Alberta general election, 1959

Alberta general election, 1959

June 18, 1959 (1959-06-18)

65 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 33 seats were needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party   Leader Ernest Manning Cam Kirby Party Social Credit Progressive Conservative Leader since May 31, 1943 1958 Leader's seat Strathcona East Red Deer (lost re-election) Last election 37 seats, 46.4% 3 seats, 9.2% Seats before 37 3 Seats won 61 1 Seat change 24 2 Popular vote 230,283 98,730 Percentage 55.7% 23.9% Swing 9,3% 14.7%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Grant MacEwan Floyd Albin Johnson Party Liberal Co-operative Commonwealth Leader since November 1, 1958 1957 Leader's seat Calgary-North (lost re-election) ran in Denvegan (lost) Last election 4 seats, 31.1% 2 seats, 8.2% Seats before 15 2 Seats won 1 0 Seat change 14 2 Popular vote 57,408 17,899 Percentage 13.9% 4.3% Swing 17.2% 3.9%

Premier before election Ernest Manning Social Credit Premier-designate Ernest Manning Social Credit

The Alberta general election of 1959 was the fourteenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on June 18, 1959 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Ernest C. Manning, in his fifth election as party leader and provincial premier, led the Social Credit Party to its seventh consecutive term in government, with 55% of the popular vote, and all but four of the sixty five seats in the legislature.

Social Credit was also helped by a split in the opposition vote: whereas in the 1955 election, opponents were largely united behind the Liberal Party, in this election the vote was divided between the Liberals and the resurgent Progressive Conservative Party under the leadership of Cam Kirby, won almost 15% of the popular vote, placing ahead of the Liberals whose leader, Grant MacEwan lost his Calgary seat. The Tories and Liberals each won only one seat in the legislature while the Alberta CCF was shut out of the legislature for the first time in seventeen years.

The Social Credit government did away with the Instant-runoff voting system, that had been in place in the rural constituencies, and the Single Transferable Vote system in Edmonton and Calgary, both of which had been in place since 1924. The move was made to standardize and simplify voting results across the province. Under single transferable vote and instant-runoff voting, results would take up to five days to count all the possible vote transfers, before anyone was declared elected. This was especially problematic, in Edmonton that elected seven members. As well, the government in 1955 had lost a few members in rural constituencies due to IRV, when they had received the largest portion of the vote in the constituency but were not elected to the seat after re-distribution of the ballots in the second round. The cancellation of IRV system was meant to prevent this in the future.

As a result, 1959 saw the biggest increase in new districts since 1909 mostly in Calgary and Edmonton. The change was met by some harsh criticism at the time, for failing to consult the public, but it did little to hurt the Social Credit government at the polls.

Results

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

See also

• List of Alberta political parties

References

Elections and referendums in Alberta
General elections	1905 1909 1913 1917 1921 1926 1930 1935 1940 1944 1948 1952 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1979 1982 1986 1989 1993 1997 2001 2004 2008 2012 2015 next
Senate nominee elections	1989 1998 2004 2012
Municipal elections	1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013
Referendums	1915 1920 1923 1948 1957 1967 1971
See also: List of Alberta by-elections