Calgary (provincial electoral district)

Calgary was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada that existed from 1905 to 1913 and 1921 to 1959, to elect members to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The district significantly grew over the years with the ever expanding city boundaries. The riding started out as a small one member district, and ended up a six man super riding, before its breakup in 1959.

Prior to 1905 when Calgary was still in the Northwest Territories there were two districts East Calgary and West Calgary, which were split from the original Calgary Northwest Territories district in 1894. Calgary district first came into existence when Calgary had a sufficiently large population to meet the requirements to elect members in the Northwest Territories in 1884.

The election of 1909 and 1921 saw members elected under a plurality Block Vote. The two top Candidates in 1909 and the top five in 1921 were elected to the Legislature.

In the elections of 1913 and 1917 Calgary was divided into three ridings Calgary South, Calgary Centre and Calgary North.

In 1926 the United Farmers of Alberta passed legislation that changed both Edmonton and Calgary to Single Transferable Vote super districts. The rest of the province had the optional single member voting system. During some elections, such as the 1957 Liquor Plebiscite, the city would outgrow the district boundaries and some residents would vote in neighboring rural districts.

In the 1950s, Calgary and Edmonton had gone through significant growth, and with every election returns under the transferable vote would take up to a week before anyone could be declared elected. Voting results printed in newspapers generally took half a page to print all the ballot transfers.

In 1959 the Social Credit government reinstituted First Past the Post system and divided Calgary and Edmonton into single member districts. In Calgary those districts were Calgary West, Calgary Glenmore, Calgary Bowness, Calgary North East, Calgary South East, Calgary Centreand Calgary North.

At the time some in the province were critical of Social Credits actions, as they did not consult Albertans on changing the voting system. The change had no negative effects for the Social Credit government in the following elections, as they were still at the height of their popularity.

During this time six By-elections were also conducted.

Expansion of Seats and Districts in Calgary

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

eats

Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs)

The election was a three way contest but was primarily a two way race. Richard Bennett the Conservative candidate and party leader was a well known lawyer and former Northwest Territories MLA. William Henry Cushing the Liberal candidate had previously been a prominent Calgary municipal politician including serving as mayor. He also had a number of private enterprises in the building materials industry. Rounding out the field was labor activist and independent candidate Alex Macdonald.

The 1905 election was mired in controversy as election results see-sawed back and forth, claims of Conservative supporters being denied access to polling stations were made with supporters of Cushing having been found to run the polling stations. After the official results were released Cushing was declared the winner by 47 votes. Macdonald placed well behind in third place but still with a respectable showing taking close to 20% of the popular vote. The result in Calgary had been seen by the Conservatives as an embarrassing personal defeat for Bennett as the party got nearly shut out of office province wide. Bennett quickly resigned as leader and was replaced by Albert Robertson.

1957 by-election

Note:
*In the 1944 Election, Canadian Forces personal were given special ballots intended to track how they voted. Service vote results are only available for the 1st Count.

1935-1940

1921 - 1923 by-elections

Note:
*In 1909 Voters had the option of selecting up to two candidates on the ballots

By-election's and floor crossings

*October 31, 1911—Resignation of Mr. Richard Bennett to run for House of Commons
*December 9, 1921—Alex Ross appointed to a cabinet portfolio in the United Farmers Government
*January 15, 1923—Death of Mr. Robert Chambers Edwards
*January 19, 1933—Resignation of Dr. Harold McGill
*January 15, 1934—Death of Mr. George Webster
*1937—John Hugill leaves Social Credit and sits as an Independent
*1940—John J. Bowlen leaves the Liberal party and becomes Independent
*1950—Howard Macdonald crosses the floor from Independent to Social Credit
*October 2, 1957—Resignation of Mr. Arthur Ryan Smith

Plebiscite District Results

1948 Electrification Plebiscite

District results from the province wide plebiscite on electricity regulation.

1957 Liquor Plebiscite

District results from on mixed drinking and additional liquor stores, from the 1957 Liquor Plebiscite. The second question was only asked in Calgary and Edmonton.

References

External links and references

* [http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ Website of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta]
* [http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/ Alberta Heritage]
* [http://www.electionsalberta.ab.ca/welcome.html Election Alberta]
* [http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/7911/page_cm55a.html Map of Calgary 1955]
*Plebiscite district results from: A History of Alberta Election 1905 - 1982 published by Elections Alberta
*All other Election data from the Calgary Herald microfilm archives.