reports of Social Credit members, operating openly and on Aberhart's directives, defacing the campaign signs of opponents and drowning their speeches by honking car horns. Many campaign ads also focused mostly on attacking the opposing parties.

After the 1935 election results were in, newspapers across North America took notice, with the Boston Herald running the headline "Alberta Goes Crazy!".^[1]

This shift marked the first in Social Credit's nine back to back election victories. The UFA never recovered from this wipeout defeat, and withdrew from politics altogether in 1937.

Results

Overall voter turnout was 81.8%, the highest in Alberta history.^[2]

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

References

See also

• List of Alberta political parties