Alberta general election, 1940

Alberta general election, 1940

March 21, 1940 (1940-03-21)
57 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 29 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader William Aberhart Andrew Davison Party Social Credit Independent Movement Leader since September 3, 1935 1940 Leader's seat Calgary Calgary Last election 56 seats, 54.2% pre-creation Seats before 47 — Seats won 36 19 Seat change 11 — Popular vote 132,507 131,172 Percentage 42.9% 42.5% Swing 11.3% —   Third party Fourth party   Leader unknown Edward L. Gray Party Labour Liberal Leader since — June 4, 1937 Leader's seat — ran in unknown Last election 0 seats, 1.7% 5 seats, 23.1% Seats before 0 6 Seats won 1 1 Seat change 1 5 Popular vote 3,258 2,755 Percentage 1.1% 0.9% Swing 0.6% 22.2%
Premier before election William Aberhart Social Credit Premier-designate William Aberhart Social Credit

The Alberta general election of 1940 was the ninth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada, was held on March 21, 1940, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Despite its failure to implement its key policy, providing prosperity certificates to all Albertans, the Social Credit Party of Premier William Aberhart won a second term in government. Nevertheless, it lost a considerable number of seats that it had gained in the 1935 landslide.

Unity Movement

The Conservative and Liberal parties as well as the remains of the United Farmers, recognizing the widespread popularity of the Social Credit party, ran joint candidates as independents in what was called the "Independent Movement" or the "Unity Movement". Although independent candidates won almost as many votes as Social Credit, their support was not concentrated in enough areas to translate into seats. The Independent Movement lost a number of races by small margins. However, due to the first past the post system, which awards power solely on the basis of seats won, Social Credit was returned for a second term, albeit with a considerably reduced majority.

The Liberal party under leader Edward Gray chose only to support Independent candidates that it played a hand in nominating and it nominated other candidates under its own banner. Gray felt that candidates should not be machined into the field and left it up to the individual Liberal constituency associations to decide if they would support a candidate or not.^[1]

Co-operative Commonwealth

The social democratic Cooperative Commonwealth Federation nominated candidates for the first time, but failed to win any seats in the legislature, despite winning over 10% of the popular vote under the leadership of former United Farmers of Alberta MLA Chester Ronning. Like Ronning, most of the CCF's candidates had run in the 1935 election for the UFA.

Results

Notes:

¹ First vote count used.

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

References

See also

• List of Alberta political parties