1940 Alberta general election

Alberta general election, 1940

March 21, 1940 (1940-03-21)
57 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 29 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   150x150px Leader William Aberhart Andrew Davison Party Social Credit Independent Movement Leader since September 3, 1935 1940 Leader's seat Calgary Calgary Last election 56 seats, 54.2% pre-creation Seats before 47 — Seats won 36 19 Seat change 11 — Popular vote 132,507 131,172 Percentage 42.9% 42.5% Swing 11.3% —   Third party Fourth party   Leader unknown Edward L. Gray Party Labour Liberal Leader since — June 4, 1937 Leader's seat — ran in unknown Last election 0 seats, 1.7% 5 seats, 23.1% Seats before 0 6 Seats won 1 1 Seat change 1 5 Popular vote 3,258 2,755 Percentage 1.1% 0.9% Swing 0.6% 22.2%
Premier before election William Aberhart Social Credit Premier-designate William Aberhart Social Credit

The Alberta general election of 1940 was the ninth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada, was held on March 21, 1940 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Despite its failure to implement its key policy, providing prosperity certificates to all Albertans, the Social Credit Party of Premier William Aberhart won a second term in government. Nevertheless, it lost a considerable number of seats that it had gained in the 1935 landslide.

Unity Movement

The Conservative and Liberal parties as well as the remains of the United Farmers, recognizing the widespread popularity of the Social Credit party, ran joint candidates as independents in what was called the "Independent Movement" or the "Unity Movement". Although independent candidates won almost as many votes as Social Credit, the strategy was unsuccessful in preventing Social Credit from winning a majority of the seats in the legislature.

The Liberal party under leader Edward Gray chose only to support Independent candidates that it played a hand in nominating and it nominated other candidates under its own banner. Gray felt that candidates should not be machined into the field and left it up to the individual Liberal constituency associations to decide if they would support a candidate or not.

Co-operative Commonwealth

The social democratic Cooperative Commonwealth Federation nominated candidates for the first time, but failed to win any seats in the legislature, despite winning over 10% of the popular vote under the leadership of former United Farmers of Alberta MLA Chester Ronning. Like Ronning, most of the CCF's candidates had run in the 1935 election for the UFA.

Results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular Vote
				1935	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Social Credit	William Aberhart	56	56	36	−35.7%	132,507	42.90%	−11.35%
	Independent	Andrew Davison	59	-	19		131,172	42.47%	+41.57%
	Labour		2	-	1		3,258	1.05%	-0.63%
	Liberal	Edward Gray	2	5	1	−80.0%	2,755	0.89%	−22.25%
	Cooperative Commonwealth	Chester Ronning	36		-		34,316	11.11%
	Independent Progressive		4		-		1,726	0.56%
	Independent Liberal		1	-	-		1,136	0.37%	0.06%
	Communist		1	-	-	-	1,067	0.35%	−1.56%
	Independent Social Credit		1		-		362	0.12%
	Independent Farmer		2		-		314	0.10%
	Independent Labour		1	-	-	-	251	0.08%	+0.01%
Total			165	63	57	-9.5%	308,8641	100%
Source: Elections Alberta

Notes:

¹ First vote count used.

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

9th Alberta Legislative Assembly
	District	Member	Party
	Acadia-Coronation	Clarence Gerhart	Social Credit
	Alexandra	Selmer Berg	Social Credit
	Athabasca	Gordon Lee	Social Credit
	Banff-Cochrane	Frank Laut	Independent
	Beaver River	Lucien Maynard	Social Credit
	Bow Valley-Empress	Wilson Cain	Social Credit
	Bruce	James L. McPherson	Social Credit
	Calgary	James Mahaffy	Independent
		Fred Anderson	Social Credit
		Andrew Davison	Independent
		William Aberhart	Social Credit
		John J. Bowlen	Independent
	Camrose	David B. Mullen	Social Credit
	Cardston	Nathan Eldon Tanner	Social Credit
	Clover Bar	Floyd Baker	Social Credit
	Cypress	Fay Jackson	Independent
	Didsbury	Ernest M. Brown	Independent
	Drumheller	Gordon Taylor	Social Credit
	Edmonton	Ernest Manning	Social Credit
		John P. Page	Independent
		Norman James	Social Credit
		David Milwyn Duggan	Independent
		Hugh John Macdonald	Independent
	Edson	Angus James Morrison	Labour
	Gleichen	Donald McKinnon	Independent
	Grande Prairie	Lewis O'Brien	Independent
	Grouard	Joseph Tremblay	Liberal
	Hand Hills	Wallace Cross	Social Credit
	Lac Ste. Anne	Albert Bourcier	Social Credit
	Lacombe	Duncan MacMillan	Social Credit
	Leduc	Ronald Ansley	Social Credit
	Lethbridge	Peter M. Campbell	Independent
	Little Bow	Peter Dawson	Social Credit
	Macleod	James Hartley	Social Credit
	Medicine Hat	John Lyle Robinson	Social Credit
	Okotoks-High River	John Broomfield	Independent
	Olds	Norman E. Cook	Social Credit
	Peace River	Eld J. Martin	Independent
	Pembina	George MacLachlan	Independent
	Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	Ernest Duke	Social Credit
	Ponoka	Percy McKelvey	Independent
	Red Deer	Alfred Speakman	Independent
	Redwater	James Popil	Social Credit
	Rocky Mountain House	Alfred Hooke	Social Credit
	Sedgewick	Albert Fee	Social Credit
	Spirit River	Henry DeBolt	Social Credit
	St. Albert	Lionel Tellier	Independent
	St. Paul	Joseph Beaudry	Social Credit
	Stettler	Chester Reynolds	Social Credit
	Stony Plain	Cornelia Wood	Social Credit
	Taber	Roy S. Lee	Social Credit
	Vegreville	George Woytkiw	Social Credit
	Vermilion	William Fallow	Social Credit
	Wainwright	William Masson	Social Credit
	Warner	James H. Walker	Independent
	Wetaskiwin	John Wingblade	Social Credit
	Willingdon	William Tomyn	Social Credit

See also

• List of Alberta political parties