Alberta Social Credit Party

History

Origins

William Aberhart, a Baptist lay-preacher and evangelist in Calgary, was attracted to social credit theory while Alberta (and much of the western world) was in the depths of the Great Depression. He soon began promoting it through his radio program on CFCN in Calgary, adding a heavy dose of fundamentalist Christianity to the Social Credit theories of C.H. Douglas. Due to Aberhart's influence, the Canadian social credit movement always had a strong social conservative tinge.

The basic premise of social credit is that all citizens should be paid a dividend as capital and technology replace labour in production; this was especially attractive to farmers sinking under the weight of the Depression. Many study groups devoted to the theory sprang up across the province, which united into the Social Credit League of Alberta. Discussion of banking and monetary reform and social credit was not new to many Albertans. Alberta MP William Irvine (with Manitoba MP J.S. Woodsworth) had successfully pushed for an official inquiry into the subject in the early 1920s to which Edmonton-area self-taught expert George Bevington had presented evidence. Pamphleteers, such as Edmonton's R.C. Owens and Saskatoon's H.C. Pierce, had prepared the waters. James East, a long-serving Edmonton city councillor in the 1912-1936 period, had been proponent of monetary reform as well.

Rise to power

From 1932 to 1935, Aberhart tried to get the governing United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) to adopt social credit. However, the 1935 UFA convention voted against adopting social credit and UFA Premier Richard Reid rejected the proposals as being outside the province's constitutional powers, so Aberhart entered Social Credit candidates in that year's provincial election. There was widespread discontent with the overly cautious behaviour of the UFA government, and in some cases, local UFA chapters openly supported Social Credit candidates. The UFA government was also reeling from a scandal that had forced Reid's predecessor, John Brownlee, to resign a year earlier. This, in particular, caused some socially conservative UFA members to transfer their allegiance to the Christian-based Social Credit movement. The Social Credit Party campaigned on price controls, and social dividends of $25 a month to Albertan adults.

In the August 1935 Alberta general election, much to its own surprise, Social Credit won a landslide victory, taking 54% of the vote and winning 56 of the 63 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The only elected opposition was five Liberals and two Conservatives. The UFA lost all of its seats in the worst defeat for a sitting provincial government in Canadian history. Alberta thus elected the first Social Credit government in the world. The Social Credit Party's success is largely attributed to the charisma of Aberhart, who brought together a broad coalition ranging from social credit supporters to moderate socialists.

Not even the Socreds had expected to win the election. Indeed, they hadn't even named a leader during the campaign. The Socreds now found themselves having to choose a formal leader who would become the province's new premier. Aberhart was the obvious choice, having been the party's driving force from the beginning. He didn't want the office, but was persuaded to take power. He was elected as leader and premier-designate at the party's first caucus meeting, and was sworn in on 3 September. He became a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) a year later in a by-election.

The first year and a half in power was a period of adjustment for the newly elected Socred MLAs and their premier. Certain historians believe that much of the Social Credit Party's leadership, and many of its members, didn't understand Douglas' teachings. Negotiations between Aberhart and Douglas, who had been hired by the UFA as a financial advisor, were colourful but unproductive. Aberhart, consumed with details of governance and administration, made little progress along the social credit monetary reform road. After election he hired an orthodox financial expert named Magor, much to Douglas's displeasure, thus forestalling radical monetary reform. In March 1937 many Socred MLAs revolted against Aberhart's leadership, refusing to pass the provincial budget until Aberhart promised serious reform of the banking system.

Manning era

The latter years of Aberhart's government saw a decline in popularity, with party membership falling from 41,000 in 1938 to just 3,500 in 1942. The Albertan public recognized that the party's initial campaign promises, such as price controls and social dividends, were failing to materialize. Social Credit was elected with a slightly reduced mandate in 1940. "Bible Bill" Aberhart died in 1943, and was replaced by his Provincial Secretary and Minister of Trade and Industry, Ernest Manning. He served as premier until the late 1960s.

For the 1944 election, Manning campaigned on the labour protections that the party had implemented, using support from the Alberta Federation of Labour to fend off left-wing challenges from the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Labor-Progressive Party. Though other unions, particularly those affiliated with the Canadian Congress of Labour, took issue with the Social Credit Party's workers' protections, divisions within these unions and their leadership prevented any effective endorsement of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. During the campaign, Manning engaged in red-baiting on a number of instances, likening the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation to "the socialism of Germany". In the election, Manning led the Alberta Social Credit Party to retain a solid majority in the Legislative Assembly but with barely more than half the overall votes.

As a result of an oil boom in the late 1940s, Alberta received large amounts of oil royalties during much of Manning's term as premier, enabling large amounts of spending on education and healthcare. Under Manning's leadership, the government largely abandoned social credit monetary theories, though it did pass the Oil & Gas Royalties Dividend Act and issue payments to Alberta residents from oil royalties in 1957 and 1958.

Manning also moved to purge antisemites from the party. While antisemitism had been part of the party's Christian populist rhetoric for years, it was far less fashionable after World War II due to awareness of the Holocaust.

Manning led Social Credit to seven consecutive election victories. He governed with very large majorities in the legislature for virtually his entire tenure. His party repeatedly won well over 50 percent of the popular vote and rarely faced more than ten opposition MLAs. This SC domination in the legislature was strengthened when Manning cancelled Alberta's use of proportional representation in the cities of Edmonton and Calgary in 1956 where many of the opposition MLAs were being elected. For most of the next two decades, Alberta was virtually a one-party state.

Decline

Although it was not apparent at the time, Social Credit created with Manning's last election win in 1967. While the New Democratic Party emerged as a new challenger to the Social Credit Party, they were wary of the strong anti-communist and anti-union sentiments formed in Alberta, and ran a modest campaign alleging corruption within Manning's administration. However, historians suggest that a number of other problems were brewing during Manning's later years, such as the province's poor mental health system, the poor conditions of the native Albertan peoples, high housing and land prices, and relatively low royalty prices on oil. Despite winning 55 of the 65 seats in the legislature, it received less than 45% of the popular vote—its lowest share of the popular vote since 1940. This was a significant drop from 1963, when it took all but six seats.

More importantly, the once-moribund Progressive Conservatives, led by young lawyer Peter Lougheed, won six seats, mostly in Calgary and Edmonton. Despite having long-standing support in Calgary and Edmonton (Manning himself represented an Edmonton riding), Social Credit was at bottom an agrarian-based party, and never really lost this character. The party didn't react nearly fast enough to the changes in Alberta as Calgary and Edmonton gained more influence.

Manning retired in 1968 and was replaced by Agriculture Minister Harry Strom at the party's first leadership election. However, Strom soon was eclipsed by Lougheed, whose modern and urbane image contrasted sharply with that of the dour Strom. His cause was not helped when the Tories picked up an additional four seats during the term.

In the 1971 election, Lougheed's PCs ended Social Credit's 36-year hold on power. The Socred share of the popular vote decreased slightly, but still they finished only five points behind the PCs and won a record number of votes (due in part to Alberta's larger population). While they mostly held their own in their rural heartlands, their support in Edmonton and Calgary plummeted from 1968. The PCs took every seat in Edmonton, and all but five in Calgary. The Socreds lost a number of ridings by a small margin. However, due to the first past the post system, which awards seats to the candidate with the most votes in a district, even if they do not get a majority of votes (and awards power based on seats won), Social Credit's caucus was cut almost in half. It was cut down to 25 seats, and was consigned to the opposition benches for the first time in party history.

Dormancy in the 1980s

Clark returned to the backbench a little more than a year after the election. On 29 November 1980, former Calgary mayor Rod Sykes became the party's new leader, defeating Edmonton alderman Julian Kinisky 538–292. Raymond Speaker became parliamentary leader, and hence leader of the opposition. Sykes was unable to get into the legislature, and the party continued to sag in the polls.

The beginning of the end for Social Credit came when Clark retired from politics in 1981. His seat of Olds-Didsbury, a longstanding Social Credit bastion (parts of the riding had been in Social Credit hands for all but one month since 1935), was resoundingly lost to Western Canada Concept, an Alberta separatist party, and its candidate Gordon Kesler. In the process, Social Credit lost official status in the legislature. Unable to resolve the party's internal and financial problems, Sykes quit as leader in March 1982.

On 31 March 1982, Speaker announced that Social Credit would sit out that year's election. In a press release, Speaker said it would be useless for Social Credit to fight the next election since there were not enough Social Credit voters left in the province.

The Social Credit Party council quickly distanced itself from Speaker's statement. There was wide speculation at the time that Speaker would cross the floor to Western Canada Concept. Unable to attract a new leader, the Social Credit membership held an emergency meeting 18 September 1982. A resolution was put forward that would have dissolved the party. This was soundly rejected by the attending delegates and a new president was elected.

As soon as the writs were dropped in October, Speaker and Walt Buck left the party to become independent candidates for the legislature. The party's third MLA, Fred Mandeville, announced his retirement. George Richardson was named acting leader.

Social Credit went into the 1982 election in a precarious position, with no full-time leader and, for the first time since 1935, no incumbents. It had been unable to get its leader elected to the legislature at any point during the parliamentary term. The party ran only 23 candidates, easily its smallest slate at the time, and garnered only 0.8 percent of the vote. It was shut out of the Legislative Assembly altogether for the first time, and has never elected another MLA.

Rebirth in the 1990s and decline

Interim leadership of the party was given to Martin Hattersley, an Edmonton lawyer, and later to Harvey Yuill of Barrhead. What remained of the party ran six candidates in the 1989 election. The party was rekindled under the leadership of Robert Alford from 1990 to 1992. In 1991, Randy Thorsteinson, a Reform Party of Canada activist, was elected as party president. In 1992, Thorsteinson was elected as leader, and Robert Alford as president. Social Credit improved its performance in the 1993 election, but won no seats. In the 1997 election, the party nominated 70 candidates, and won 64,667 votes, over 7% of the popular vote.

After the 1997 election, polling revealed that the Social Credit Party was poised for a break-through: an estimated 150,000 Albertans would have been ready to once again support Social Credit as an alternative. This could have meant eight seats in the Legislature. However, in April 1999, Thorsteinson, a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, resigned to protest an internal party proposal to limit Mormon involvement within the party. Social Credit's fortunes quickly faded.

In November 1999, James Albers was elected over Jon Dykstra and Norm Racine to lead the party in a hotly contested race. Wiebo Ludwig was disqualified.

For the 2001 election, the party formed an electoral coalition with the Alberta Party. The party nominated 12 candidates in that election (down from 70 in 1997) and received 5,361 votes (0.5% of the popular vote), down from 64,667. The right wing vote fractured between the newly formed Alberta First Party and Social Credit. Most right-wing voters went back to supporting the Progressive Conservatives, who had experienced a resurgence in popularity.

Lavern Ahlstrom was appointed Social Credit leader in 2001. Under Ahlstrom's leadership, the party made moves toward re-embracing elements of social credit monetary theory.

The party nominated 42 candidates for the 2004 election, and won 10,874 votes (1.2% of the popular vote, an increase of 0.7% from 2001.) It polled well in a few ridings, most notably Rocky Mountain House where Lavern Ahlstrom tied for second place.

Alberta Social Credit in the 21st century

In early November 2007, Len Skowronski replaced Lavern Ahlstrom as leader of the party.

The party fielded eight candidates for the 2008 general election on 3 March. The party received 0.22% of the total or 2,051 votes, a decline of 1.0% from the previous election. The best individual riding result, and the only result over 3.0 percent, was for Wilf Tricker in Rocky Mountain House, who received 6.4% of the vote, finishing fifth in a field of seven candidates, just 0.62% behind the Green candidate and well ahead of the NDP and Separation Party of Alberta candidates.

It fielded three candidates in the 2012 election, and garnered 0.023% of the total vote. Its six nominated candidates won 832 votes in the 2015 election, 0.056% of the total vote—an increase of 0.033% over its 2012 result.

Pro-Life Alberta Political Association

At Social Credit's annual general meeting in January 2016, a group of anti-abortion activists took over the party. One of them, Jeremy Fraser, was elected as leader. They also replaced the board.

The party's registered name with Elections Alberta was changed to the Pro-Life Alberta Political Association (or Prolife Alberta, for short) on May 3, 2017.

The change in name reflected the change in the party's direction. Whereas Alberta Social Credit had aims of forming government, Prolife Alberta is a single-issue political association solely focused on promoting right-to-life issues, and anti-abortion efforts in Alberta. As a party, it has much greater latitude than other single-issue groups to engage in political activism and raise money.

In March 2018, Fraser resigned as leader.

On August 17, 2018, Murray Ruhl became the new party leader.

Ruhl has virtually no public presence; the party claims it is led by a team. It openly admitted it had no desire to win government, but existed solely to promote its policies, making it a Canadian version of a testimonial party. As in 2019, it only ran a single candidate in the 2023 provincial election.

Prolife Alberta advertises itself as "...a group of women and men committed to promoting pro-life public policy in Alberta, through politics."

Election results

Party leaders

Alberta Social Credit Party

William Aberhart 1935–1943 (7th Premier of Alberta)

Ernest Manning 1943–1968 (8th Premier of Alberta)

Harry E. Strom 1968–1972 (9th Premier of Alberta)

James Henderson (acting) 1972–1973

Werner Schmidt 1973–1975

James Henderson 1973 (leader in the legislature)

Robert Curtis Clark 1973–1975 (leader in the legislature)

Robert Curtis Clark 1975–1980

Rod Sykes 1980–1982

Raymond Speaker 1980–1982 (leader in the legislature)

Ray Neilson 1984–1985

George Richardson (acting leader) 1982–1985

Martin Hattersley (interim Leader) 1985–1988

Harvey Yuill (interim Leader) 1988–1990

Robert Alford 1990–1993

Randy Thorsteinson 1993–1999

James Albers 1999–2001

Lavern Ahlstrom 2001–2007

Len Skowronski 2007–2016

Jeremy Fraser 2016–2017