Edmonton (provincial electoral district)

The Edmonton provincial electoral district also known as Edmonton City from 1905 to 1909, was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada mandated to return members to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1905 to 1917 and again from 1921 to 1959.

Edmonton

Alberta electoral district
Defunct provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Alberta
District created	1905
District abolished	1917
District re-created	1921
District re-abolished	1955
First contested	1909
Last contested	1959

The Edmonton, Alberta electoral district was created when Alberta became a province, replacing the territorial electoral district of the same name. It existed in two incarnations from 1905 - 1913 and again from 1921 - 1959, with the city (small as it was in former times) broken up into separate single-member constituencies in the other time-periods. The district was created when Alberta became a province, to encompass residents of the city of Edmonton on the northside of the North Saskatchewan River. The Edmonton district was extended to the southside of the river in 1921, By that time, the southside City of Strathcona had merged into the City of Edmonton.

From 1909 to 1917 and from 1921 to 1956, the Edmonton provincial constituency elected multiple members.

From 1905 to 1926 and 1959 to present, each Edmonton voter could cast as many votes as the number of seats in the district. In 1909 and 1913, Edmonton voters could cast up to two votes each. In 1921 they could cast up to five votes, the same number as seats. Edmonton used Single transferable voting in general elections held between 1926 and 1959, where each voter cast one transferable vote. In the province's history, there were three multi-member districts, the other ones being Calgary and Medicine Hat.

History

Three methods of electing representatives were used over the years in the Edmonton district.

First past the post election of a single member was used in 1905 (and in all by-elections up to 1924).

The Edmonton constituency was divided into two single-member constituencies for the provincial election of 1917: Edmonton East and Edmonton West. The adjacent constituency of Edmonton South had been renamed from the old constituency of Strathcona.

The three Edmonton districts were merged to form the Edmonton constituency in 1921, and block voting was established in 1921, to elect five members in the constituency.

Block voting (voters able to cast as many votes as there were seats) was used in 1909 and 1913, each voter casting up to two votes, and up to five votes in 1921.

As a semblance of proportional representation, the UFA government brought in ranked voting for all constituencies starting in 1924. It maintained Edmonton, Calgary and Medicine Hat as multi-member constituencies, with seats now filled through Single transferable vote, which at the time was called the Hare system or simply as Proportional representation. Instant-runoff voting was used outside those multi-member districts and was also used in provincial by-elections during this period.

Edmonton had five seats in 1926-1930, then six seats in 1930 to 1940, then five until 1952. Edmonton had seven seats elected at-large in 1952 and 1955.

In 1959 the Social Credit government broke up the Calgary and Edmonton constituencies and replaced the transferable balloting with first-past-the-post single-member districts across the province. Nine constituencies were created in Edmonton: Edmonton Centre, Edmonton North, Edmonton Norwood, Edmonton North East, Edmonton North West, Jasper West, Strathcona Centre, Strathcona East and Strathcona West.

The first woman elected to a provincial seat in Edmonton was Mary Lemessurier in 1979. Women candidates had run in Edmonton prior to that including during the time STV was used, but none were elected.

No Labour, CCF or NDP MLA was elected in the city from 1905 to 1982, other than in some of the elections when PR was used.

Expansion of seats and districts in Edmonton

The first table shows at a glance, the number of seats available by general election year for the Edmonton riding. The second table shows the number of districts in Edmonton, when the Edmonton riding was broken up.

Seats

Year	1905	1909-1913	1917	1921	1926	1930	1935	1940	1944	1948	1952	1955
Seats	1	2	3	5	5	6	6	5	5	5	7	7

After 1956, all Alberta MLAs were elected in single member districts so since then the number of districts has been the same as the number of seats as shown in the next table.

Districts

Year	1905-1913	1917	1921-1955	1959	1963	1967	1971	1975	1979	1982	1986	1989	1993	1997	2001	2004
Districts	1*	3	1	9	10	11	16	16	18	18	17	17	18	19	19	18

• Southside Edmonton (Strathcona) was independent from Edmonton until 1912. The area that is present-day Edmonton was spread over many districts, such as Strathcona, Leduc, Sturgeon and St. Albert. Gradually the city has grown to take in previously-rural land.

For the 1913 election, Edmonton South Provincial electoral district was created from the old Strathcona constituency to elect one MLA. The Edmonton constituency elected two members by the block vote system.

Edmonton party composition at a glance

The representation elected from 1926 to 1955 can be seen to be more mixed and balanced than representation elected both before and after that period. Not shown in the table below is the fact that in 1917 a Liberal and a Conservative were elected, and in 1959 one party took all the Edmonton seats. Prior to 1926, Edmonton elected its members using First past the post or Block voting. District-level proportional representation (Single transferable voting was used from 1924 to 1955. Since 1955, Edmonton has elected its MLAs through First past the post.

Affiliation		1905	1909	1913	1921	1926	1930	1935	1940	1942	1944	1948	1952	1955
	Liberal	1	2	2	5	1	1	3				1	2	3
	Conservative					2	3	1					1	1
	Social Credit							2	2	2	2	3	3	3
	Cooperative Commonwealth									1	1	1	1
	Labour					1	1
	United Farmers					1	1
	Veteran's & Active Force										1
	Independent Citizen's								3	2	1
	Independent
Total		1	2	2	5	5	6	6	5	5	5	5	7	7

(Note: Independent Citizens were members of the Unity League, an anti-SC coalition of Liberals, Conservatives and others.)

(Note: The "1942" column shows the change made by the 1942 by-election when Elmer Roper was elected. The other columns are all general elections. By-elections held in 1936 and 1937 saw a Liberal elected to replace the Liberal who had left the post so there was no change in party composition.)

Election results

1905

1905 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Charles Wilson Cross	1,209	70.09%	–
	Conservative	William Antrobus Griesbach	516	29.91%	–
Total			1,725	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			N/A	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			1,725	100.00%	–
	Liberal pickup new district.
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton-City Official Results 1905 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. The Edmonton electoral district was known as Edmonton-City for the 1905 Alberta general election.

1909

This election was conducted using block voting, where each Edmonton voter could cast up to two votes.

1909 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Elected
	Liberal	Charles Wilson Cross	3,282	40.01%	-6.22%	Y
	Liberal	John Alexander McDougall	2,977	36.30%	-6.22%	Y
	Conservative	Albert F. Ewing	1,595	19.45%	-10.46%	–
	Independent	John Gailbraith	348	4.24%	–	–
Total			8,202	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			N/A	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			N/A	N/A	N/A	–
	Liberal hold		Swing		N/A
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton Official Results 1909 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Note: The total number of ballots cast or eligible electors is unknown. Election held under multiple non-transferable vote to elect two members to the Legislative Assembly.

1912 by-election

Alberta provincial by-election, May 27, 1912 Ministerial by-election upon Charles Wilson Cross's appointment as Attorney-General on May 4, 1912
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Charles Wilson Cross	1,802	47.95%	–
	Conservative	Albert Ewing	1,733	47.18%	–
	Socialist	Joseph R. Knight	183	4.87%	–
Total			3,758	–	–
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			N/A	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			N/A	N/A	N/A
	Liberal hold		Swing		N/A
Source(s) "By-elections". Elections Alberta. Retrieved March 12, 2020.

1913

In the 1913 Alberta general election Premier Arthur Sifton, his lieutenant Charles Wilson Cross and Liberal candidate Alexander Grant MacKay each won nominations in two electoral districts. The Calgary Herald (a Conservative newspaper) surmised that Sifton and Cross were so scared of the electorate they felt they might not win if they ran in just one district. It accused Premier Sifton of having little confidence in his ability to return his government to power. Charles Cross would sit as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for both Edmonton and Edson.

This election was conducted using block voting, where each Edmonton voter could cast up to two votes.

1913 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Elected
	Liberal	Charles Wilson Cross	5,407	26.29%	-13.72%	Y
	Conservative	Albert Freeman Ewing	5,107	24.83%	–	Y
	Liberal	Alexander Grant MacKay	4,913	23.89%	4.44%	–
	Conservative	William Antrobus Griesbach	4,499	21.87%	2.43%	–
	Independent	J. D. Blayney	643	3.13%	–	–
Total			20,569	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			N/A	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			14,975	N/A	N/A	–
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton Official Results 1913 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Note: The total number of ballots cast is not known. Election held under multiple non-transferable vote for two members to the Legislative Assembly. The results do not include 10 polls which were not counted. Charles Wilson Cross was elected and chose to sit as the representative in both Edmonton and Edson. Alexander Grant MacKay is erroneously listed as a Conservative for the 1913 election in many Government of Alberta publications, likewise Albert Freeman Ewing is erroneously listed as a Liberal

(Note: Blayney was a temperance candidate.)

1921

This election was conducted using block voting, where each Edmonton voter could cast up to five votes. All in all, 75,758 votes were cast by the approximately 18,000 voters who voted in this election. The percentages shown in the table below indicate the proportion of the voters casting votes who cast votes in the candidate's favour. About a third of the voters casting all five of their votes for the five Liberal candidates accrue a total of 150 "percent" of the votes while the candidates still only receive the support of a third of the voters. With the rest of the votes split among other parties, the Liberals with possibly only a third of the voter support did take all the Edmonton seats in this election.

1921 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	Elected
	Liberal	Andrew Robert McLennan	6,498	36.20%	Y
	Liberal	John Campbell Bowen	5,803	32.33%	Y
	Liberal	Nellie McClung	5,388	30.02%	Y
	Liberal	John Robert Boyle	5,361	29.86%	Y
	Liberal	Jeremiah Wilfred Heffernan	5,289	29.46%	Y
	United Farmers	William Jackman	4,978	27.73%	–
	Conservative	Albert Freeman Ewing	4,777	26.61%	–
	Labour	A. A. Campbell	3,736	20.81%	–
	Conservative	Herbert Howard Crawford	3,553	19.79%	–
	Conservative	Elizabeth Ferris	3,188	17.76%	–
	Labour	Robert McCreath	2,931	16.33%	–
	Independent	Joseph Woods Adair	2,571	14.32%	–
	Labour	Elmer Roper	2,515	14.01%	–
	Conservative	Ambrose Upton Gledstanes Bury	2,509	13.98%	–
	Conservative	William A. Wells	2,329	12.97%	–
	Independent	James Kennedy Cornwall	2,082	11.60%	–
	Independent	A. L. Marks	1,744	9.72%	–
	Independent Liberal	Gerald Pelton	1,467	8.17%	–
	Independent	William Short	1,447	8.06%	–
	Independent Labour	William R. Ball	1,409	7.85%	–
	Independent	A. Boileau	1,226	6.83%	–
	Independent Labour	Mary Cantin	1,133	6.31%	–
	Independent Labour	Ernest Brown	1,073	5.98%	–
	Independent Labour	James Bailey	941	5.24%	–
	Independent Labour	Joe E. White	927	5.16%	–
	Labour Socialist	Marie Millard	883	4.92%	–
Total votes cast			17,951	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			N/A	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			N/A	N/A	N/A
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton Official Results 1921 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Election held under multiple non-transferable vote for five members to the Legislative Assembly.

1924 by-election

This was the first election in Alberta to use ranked voting in Instant-runoff voting, a system just introduced for elections of single members in by-elections in Alberta's largest cities.

W.T. Henry got the most votes in the first count but no candidate received a majority of them so subsequent counts were held using second choices of the lower-ranking candidates. He was elected on third count.

Communist Party candidate H.M. Bartholomew showed strong third place showing, almost exceeding Conservative candidate on the second count.

1926

Unlike the previous election, starting in 1926, the general election would be held using Single transferable voting. The districting remained the same with all of Edmonton in one city-wide district electing multiple members but now each voter cast just one vote.

In this election, 18,154 valid ballots were cast in Edmonton. About 751 had been rejected for being improperly filled out, a proportion of about 4 percent.

Under the STV procedure used (the Hare system devised by Thomas Hare in 1850s), the quota that guaranteed winning a seat was set as the Droop quota. This quota was 3026 (18,154 divided by 6, one more than the number of seats being contested, plus 1).

As candidates were eliminated, their votes were transferred to the remaining candidates in accordance with back-up preferences marked by the voter. (Marking of back-up preferences was voluntary and some voters simply marked jut one preference, their first choice. Votes eligible for transfer that had no next usable back-up preference were routed to the exhausted pile, but at the and only ten percent of the votes had had to be sidelined that way.)

With voters at complete liberty to rank the candidates along whatever criterion they wanted, some votes were transferred across party lines. Thus naturally the end result under STV differed from the party vote shares as per first preferences. But in this case the results were roughly proportional to each party's take of the first preference votes with two Conservatives, a Liberal, a Labour and a UFA winning seats. Labour and UFA were elected to their first Edmonton seat in this election, Edmonton's first PR election. This fairness was achieved not by reference to party shares but by the system's ability to produce high proportion of effective votes - votes actually used to elect someone. in this case, more than 14,000 votes, of the district's 18,000 valid votes, were used to actually elect someone, a rate of 78 percent.

The UFA ran one candidate, J.F. Lymburn. He led the polls, achieving quota in the first count and being declared elected. (Many of his surplus votes went to Labour candidates.) He was elected with just first preferences. All the other successful candidates would be elected with mixture of first preference votes and votes transferred to them through back-up preferences from unsuccessful candidates. They also each had votes received by early successful candidates that were transferred due to being surplus to the quota.

Prevey (Liberal) and Duggan (Conservative) won seats without the quota in the last counts, after other candidates were eliminated or elected.

Not all the five candidates who were most popular in the first count were elected in the end.

Independent Liberal Joe Clarke received many votes on the first count but did not make quota in first count and did not pick up enough votes from other candidates' later preferences to get quota, likely due to not being in a political party.

Liberal candidate J.C. Bowen was in the top five in first count, but also did not get quota and despite being in a party and thus likely to receive vote transfers, was not elected - many of the other Liberal party candidates' votes were transferred not to him but instead to another Liberal candidate, W.W. Prevey, a more popular individual overall, it seems. Eventually Prevey's vote total surpassed Bowen's, and Bowen, not Prevey, was eliminated when his turn came.

Labour although not having anyone in top five spots in first count, did capture a seat. This was proportional - its five candidates received about 20 percent of the vote. STV's transferable votes generally prevent bad effects of vote splitting, by allowing a party's dispersed votes to be concentrated on one or two leading party candidates as happened in this case. Farmilo, the leading labour candidate in the first count, was not elected though. Gibbs apparently as an individual was more popular overall than Farmilo. He got quota in a later count through distribution of other candidates' second preferences. This included both votes of supporters of his fellow Labour candidates and some supporters of Joe Clarke and other non-Labour candidates as well.

The Conservative party ran five candidates. The vote was spread among all five in the first count. None got quota in the first count. Weaver did later after three of his companion Conservative candidates were eliminated. Another Conservative (Duggan) - plus a Liberal (Prevey) - got seats by being relatively popular among the last ones still standing as the field of candidates thinned to just one more than the number of remaining open seats, at which time the two top remaining candidates - Conservative Duggan and Liberal Prevey - were declared elected, although not having quota.

1926 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	United Farmers	John Lymburn	3,046	16.27%	3,026	Y
	Conservative	Charles Yardley Weaver	2,202	11.76%	3,026	Y
	Liberal	Warren Prevey	1,517	8.10%	2,940	Y
	Independent Liberal	Joseph Clarke	1,179	6.30%	–	–
	Liberal	John C. Bowen	1,147	6.13%	–	–
	Independent	Samuel Barnes	1,060	5.66%	–	–
	Labour	Alfred Farmilo	973	5.20%	–	–
	Conservative	F. J. Folinsbee	881	4.71%	–	–
	Labour	Charles Gibbs	879	4.70%	3,026	Y
	Liberal	William Thomas Henry	858	4.58%	–	–
	Conservative	David Duggan	857	4.58%	2,265	Y
	Conservative	Herbert Crawford	782	4.18%	–	–
	Labour	James W. Findlay	628	3.35%	–	–
	Labour	Jan Lakeman	605	3.23%	–	–
	Liberal	William Rae	561	3.00%	–	–
	Labour	Elmer Roper	478	2.55%	–	–
	Conservative	Mark W. Robertson	361	1.93%	–	–
	Independent	John W. Leedy	140	0.75%	–	–
Total			18,154	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			567	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			33,741	55.48%	–	–
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton Official Results 1926 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Election held under single transferable vote with a quota of 3,026 to elect five members to the Legislative Assembly.

1930

Quota was 3028

1930 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	United Farmers	John Lymburn	3,230	14.76%	3,028	Y
	Conservative	David Duggan	2,665	12.18%	3,028	Y
	Labour	Charles Gibbs	2,262	10.34%	3,028	Y
	Conservative	Charles Weaver	2,013	9.20%	2,903	Y
	Liberal	William R. Howson	1,835	8.39%	2,915	Y
	Conservative	William Atkinson	1,786	8.16%	2,360	Y
	Liberal	Warren Prevey	1,331	6.08%	–	–
	Liberal	James Collisson	1,040	4.75%	–	–
	Labour	Alfred Farmilo	832	3.80%	–	–
	Labour	Samuel Barnes	818	3.74%	–	–
	Independent	Jan Lakeman	752	3.44%	–	–
	Labour	Daniel Kennedy Knott	745	3.41%	–	–
	Conservative	N. C. Willson	451	2.06%	–	–
	Liberal	G. V. Pelton	442	2.02%	–	–
	Conservative	J. A. Buchanan	424	1.94%	–	–
	Independent	Joseph Clarke	374	1.71%	–	–
	Conservative	R. D. Tighe	189	0.86%	–	–
Total			21,189	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			690	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			39,209	55.80%	–	–
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton Official Results 1930 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Election held under single transferable vote with a quota of 3,028 to elect six members to the Legislative Assembly.

1935

Six were elected. Quota was 5324

1935 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	Liberal	William Howson	9,139	24.52%	5,324	Y
	Social Credit	Samuel A. Barnes	4,476	12.01%	5,324	Y
	Social Credit	W. S. Hall	2,818	7.56%	–	–
	Social Credit	David B. Mullen	2,500	6.71%	4,932	Y
	United Farmers	John Farquhar Lymburnn	2,092	5.61%	–	–
	Social Credit	Orvis A. Kennedy	1,781	4.78%	–	–
	Conservative	David Milwyn Duggan	1,466	3.93%	5,078	Y
	Liberal	George Van Allen	1,255	3.37%	5,324	Y
	Social Credit	Mark W. Robertson	1,243	3.34%	–	–
	Liberal	Marion Conroy	1,238	3.32%	–	–
	Conservative	William Atkinson	1,220	3.27%	–	–
	Liberal	Gerald O'Connor	1,116	2.99%	4,922	Y
	Communist	Jan Lakeman	1,096	2.94%	–	–
	Conservative	Frederick Jamieson	1,029	2.76%	–	–
	Social Credit	G. L. King	843	2.26%	–	–
	Liberal	J. C. M. Marshall	673	1.81%	–	–
	Conservative	J. E. Basarab	671	1.80%	–	–
	Liberal	Walter Morrish	612	1.64%	–	–
	Labour	James East	505	1.36%	–	–
	Conservative	Emily Fitzsimon	363	0.97%	–	–
	Labour	James W. Findlay	331	0.89%	–	–
	Economic Reconstruction	Elsie Wright	192	0.52%	–	–
	Labour	Carl Berg	192	0.52%	–	–
	Labour	Sidney Bowcott	166	0.45%	–	–
	Labour	Alfred Farmilo	127	0.34%	–	–
	Conservative	D. M. Ramsay	71	0.19%	–	–
	Labour	Sidney Parsons	52	0.14%	–	–
Total			37,267	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			785	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			49,212	77.32%	–	–
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton Official Results 1935 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Election held under single transferable vote to elect six members to the Legislative Assembly.

1936 by-election

By-election necessitated by MLA Howson's resignation. Instant-runoff voting but no vote transfers conducted Liberal W. Morrish elected with majority of votes on the first count.

1937 by-election

By-election necessitated by death of George Van Allen.

Instant-runoff voting but no vote transfers were conducted.

Liberal E.L. Gray was elected with majority of votes on the first count.

1940

Five seats were open in this election. The quota, the number of votes certain to win a seat, was 7291.

This election saw an anti-SC movement, made up of Liberals, Conservatives and some UFA-ers, get many seats. Page, Duggan and Macdonald were elected in Edmonton this election as candidates of the People's League AKA Unity Movement, recorded as Independent in results below. Four of that group's candidates placed in the top five spots in the first count, but this was un-proportional and the process thinned them down.

SC candidate Norman James placed low in the first count but got enough votes from other candidates who were dropped out, and from Manning's surplus votes, to take a seat, pushing out O'Connor, a Unity League candidate. He did this without achieving quota but by being one of the last ones standing when the field of candidates thinned out. Due to his personal popularity, he leapfrogged over a couple SC candidates to take the seat, demonstrating that the STV-PR is about voters' preferences for individual candidates and not party lists.

1940 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	Social Credit	Ernest Manning	10,066	23.32%	7,291	Y
	Independent Movement	John Percy Page	5,607	12.99%	7,291	Y
	Independent Movement	Hugh John MacDonald	4,128	9.56%	6,649	Y
	Independent Movement	David Milwyn Duggan	3,878	8.98%	6,731	Y
	Independent Movement	Gerald O'Connor	3,392	7.86%	–	–
	Independent Movement	L. Y. Cairns	3,316	7.68%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	1,984	4.60%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Harry Dean Ainlay	1,840	4.26%	–	–
	Independent	E. C. Fisher	1,607	3.72%	–	–
	Social Credit	Charles Gould	1,192	2.76%	–	–
	Social Credit	Elisha East	1,117	2.59%	–	–
	Communist	James A. MacPherson	1,067	2.47%	–	–
	Social Credit	Norman B. James	967	2.24%	7,133	Y
	Social Credit	Charles B. Wills	948	2.20%	–	–
	Independent	Marjorie Pardee	822	1.90%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	William H. Miller	442	1.02%	–	–
	Independent	G. F. Hustler	400	0.93%	–	–
	Independent Progressive	Samuel Barnes	282	0.65%	–	–
	Independent Progressive	J. H. Green	108	0.25%	–	–
Total			43,163	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			1,784	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			59,685	75.31%	–	–
Source(s) "Edmonton results 1940 Alberta general election". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 8, 2010. Note: Five seats were awarded in the Edmonton Electoral District through single transferable vote. The Hare Quota, the number of votes needed to win a seat, was 7,291. Ernest Manning and John P. Page were elected on the first count.

Many of the candidates listed as Independents, such as sitting MLA D.M. Duggan, were candidates for the Unity League, an anti-SC alliance of Conservatives, Liberals and others.

1942 by-election

After D.M. Duggan's passing in May 1942, his Edmonton seat was filled in a by-election.

This by-election was run according to Instant-runoff voting, which was used for all by-elections in Alberta in the 1924-1955 period. Voters across Edmonton voted as the city was a single constituency at this time.

There was only one seat being contested. Under IRV ( Alternative Vote), the winner had to take a majority of the valid votes.

Lymburn, a former UFA cabinet minister, was running as an anti-SC Unity League candidate. He did well in the first count surpassing the vote total of the SC candidate; but both being passed by CCF-er Roper. Roper however did not take a majority of the vote.

It became a tight race between front-runners Roper and Lymburn. The winner was not named until the fourth round after three of the five candidates had been eliminated and their second preferences distributed. There was such a high number of exhausted ballots because about half of the voters who voted for the SC, Soldiers Rep and Liberal candidates did not give second preferences.

But finally when the SC candidate, the third from the bottom in the first count, was dropped off in the fourth round, there were only two candidates and one or the other of the candidates would take a majority of the votes still in play. It is possible that in the last round, when the SC candidate was dropped off, most of his voters' second preferences went to Roper, apparently being thought more in tune with SC's help-the-little-guy philosophy than the business-minded Conservative/Liberal-member-dominated Unity League.

September 22, 1942 by-election			Turnout 32.71%
Affiliation		Candidate	1st	%	Votes	%	Count
	Cooperative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	4,834	24.76%	8,432	53.98%	4th
	Social Credit	G.B. Giles	4,432	22.70%	Eliminated prior to 4th count
	Independent	John Lymburn	4,032	20.65%	7,188	46.02%	4th
	Soldier Representative	W. Griffin	3,389	17.36%	Eliminated prior to 3rd count
	Liberal	N.V. Buchanan	2,838	14.53%	Eliminated prior to 2nd count
Valid Ballots			19,525	100%	15,620	100%
Exhausted Ballots					3,905	4 Counts

1944

This election was held under Hare Single Transferable Voting STV-PR system.

1944 quota was 6306 (just more than one-sixth of the total valid ballots). Premier Manning got it in the first count, with 8000 votes to spare. His surplus votes (enough on their own to elect another candidate) were spread among the other four SC candidates (according to the voter's next marked preference) so none of the other SC candidates received enough in the 2nd Count to take a seat right off.

Page, running for the anti-SC Unity League, here identified as Independent, was in top five in the first count. The League, winding down, ran only one candidate and League votes were not spread around. He took enough votes in the first count to hold on to take a seat in later counts.

Johnnie Caine, a WWII ace, running as an Independent, was personally popular but did not get quota in the first count and not having a party behind him, did not receive many of the other candidates' second preferences when they were dropped off.

The first candidates to be eliminated were mostly Communists and CCF candidates, whose voters it seems gave their second preferences to their own, such as Roper who took a seat, and then eventually to Norman James, of the SC party. James and William J. Williams were the last two standing when the field of candidates thinned out and they took seats even without achieving the quota.

1944 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	Social Credit	Ernest Manning	14,271	38.45%	6,306	Y
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	5,253	14.15%	6,345	Y
	Independent Movement	John Percy Page	4,603	12.40%	6,333	Y
	Veterans' and Active Force	William J. Williams	2,818	7.59%	5,535	Y
	Independent	Johnnie Caine	1,400	3.77%	–	–
	Social Credit	Henry Carrigan	1,188	3.20%	–	–
	Social Credit	Orvis A. Kennedy	876	2.36%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Clifford Lee	854	2.30%	–	–
	Social Credit	Norman B. James	781	2.10%	3,532	Y
	Social Credit	John Gillies	755	2.03%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	James A. MacPherson	742	2.00%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	James Enright	649	1.75%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	M. E. Butterworth	549	1.48%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Joseph Dowler	545	1.47%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	William Halina	496	1.34%	–	–
	Independent	Cecil Chapman	476	1.28%	–	–
	Independent	Clarence Richards	422	1.14%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	Jan Lakeman	251	0.68%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	Alex Herd	119	0.32%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	G.V. Murdoch	72	0.19%	–	–
Total			37,120	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			2,927	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			65,651	61.00%	–	–
Source(s) "Edmonton results 1944 Alberta general election". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 8, 2010. Note: Five seats were awarded in the Edmonton Electoral District through single transferable vote. The Hare Quota, the number of votes needed to win a seat, was 6,306. Ernest Manning was elected on the first count.

1948

This election was held under Single Transferable Voting STV-PR system, using the Droop quota.

Five were elected.

The quota was 7692, one sixth of the 46,150 total valid votes. Manning got it in first count, with 14,000 votes to spare. His surplus votes helped elect two other SC candidates, Heard and Adams, at the end.

Prowse also got quota but no other Liberal got in on his shirt-tails.

CCF's Elmer Roper too exceeded quota, near to the end. His surplus was not distributed, perhaps because by then the count was at an end with only two candidates left standing to fill two remaining seats. Two SC-ers, Heard and Clayton, took these without achieving quota.

Result was roughly proportional to the first preference vote shares of the three parties that ran in this contest. (The Conservatives stayed out, supporting Page, an opponent of the SC government, running for the Independent Citizens' Association.)

Premier Manning alone took almost half the votes in the first count, and his party took more than half the seats. The CCF took one sixth of the first preference votes and one-fifth of the seats. The Liberals took about one-fifth the votes and one-fifth of the seats. Only about one-tenth of the votes were wasted - this included Page.

On a candidate basis, two of the top five in the first count were not elected. Page was not popular with enough second preferences, while Liberal Lazarowich also did not have holding power. (SC-ers Heard and Clayton replaced them in the top five to take seats.)

1948 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	Social Credit	Ernest Manning	22,014	47.45%	7,692	Y
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	6,511	14.03%	8,684	Y
	Liberal	James Harper Prowse	6,302	13.58%	7,692	Y
	Independent Citizen's	John Percy Page	2,723	5.87%	–	–
	Liberal	Peter Lazarowich	1,234	2.66%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Jack Hampson	1,046	2.25%	–	–
	Social Credit	Clayton Adams	946	2.04%	7,559	Y
	Liberal	Mary Scullion	942	2.03%	–	–
	Social Credit	Lou Heard	890	1.92%	7,746	Y
	Social Credit	John Gillies	772	1.66%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Mary Crawford	618	1.33%	–	–
	Liberal	Francis Ford	565	1.22%	–	–
	Social Credit	Walter Crockett	523	1.13%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Arthur Thornton	498	1.07%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	J. H. Dowler	370	0.80%	–	–
	Liberal	William Brownlee	442	0.95%	–	–
Total			46,396	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			880	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			84,391	56.02%	–	–
Source(s) "Edmonton results 1948 Alberta general election". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 8, 2010. Note: Five seats were awarded in the Edmonton Electoral District through single transferable vote. The Hare Quota, the number of votes needed to win a seat, was 7,692. Ernest Manning was elected on the first count.

1952

This election, like the previous six, was held under Hare Single Transferable Voting STV-PR system. Seven seats were filled. Quota was 6505, one-eighth of the 52,039 total valid votes. Five of the seven in winning positions in the First Count were elected at the end.

Manning and Prowse won in the first Count, with votes to spare. Their surplus votes were transferred to a less-popular SC and a Liberal candidate respectively, who then were elected themselves.

Three were elected with partial quotas at the end.

Seats in the end were allocated proportionally to the parties' share of the votes - SC party taking three seats, Liberals taking two, and a Conservative and CCF member also being elected.

1952 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	Social Credit	Ernest Manning	17,022	29.73%	6,505	Y
	Liberal	James Harper Prowse	7,264	12.69%	6,505	Y
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	6,632	11.58%	6,505	Y
	Conservative	John Percy Page	2,212	3.86%	5,504	Y
	Social Credit	Joseph Donovan Ross	1,757	3.07%	6,505	Y
	Social Credit	Ambrose Holowach	1,381	2.41%	–	–
	Liberal	Andre Milville Dechene	1,340	2.34%	–	–
	Liberal	Peter J. Lazarowich	1,136	1.98%	–	–
	Social Credit	Harry D. Carrigan	1,135	1.98%	–	–
	Social Credit	Stella M. Baker	1,126	1.97%	–	–
	Conservative	Marshall E. Manning	1,060	1.85%	–	–
	Liberal	Harold Tanner	875	1.53%	4,921	Y
	Social Credit	Williston Haszard	834	1.46%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	Bernard R. Swankey	824	1.44%	–	–
	Liberal	Cora Casselman	819	1.43%	–	–
	Social Credit	Edgar Gerhart	769	1.34%	5,895	Y
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Robert Atkin	658	1.15%	–	–
	Liberal	Laurette C. Douglas	632	1.10%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Roy Jamha	619	1.08%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Arthur E. Thornton	612	1.07%	–	–
	Liberal	Duncan Innes	608	1.06%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Floyd Albin Johnson	500	0.87%	–	–
	Conservative	Marcel Lambert	432	0.75%	–	–
	Conservative	Frederick John Mitchell	430	0.75%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Norman Finnemore	413	0.72%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Winnifred Scott	383	0.67%	–	–
	Conservative	Mrs. Arnold Taylor	272	0.48%	–	–
	Conservative	John A. L. Smith	189	0.33%	–	–
	Conservative	Edward Sturrock	105	0.18%	–	–
Total			52,039	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			5,217	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			108,424	52.81%	–	–
Source(s) "Edmonton results 1952 Alberta general election". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 8, 2010. Note: Seven seats were awarded in the Edmonton Electoral District through single transferable vote. The Hare Quota, the number of votes needed to win a seat, was 6,505. Ernest Manning, James Harper Prowse, and Elmer Roper were elected on the first count.

1955

This election was held under Hare Single Transferable Voting STV-PR system.

Seven members being elected (through STV)

Total votes cast: 82,792 votes.

6248 votes were spoiled and declared rejected. This was said to be due to a change of rules. Outside Edmonton, votes marked with an X were now rejected while previously they had been accepted. And this rule change there might have confused Edmonton voters. Another possible cause was that elections with higher than normal turnout saw inexperienced voters attempting to mark ranked ballots for the first time. Edmonton suffering more than 9 percent spoiled votes in 1952 was possibly caused by the strict rules that election officials had to use - by law any ballot not marked with a "1" was rejected even if the mark used by the voters might have clearly signaled their intention.

Quota was 9569, just more than one-eighth of the 76,544 valid votes. This amount guaranteed election but it was possible to be elected with fewer votes.

1955 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	Social Credit	Ernest Charles Manning	23,216	30.33%	9,569	Y
	Liberal	James Harper Prowse	18,755	24.50%	9,569	Y
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Elmer Ernest Roper	4,444	5.81%	–	–
	Conservative	John Percy Page	4,086	5.34%	9,224	Y
	Liberal	Edgar Bailey	2,971	3.88%	–	–
	Liberal	Andre Dechene	2,877	3.76%	–	–
	Liberal	Abe William Miller	2,787	3.64%	9,569	Y
	Social Credit	Anthony Hlynka	1,896	2.48%	–	–
	Liberal	J. Laurier Payment	1,640	2.14%	–	–
	Liberal	Harold Tanner	1,604	2.10%	9,569	Y
	Social Credit	Joseph Donovan Ross	1,575	2.06%	9,483	Y
	Social Credit	Edgar Gerhart	1,320	1.72%	9,121	Y
	Conservative	Gifford Main	1,064	1.39%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	William Harasym	947	1.24%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Robert Atkin	940	1.23%	–	–
	Social Credit	William J.M. Henning	785	1.03%	–	–
	Conservative	Gerard Amerongen	692	0.90%	–	–
	Social Credit	Cyril G. Havard	602	0.79%	–	–
	Social Credit	Mrs. C.N. Hattersley	555	0.73%	–	–
	Liberal	Lois Grant	552	0.72%	–	–
	Conservative	Robert F. Lambert	548	0.72%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Floyd Johnson	458	0.60%	–	–
	Conservative	Frederick John Mitchell	405	0.53%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Mary Crawford	383	0.50%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Ivor G. Dent	328	0.43%	–	–
	Conservative	Mrs. John A. L. Smith	299	0.39%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Arthur E. Thompson	290	0.38%	–	–
	Conservative	Robert L. Brower	221	0.29%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Hubert M. Smith	177	0.23%	–	–
	Independent	Charles E. Payne	127	0.17%	–	–
Total			76,544	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			6,248	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			127,069	65.15%	–	–
Source(s) "Edmonton results 1955 Alberta general election". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 8, 2010. Note: Seven seats were awarded in the Edmonton Electoral District through single transferable vote. The Hare Quota, the number of votes needed to win a seat, was 5,969.

1924-1937 by-elections

These by-elections were conducted using instant-runoff voting (alternative voting).

Party	1937	1936	1931	1924
Liberal	Edward Leslie Gray 17,788	W. Morrish 9,863	John C. Bowen 2,934	William Thomas Henry 4,640
Conservative			Frederick Jamieson 8,026	Albert Ewing 4,238
Labour			Elmer Roper 5,583	H.M. Bartholomew 4,118
People's Candidate	Joseph Clarke 10,000
Soldier Representative	W. Griffen 3,389
Communist	Jan Lakeman 1,779		Jan Lakeman 813
Unity		Margaret Crang 6,129
Cooperative Commonwealth		Harry Dean Ainlay 2,056
Progressive Labour	Margaret Crang 1,275
Independent	Rice Sheppard 257			G.V. Pelton 1,131

Plebiscite results

1948 electrification plebiscite

District results from the first province wide plebiscite on electricity regulation.

Option A	Option B
Are you in favour of the generation and distribution of electricity being continued by the Power Companies?	Are you in favour of the generation and distribution of electricity being made a publicly owned utility administered by the Alberta Government Power Commission?
22,351     50.99%	21,478     49.01%
Province wide result: Option A passed.

The result in Edmonton was closely balanced. In part this was due to the choice being between electrical generation by a city-owned corporation or by the provincial government.

1957 liquor plebiscite

1957 Alberta liquor plebiscite results: Edmonton
Question A: Do you approve additional types of outlets for the sale of beer, wine and spirituous liquor subject to a local vote?
Ballot choice		Votes	%
	Yes	46,219	71.98%
	No	17,994	28.02%
Total votes		64,213	100%
Rejected, spoiled and declined		75
127,279 eligible electors, turnout 50.94%
Question B2: Should mixed drinking be allowed in beer parlours in Edmonton and the surrounding areas?
Ballot choice		Votes	%
	Yes	48,645	75.85%
	No	15,485	24.15%
Total votes		64,134	100%
Rejected, spoiled and declined		622
127,279 eligible electors, turnout 50.88%

On October 30, 1957, a stand-alone plebiscite was held province wide in all 50 of the then current provincial electoral districts in Alberta. The government decided to consult Alberta voters to decide on liquor sales and mixed drinking after a divisive debate in the Legislature. The plebiscite was intended to deal with the growing demand for reforming antiquated liquor control laws.

The plebiscite was conducted in two parts. Question A asked in all districts, asked the voters if the sale of liquor should be expanded in Alberta, while Question B asked in a handful of districts within the corporate limits of Calgary and Edmonton asked if men and woman were allowed to drink together in establishments. Question B was slightly modified depending on which city the voters were in.

Province wide Question A of the plebiscite passed in 33 of the 50 districts while Question B passed in all five districts. Edmonton voted overwhelmingly in favor of the plebiscite. The district recorded slightly above average voter turnout almost just over the province wide 46% average with over half of eligible voters casting a ballot.

Edmonton also voted on Question B2. Residents voted for mixed drinking with a super majority. Turnout for question B. Turnout for Question B was slightly lower and than Question A.

Official district returns were released to the public on December 31, 1957. The Social Credit government in power at the time did not considered the results binding. However the results of the vote led the government to repeal all existing liquor legislation and introduce an entirely new Liquor Act.

Municipal districts lying inside electoral districts that voted against the Plebiscite were designated Local Option Zones by the Alberta Liquor Control Board and considered effective dry zones, business owners that wanted a license had to petition for a binding municipal plebiscite in order to be granted a license.

See also

• List of Alberta provincial electoral districts

Further reading

• Office of the Chief Electoral Officer; Legislative Assembly Office (2006). A Century of Democracy: Elections of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 1905-2005. The Centennial Series. Edmonton, AB: Legislative Assembly of Alberta. ISBN 0-9689217-8-7. Retrieved May 25, 2020.

External links

• Elections Alberta
• The Legislative Assembly of Alberta