Alberta general election, 1982
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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
- ↑ Election Alberta (July 28, 2008). 2008 General Report (PDF). p. 158. Retrieved April 29, 2011.