1948 Alberta general election explained

Election Name:	1948 Alberta general election
Country:	Alberta
Flag Year:	1921
Type:	legislative
Party Colour:	no
Party Name:	no
Previous Election:	1944 Alberta general election
Previous Year:	1944
Previous Mps:	10th Alberta Legislative Assembly
Elected Mps:	members
Next Election:	1952 Alberta general election
Next Year:	1952
Next Mps:	12th Alberta Legislative Assembly
Seats For Election:	57 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 29 seats were needed for a majority
Leader1:	Ernest Manning
Leader Since1:	May 31, 1943
Leaders Seat1:	Edmonton
Last Election1:	51 seats, 50.5%
Seats Before1:	50
Seats1:	51
Seat Change1:	1
Popular Vote1:	164,003
Percentage1:	55.6%
Swing1:	5.1%
Leader2:	Elmer E. Roper
Leader Since2:	1942
Leaders Seat2:	Edmonton
Last Election2:	2 seats, 24.2%
Seats Before2:	2
Seats2:	2
Seat Change2:	±0
Popular Vote2:	56,387
Percentage2:	19.1%
Swing2:	5.1%
Image3:	LIB
Leader3:	James H. Prowse
Leader Since3:	June 26, 1947
Leaders Seat3:	Edmonton
Last Election3:	did not run
Seats Before3:	1
Seats3:	2
Seat Change3:	1
Popular Vote3:	52,655
Percentage3:	17.9%
Swing3:	—
Premier
Posttitle:	Premier after election
Before Election:	Ernest Manning
After Election:	Ernest Manning

The 1948 Alberta general election was held on August 17, 1948, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Ernest C. Manning led the Social Credit to a fourth term in government, increasing its share of the popular vote further above the 50% mark it had set in the 1944 election. It won the same number of seats - 51 of the 57 seats in the legislature - that it had won in the previous election.

The remaining seats were won by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the Liberal Party and independents.

This provincial election, like the previous five, saw district-level proportional representation (Single transferable voting) used to elect the MLAs of Edmonton and Calgary. City-wide districts were used to elect multiple MLAs in the cities. All the other MLAs were elected in single-member districts through Instant-runoff voting.

Along with this election, voters got to also vote in a province wide plebiscite. The ballot asked voters about utility regulation.

Results

Elections to the 11th Alberta Legislative Assembly (1948)
Party	Leader	Candidates	First-preference votes				Seats
Party	Leader	Candidates	Votes	±	%	Change (pp)	1944	1948	±	Ernest C. Manning	57	164,003	17,636	55.63	51	Elmer Roper	51	56,387	13,920	19.13	2	James H. Prowse	49	52,655	52,655	17.86	–	2	Independent Citizen's Association^[1]	John P. Page	9	12,983	34,256	4.40	3	2	3	2,958	2,958	1.00	–	1	Did not campaign	1	1	1	3,579	3,579	1.21	Ben Swankey	2	1,372	10,631	0.47	United Labour	1	856	932	0.30
Total		173	294,793		100.00%
Rejected ballots			17,707	9,625
Turnout			312,500	14,327	63.5%	7.2
Registered voters			489,311	67,810

Electrification plebiscite

The fourth plebiscite conducted province-wide in Alberta's history, it was not a traditional yes–no question, but presented two options on electricity generation and transmission, asking if the province should create "a publicly-owned utility administered by the Alberta Government Power Commission"^[2] or leave the electricity industry in the hands of companies already in the business (a mixture of municipal operations and private companies). The driving force behind the referendum was whether to provide rural electrification through public ownership or leave it in the hands of private corporations that had done very little up to that time and did not have the financial resources to perform the task.^[3] Despite the referendum result, the government sponsored the creation of many Rural Electrification Associations, of which some still exist today.^[4]

The result shows how evenly divided the province was on the issue, with a majority of only 151 votes in favour of leaving the old system in place. In fact, voters in Edmonton were effectively split and the rural areas were in favour of provincial control, but an even larger majority in Calgary voted to retain the old system.^[5]

Results by district1948 Alberta electricity plebiscite^[6]
District	In favour of
District	Status quo		Public utility
Acadia-Coronation	1,578	38.81%	2,487	61.19%
Alexandra	1,350	37.00%	2,298	63.00%
Athabasca	1,262	29.08%	3,077	70.92%
Banff-Cochrane	2,624	64.31%	1,456	35.69%
Beaver River	2,770	65.85%	1,436	34.15%
Bow Valley-Empress	1,737	47.02%	1,957	52.98%
Bruce	1,423	38.01%	2,320	61.99%
Calgary	26,325	69.63%	11,478	30.37%
Camrose	2,164	42.79%	2,893	57.21%
Cardston	1,268	46.00%	1,488	54.00%
Clover Bar	1,722	38.26%	2,778	61.74%
Cypress	1,279	47.49%	1,414	52.51%
Didsbury	2,360	60.00%	1,573	40.00%
Drumheller	1,862	47.58%	2,051	52.42%
Edmonton	22,351	50.99%	21,478	49.01%
Edson	1,623	33.86%	3,170	66.14%
Gleichen	2,007	56.04%	1,574	43.96%
Grande Prairie	2,293	49.55%	2,334	50.45%
Grouard	1,673	32.21%	3,520	67.79%
Hand Hills	1,759	44.95%	2,154	55.05%
Lac Ste. Anne	1,242	28.86%	3,061	71.14%
Lacombe	1,994	43.32%	2,608	56.68%
Leduc	1,899	44.02%	2,414	55.98%
Lethbridge	4,237	64.90%	2,291	35.10%
Little Bow	1,653	52.14%	1,517	47.86%
Macleod	2,179	53.74%	1,875	46.26%
Medicine Hat	5,186	81.03%	1,214	18.97%
Okotoks-High River	3,321	61.16%	2,109	38.84%
Olds	2,398	58.60%	1,694	41.40%
Peace River	1,914	42.90%	2,547	57.10%
Pembina	1,710	34.29%	3,276	65.71%
Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	1,838	44.59%	2,284	55.41%
Ponoka	1,622	41.69%	2,268	58.31%
Red Deer	2,963	52.79%	2,649	47.21%
Redwater	804	22.66%	2,743	77.31%
Rocky Mountain House	2,210	45.63%	2,633	54.37%
St. Albert	1,897	55.16%	2,333	44.84%
St. Paul	1,945	41.50%	2,741	58.50%
Sedgewick	1,962	48.17%	2,111	51.83%
Spirit River	1,147	31.91%	2,447	68.09%
Stettler	2,190	53.91%	1,872	46.09%
Stony Plain	1,360	35.88%	2,430	64.12%
Taber	1,485	46.46%	1,711	53.54%
Vegreville	1,225	32.08%	2,593	67.92%
Vermilion	1,732	43.12%	2,284	56.88%
Wainwright	1,813	41.00%	2,608	59.00%
Warner	1,265	51.33%	1,199	48.67%
Wetaskiwin	2,301	46.23%	2,676	53.77%
Willingdon	1,069	28.24%	2,716	71.76%
Totals	139,991	50.03%	139,840	49.47%

MLAs elected

Synopsis of results

Results by riding1948 Alberta general election (all except Calgary, Edmonton and servicemember MLAs)^[7]
Riding	First-preference votes						Turnout ^[8]	Final counts					Winning party
Name	SC	CCF				Total		SC	CCF				1944		1948
Name						Total							1944		1948

Acadia-Coronation	2,332	641	1,254	–	–	4,227	78.5%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Alexandra	2,034	1,190	651	–	–	3,875	57.7%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Athabasca	2,374	1,226	958	–	–	4,558	59.0%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Banff-Cochrane	1,084	–	–	1,246	1,658	3,988	58.2%	–	–	–	1,465	1,964		SC		I-SC
Beaver River	1,992	1,282	1,579	–	–	4,853	68.9%	2,117	–	1,698	–	–		SC		SC
Bow Valley-Empress	2,178	683	1,063	–	–	3,924	68.9%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Bruce	2,248	1,080	615	–	–	3,943	64.0%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Camrose	3,041	1,315	1,003	–	–	5,359	71.2%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Cardston	1,981	–	944	–	–	2,925	60.00%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Clover Bar	2,801	1,035	761	–	–	4,597	70.1%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Cypress	1,723	410	844	–	–	2,977	69.2%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Didsbury	2,647	417	–	935	–	3,999	64.5%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Drumheller	2,982	–	271	–	856	4,109	76.4%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Edson	2,543	1,715	770	–	–	5,028	65.4%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Gleichen	2,354	–	–	1,303	–	3,657	65.4%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Grande Prairie	2,952	1,019	768	–	–	4,739	68.4%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Grouard	2,493	1,249	1,850	–	–	5,592	75.7%	2,717	–	1,917	–	–		SC		SC
Hand Hills	2,773	–	1,607	–	–	4,380	78.9%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Lac Ste. Anne	1,899	1,558	1,023	–	39	4,519	69.7%	2,401	1,742	–	–	–		SC		SC
Lacombe	3,053	1,109	643	–	–	4,805	70.8%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Leduc	2,548	1,071	772	–	–	4,391	61.2%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Lethbridge	3,829	1,441	1,768	–	–	7,038	65.0%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Little Bow	1,865	435	–	1,086	–	3,386	75.1%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Macleod	2,852	756	612	–	–	4,220	67.8%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Medicine Hat	3,835	996	1,043	–	–	5,874	64.0%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Okotoks-High River	3,876	490	1,219	–	–	5,585	62.5%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Olds	3,260	424	690	–	–	4,374	66.8%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Peace River	3,191	1,087	829	–	–	5,107	61.3%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Pembina	3,165	1,462	684	–	–	5,311	72.8%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	2,210	815	998	–	856	4,879	72.0%	2,292	–	1,045	–	–		SC		SC
Ponoka	2,679	1,023	519	–	–	4,221	69.6%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Red Deer	4,771	1,082	–	–	–	5,853	66.0%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Redwater	1,807	1,528	441	–	–	3,776	66.9%	1,912	1,572	–	–	–		SC		SC
Rocky Mountain House	3,582	1,365	–	–	–	4,947	63.4%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
St. Albert	2,702	1,047	774	–	–	4,523	67.9%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
St. Paul	2,197	1,510	1,416	–	–	5,123	73.3%	2,980	1,584	–	–	–		SC		SC
Sedgewick	2,867	567	838	–	–	4,272	71.6%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Spirit River	2,155	1,194	631	–	–	3,980	68.9%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Stettler	3,249	953	–	–	–	4,201	67.8%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Stony Plain	2,188	1,037	872	–	–	4,097	68.9%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Taber	2,559	501	463	–	–	3,523	62.6%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Vegreville	2,101	1,276	763	–	–	4,140	70.1%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Vermilion	1,999	1,158	1,179	–	–	4,336	71.9%	2,196	–	1,323	–	–		SC		SC
Wainwright	2,877	887	833	–	–	4,597	70.4%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Warner	1,691	–	598	–	–	2,289	53.6%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Wetaskiwin	2,827	1,232	1,414	–	–	5,473	75.8%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Willingdon	2,111	1,861	–	–	–	3,972	72.6%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC

= Open seat

= turnout is above provincial average

= Candidate was in previous Legislature

= Incumbent had switched allegiance

= Previously incumbent in another riding

= Not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature

= Incumbency arose from by-election gain

= previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada

= Multiple candidates

Multi-member districts

District	Seats won (in order declared)
Calgary	width=20	width=20	width=20	width=20	width=20
Calgary
Edmonton
Edmonton

width=20		Social Credit
		CCF
		Liberal
		Independent Citizen's Association

= Candidate was in previous Legislature

= First-time MLA

STV analysis

Exhausted votes

Ten districts went beyond first-preference counts in order to determine winning candidates:

Exhausted votes (1948)
District	Counts		Exhausted
District	1st preference	Final	Votes	% of 1st pref
Calgary	39,309	36,238	3,071
Edmonton	46,150	44,256	1,894
Banff-Cochrane	3,988	3,429	559
Beaver River	4,853	3,815	1,038
Grouard	5,592	4,634	958
Lac Ste. Anne	4,519	4,143	376
Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	4,879	3,337	1,542
Redwater	3,776	3,484	292
St. Paul	5,123	4,564	559
Vermilion	4,336	3,519	817

Calgary

All parties other than the Independent Movement fielded full slates.

Party		Candidates			MLAs elected
Party		1944	1940	±	1944	1940	±	5	5		2	2		5	5		1	1		5	–	5	1	–	1	Independent Citizen's Association	3	4	1	1	2	1	1	5	4	–	–	–	1	–	1	–	–	–	2	–	2	–	–	–
Total		22	19	3	5	5

Edmonton

Three parties had full slates. The Independent Movement presented four candidates, and Williams campaigned under his own banner.

Party		Candidates			MLAs elected
Party		1944	1940	±	1944	1940	±	5	5		3	2	1	5	5		1	1		5	–	5	1	–	1	Independent Citizen's Association	1	4	3	–	1	1	–	1	1	–	1	1	–	5	5	–	–	–
Total		16	20	4	5	5

Notes and References

Formerly known as the Independent Movement or the Citizens' Slate
A Report on Alberta Elections, p. 185
The People's Weekly, August 14, Sept. 4, 1948
"Alberta Power Market" website, accessed May 16, 2020
News: . August 20, 1948. Private Hydro Control Swung By City Votes. Calgary Albertan. 3.
Book: . A Century of Democracy: Elections of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 1905-2005. Edmonton. . 484-485. 0-9689217-9-5.
Book: . A Century of Democracy: Elections of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 1905-2005. Edmonton. . 166-178. 0-9689217-9-5.
including spoilt ballots