Alberta general election, 1982

Alberta general election, 1982
Alberta
November 2, 1982 (1982-11-02)

79 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
40 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout 66.00%
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Peter Lougheed Grant Notley Gordon Kesler
Party Progressive Conservative New Democratic Western Canada Concept
Leader since 1965 1968 1982
Leader's seat Calgary-West Spirit River-Fairview ran in Highwood (lost)
Last election 74 seats, 57.4% 1 seat, 15.8% pre-creation
Seats before 73 1 1
Seats won 75 2 0
Seat change Increase2 Increase1 Decrease1
Popular vote 588,485 177,166 111,131
Percentage 62.3% 18.7% 11.8%
Swing Increase4.9% Increase2.9%

  Fourth party Fifth party
 
Leader George Richardson Tom Sindlinger
Party Social Credit Reform Movement
Leader since 1982 1982
Leader's seat ran in Whitecourt (lost) Calgary-Buffalo (lost re-election)
Last election 4 seats, 19.9% pre-creation
Seats before 1 1
Seats won 0 0
Seat change Decrease1 Decrease1
Popular vote 7,843 6,258
Percentage 0.8% 0.7%
Swing Decrease19.1%

Premier before election

Peter Lougheed
Progressive Conservative

Premier-designate

Peter Lougheed
Progressive Conservative

The Alberta general election of 1982 was the twentieth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on November 2, 1982 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Less than four years had passed since the Progressive Conservatives won their landslide victory in 1979. Premier Peter Lougheed decided to call a snap election to catch fledgling new parties off guard, most notably the separatist Western Canada Concept which was capitalizing on anger over Lougheed's perceived weakness in dealings with the federal government, in particular his acceptance of the hugely unpopular National Energy Program. The WCC's Gordon Kesler had won a by-election earlier in the year, and Lougheed decided that it would be wise to stage a showdown with the WCC sooner rather than later.

Lougheed then proceeded to mount a campaign based largely on scare tactics, warning Albertans angry with Ottawa but yet uneasy with the WCC that they could end up with a separatist government by voting for a separatist party. The strategy worked for the Tories, who won their fourth consecutive term in government, and returned to the 62% popular vote level it had attained in the 1975 election. This netted the Tories 75 seats in the legislature—in terms of percentage of seats won, the second-largest majority government in the province's history. In the process, they reduced the opposition to only four MLAs in total.

The Alberta Liberal Party was punished in the wake of the NEP. Barely able to field candidates in a third of the ridings, it went down to one of its worst showings in party history.

The Social Credit Party collapsed. Its share of the popular vote fell from almost 20% to less than one percent. In a harbinger of things to come, Socred leader Robert Curtis Clark returned to the backbench shortly after the 1979 election, and retired from politics in 1981. Clark's old seat of Olds-Didsbury was resoundingly lost to the WCC in the ensuing by-election, dropping the Socreds to only three seats, one short of official party status. In March 1982, Socred parliamentary leader Raymond Speaker announced the Socreds would sit out the election. A resolution was put forward to disband the party, but failed. After the writs were dropped for the 1982 election, two of the remaining three Socred MLAs, Speaker and Walt Buck, resigned from the party to run for reelection as independents. The third, Fred Mandeville, opted not to run for reelection. With no incumbents for the first time since 1935 and no full-time leader, the party was shut out of the legislature for the first time since 1935, and has never elected another MLA. Speaker and Buck, however, did win reelection, and later formed the Representative Party of Alberta after being denied opposition status.

The New Democratic Party, led by Grant Notley, became the official opposition when Ray Martin was elected to the legislature. Notley had been the sole NDP MLA for more than a decade.

The WCC, a party that advocated the separation of the four western provinces of Canada to form a new country, had surprised Canadians when Kesler won his by-election and took a seat in the Alberta legislature. Although Kesler lost his seat in this election after he changed electoral districts from Olds-Didsbury and ran in Highwood, the WCC won almost 12% of the popular vote.

The Alberta Reform Movement, a new party founded by ex-Progressive Conservative Tom Sindlinger was caught unaware when the election was called, and ended up losing its only seat in Calgary Buffalo.

Results

Overall voter turnout was 66.00%.[1]

Party Party leader # of
candidates
Seats Popular vote
1979 Diss. Elected % Change # % % Change
Progressive Conservative Peter Lougheed 79 74 73 75 +1.4% 588,485 62.28% +4.88%
New Democratic Grant Notley 79 1 1 2 +100% 177,166 18.75% +3.00%
     Independent 34 - 2 2 - 36,590 3.87% +3.10%
Western Canada Concept Gordon Kesler 78 * 1 - * 111,131 11.76% *
Liberal Nicholas Taylor 29 - - - - 17,074 1.81% -4.35%
Social Credit George Richardson 23 4 1 - -100% 7,843 0.83% -19.04%
Alberta Reform Movement Tom Sindlinger 14 * 1 - -100% 6,258 0.66% *
Communist 8 - - - - 389 0.04% -0.01%
Total 344 79 79 79 - 944,936 100%  
Source: Elections Alberta

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

20th Alberta Legislative Assembly
  District Member Party
  Athabasca Frank Pierpoint Appleby Progressive Conservative
  Banff-Cochrane Greg Stevens Progressive Conservative
  Barrhead Ken Kowalski Progressive Conservative
  Bonnyville Ernie Isley Progressive Conservative
  Bow Valley Tom Musgrove Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Bow Neil Webber Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Buffalo Brian Lee Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Currie Dennis Anderson Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Egmont David J. Carter Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Elbow David John Russell Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Fish Creek William Edward Payne Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Foothills Janet Koper Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Forest Lawn John Zaozirny Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Glenmore Hugh Planche Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-McCall Stan Nelson Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-McKnight Eric Musgreave Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Millican Gordon Shrake Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-Mountain View Bohdan Zip Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-North Hill Ed Oman Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-North West Sheila Embury Progressive Conservative
  Calgary-West Peter Lougheed Progressive Conservative
  Camrose Gordon Stromberg Progressive Conservative
  Cardston John Thompson Progressive Conservative
  Chinook Henry Kroeger Progressive Conservative
     Clover Bar Walt Buck Independent
  Cypress Alan Hyland Progressive Conservative
  Drayton Valley Shirley Cripps Progressive Conservative
  Drumheller Lewis Clark Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Avonmore Horst Schmid Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Belmont Walter Szwender Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Beverly Bill Diachuk Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Calder Tom Chambers Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Centre Mary LeMessurier Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Glengarry Rollie Cook Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Glenora Lou Hyndman Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Gold Bar Al Hiebert Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Highlands David Thomas King Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Jasper Place Leslie Young Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Kingsway Carl Paproski Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Meadowlark Gerard Amerongen Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Mill Woods Milt Pahl Progressive Conservative
     Edmonton-Norwood Ray Martin NDP
  Edmonton-Parkallen Neil Stanley Crawford Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Sherwood Park Henry Woo Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Strathcona Julian Koziak Progressive Conservative
  Edmonton-Whitemud Robert Keith Alexander Progressive Conservative
  Edson Ian Reid Progressive Conservative
  Grande Prairie Bob Elliott Progressive Conservative
  Highwood Harry Alger Progressive Conservative
  Innisfail Nigel Pengelly Progressive Conservative
  Lac La Biche-McMurray Norm Weiss Progressive Conservative
  Lacombe Ronald Moore Progressive Conservative
  Lesser Slave Lake Larry Shaben Progressive Conservative
  Lethbridge-East Archibald D. Johnston Progressive Conservative
  Lethbridge-West John Gogo Progressive Conservative
     Little Bow Raymond Speaker Independent
  Lloydminster Bud Miller Progressive Conservative
  Macleod LeRoy Fjordbotten Progressive Conservative
  Medicine Hat Jim Horsman Progressive Conservative
  Olds-Didsbury Stephen Stiles Progressive Conservative
  Peace River Al Adair Progressive Conservative
  Pincher Creek-Crowsnest Frederick Deryl Bradley Progressive Conservative
  Ponoka Halvar Jonson Progressive Conservative
  Red Deer Jim McPherson Progressive Conservative
  Redwater-Andrew George Topolnisky Progressive Conservative
  Rocky Mountain House John Murray Campbell Progressive Conservative
  Smoky River Marvin Moore Progressive Conservative
     Spirit River-Fairview Grant Notley NDP
  St. Albert Myrna Fyfe Progressive Conservative
  St. Paul John Drobot Progressive Conservative
  Stettler Graham Harle Progressive Conservative
  Stony Plain William Purdy Progressive Conservative
  Taber-Warner Robert Bogle Progressive Conservative
  Three Hills Connie Osterman Progressive Conservative
  Vegreville John Batiuk Progressive Conservative
  Vermilion-Viking Tom Lysons Progressive Conservative
  Wainwright Robert Fischer Progressive Conservative
  Wetaskiwin-Leduc Donald H. Sparrow Progressive Conservative
  Whitecourt Peter Trynchy Progressive Conservative

See also

References

  1. Election Alberta (July 28, 2008). 2008 General Report (PDF). p. 158. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
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