1975 Alberta general election

Background

The 1971 general election resulted in the Progressive Conservative Party led by Peter Lougheed defeating the Social Credit Party which had governed Alberta continuously for 36 years consecutive years. The Progressive Conservatives defeated the Social Credit Party by 5.3 per cent in the popular vote and formed a majority government.

Social Credit leader and former Premier Harry Strom continued as leader of the opposition until 1973 when he resigned, Strom continued in the legislature until the 1975 election, when he did not seek re-election. In the 1973 leadership election, Werner Schmidt, vice-president of Lethbridge Community College, who didn't hold a seat in the Legislative Assembly, ran against former Highways Minister Gordon Taylor, former Education Minister Robert Curtis Clark, and John Ludwig, dean of business education at Alberta College. Clark, who had the support of half of the party's MLAs, led Schmidt on the first ballot, 583 votes to 512 votes. But in an upset victory, Schmidt won on the second ballot with 814 votes, defeating Clark by 39 votes. Social Credit MLA Gordon Taylor grew detached with the party and supported Lougheed's plan to provide gas lines to rural areas. Taylor left the Social Credit caucus in 1975 just before the election.

The New Democratic Party led by leader Grant Notley captured a single seat in the 1971 general election.

The Alberta Liberal Party failed to capture a single seat in the 1971 general election led by leader Bob Russell. Russell contested the 1973 by-election in Calgary-Foothills finishing a distant fourth with 5.8 per cent of the vote. Russell resigned the leadership of the Liberal Party later in 1974, and was succeeded by Nicholas Taylor.

Election campaign

Progressive Conservative

Premier Peter Lougheed enjoyed strong support from his home constituency of Calgary-West, meaning he was able to campaign throughout the province.

The Progressive Conservative Party campaigned a platform on administrative competence and promises outlined in an unpassed 1975–76 budget. Leaning on successful negotiations with the federal and Ontario governments and oil companies for the development of oil sands in the Winnipeg Agreement only 11 days before the legislature was dissolved. Other promises included the creation of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, reduction of personal income taxes by at least 28 per cent, and increased social program spending, all of which were built on growing non-renewable natural resource revenue resulting from 1970s energy crisis.

Campaign slogans utilized by the Progressive Conservatives included "Lougheed Leadership", "43 Months of Progress", and "Vote Today for Alberta".

The Progressive Conservative government was criticized for interference with the free market, which was exemplified with the 1974 purchase of Pacific Western Airlines for $37.5-million. The Lougheed government was also criticized for significant government spending authorized through Order-in-Council instead of appropriations through the legislature.

Social Credit Party

The Social Credit Party ran a campaign advocating for the provincial government to provide low-interest loans to Albertans for housing, farming and small business purposes. Social Credit leader Werner Schmidt promoted greater revenue sharing with municipal governments, and more conciliatory stance to negotiations with the federal government, and greater emphasis on free market enterprise. The Social Credit Party referred to themselves as "the Alberta Party" throughout the election, but was unable to gather significant momentum with the phrase.

The Social Credit Party was only able to muster 70 candidates to contest the provinces 75 electoral districts. Many of the candidates focused their advertising dollars and canvassing efforts on highlighting their individual experience and value as a constituent representative rather than emphasizing the Party's platform.

New Democratic Party

NDP leader Grant Notley was elected to the Spirit River-Fairview district in 1971 by a slim margin in a competitive three-way race. The pressure in his home riding required Notley to do much of his campaigning in his home riding, and not in locations across the province.

Through his efforts in the legislature, Notley gained a reputation as a hard-working, sincere and capable representative and critic of Peter Lougheed. The NDP mustered candidates in all 75 constituencies, and as the only opposition party with a full slate of candidates, the NDP created the election slogan "The Only Real Opposition".

The NDP's campaign strategy did not emphasis socialist programs in the early stages of the campaign, instead focusing on the Lougheed government's agreement with Syncrude for developing the oil sands. Notley and the NDP believed the Syncrude agreement would be the central issue of the election, as the agreement included significant public financial investments. Notley was able to obtain several confidential government documents relating to the Syncrude project's viability which the NDP released throughout the campaign, however the Progressive Conservatives steered away from debate on the subject. Later in the election the NDP brought forward more traditional socialist programs including children's dental care, increasing old age pensions, government run auto insurance and increasing public ownership of utility companies.

Liberal

The Liberal Party focused its campaign on leader Nick Taylor's charisma and environmental opposition to the Progressive Conservatives industrialization policy. Instead the Liberal Party emphasized that Alberta's economy should be focused on renewable resources such as agriculture, timber, tourism and modern professional skills. The Liberals emphasized their platform through the campaign slogan "The Alternative".

The Liberal Party was able to field 46 candidates in the province's 75 electoral districts, although with a majority of the Party's support coming from Calgary and Edmonton, many of the rural candidates were paper candidates. Much of the Liberal campaign resources were focused on urban candidates, with most of the resources going towards Taylor's Calgary-Glenmore constituency.

Results

The Progressive Conservative Party won a lopsided victory, capturing 62.7 per cent of the vote and 69 of 75 seats in the legislature. The Edmonton Report cover featured a caricature of Peter Lougheed following the victory accompanied with the title "Peter The Greatest".

The Social Credit Party dropped 21 seats (from 25 to 4), capturing 18.2 per cent of the vote. Leader Werner Schmidt failed to capture his own seat in Taber-Warner, capturing 2,418 votes (33.43 per cent), coming second to Progressive Conservative Robert Bogle who captured 4,614 votes (63.78 per cent). Independent Social Credit candidate Gordon Taylor was able to retain his seat. Schmidt resigned as leader of the Social Credit Party days after the election.

The Liberal Party grew to nearly 5 per cent of the popular vote, but secured no seats. Nick Taylor came second in his constituency of Calgary-Glenmore with 4,166 votes, behind the Progressive Conservative candidate Hugh Planche who garnered 10,641 votes. Taylor attributed the Liberal's overall poor performance to the connection with the unpopular federal Liberal Party.

The New Democratic Party leader Grant Notley was able to capture his seat in Spirit River-Fairview with 50.83 per cent of the vote, defeating his only opponent, Progressive Conservative Alex Woronuk. Despite garnering 12.9 per cent of the popular vote, the NDP was only able to capture Notley's seat. The NDP was still somewhat pleased that candidates came second in northern areas of the province and all 16 Edmonton constituencies.

Overall voter turnout in the election was 59.58 per cent.

Note:

• Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.{{Bar box|title=Popular vote|titlebar=#ddd|width=600px|barwidth=410px|bars=

Results by riding

|- |Athabasca||| |Frank Appleby 3,723 59.63% | |Peter Hupka 582 9.32% | |Peter E. Opryshko 1,686 27.01% | |John Murphy 226 3.62% | ||||

| |Merlyn Kirk 1,129 14.90% | |Wayne Getty 737 9.73% | |Morna F. Schechtel 453 5.98% | |||| | |- |Barrhead||| |Hugh F. Horner 3,665 67.48% | |Bill Seatter 919 16.92% | |Arlington Corbett 826 15.21% | | | ||||

| |George Nordstrom 1,119 19.65% | |Franklin Foster 805 14.14% | |Ron Pernarowski 526 9.24% | ||||

| |Jim C. George 1,906 37.41%||| |Fred T. Mandeville 2,992 58.72% | |Syd Evans 183 3.59% | | | ||||

| |Roy Wilson 3,537 35.11% | |Jack Dunbar 879 8.72% | |Mike Prohaszka 314 3.12% | |David Whitefield (Comm.) 64 0.64%|||

| |Norman Ashmead 786 8.51% | |Paula Davies 877 9.50% | |Maria Eriksen 962 10.42% | |David Wallis (Comm.) 55 0.60%|||

| |Edwin Ens 939 11.27% | |Hiram Coulter 713 8.56% | |Ron Chahal 586 7.04% | ||||

| |Lloyd Downey 1,119 7.79% | |Maureen McCutcheon 712 4.96% | |Jack Haggarty 1,634 11.38% | ||||

| |Bernard Laing 589 7.05% | |Jack Peters 449 5.37% | |Sharon Carstairs 1,149 13.75% | ||||

| |Bill Campbell 2,587 16.00% | |Ken Gee 1,366 8.45% | |Acker Winn (Ind. Lib.) 324 2.01% Hilda Armstrong 893 5.52% | |David Gutnick (Comm.) 55 0.34% ||

| |Ralph Cameron 838 5.19% | |Bill Peterson 498 3.08% | |Nicholas Taylor 4,166 25.78% | ||||

| |George Ho Lem 3,397 24.22% | |Doreen Heath 997 7.11% | |Garry Willis 440 3.14% | |Colin Constant (Comm.) 46 0.33%|||

| |Allen Howard 1,572 12.41% | |Ray Martin 1,747 13.80% | |Pat Smart 743 5.87% | ||||

| |Arthur J. Dixon 2,114 24.44% | |Joseph Yanchula 940 10.87% | |Jodi Mahoney 512 5.92% | |Mike Daniels (Comm.) 43 0.50% Roger Lavoie (Ind.) 21 0.24% ||

| |Albert W. Ludwig 2,562 32.88% | |Orrin Kerr 725 9.30% | |John Sutherland 576 7.39% | |Joe Hill (Comm.) 56 0.72%|||

| |Robert A. Simpson 1,364 14.41% | |Joan Ryan 723 7.64% | |Dorothy Groves 584 6.17% | |Stephen Whitefield (Comm.) 60 0.63%|||

| |Charles Gray 1,213 10.57% | |Neil Ellison 674 5.87% | |Steve Shaw 564 4.91% | ||||

| |Ray Reid 1,313 14.66% | |David Moore 1,141 12.74% | | | ||||

| |Roy Sprackman 1,826 37.65% | |Kelty Paul 115 2.37% | | | ||||

| |Murray Finnerty 3,211 34.23%||| |Walt A. Buck 5,151 54.90% | |Duncan McArthur 799 8.52% | |David Cooke 197 2.10% | ||||

| |Barry Bernhardt 1,447 37.28% | |Allen Eng 202 5.20% | | | |Margaret Dragland (Ind.) 159 4.10%|||

| |Tom Johnson 513 10.78% | |Lars Larson 815 17.13% | |Maurice Duteau 191 4.02% | ||||

| |Wayne Ohlhauser 2,678 36.29% || |Gordon E. Taylor (Ind. SoCred) 4,428 60.20% | |Larry Schowalter 249 3.37% | | | ||||

| |Joe G. Radstaak 1,341 17.76% | |Neil R. Larsen 1,141 15.11% | |Ann Mazur 413 5.47% | |Mike Uhryn (Con. Social.) 47 0.62% ||

| |Victor Nakonechny 1,164 11.31% | |Ashley Pachal 1,759 17.09% | |John Day 661 6.42% | |Chris Hansen (Comm.) 27 0.26%|||

| |Patrick A. Moore 764 9.36% | |Bill Kobluk 1,902 23.30% | |Rudolph Pisesky 374 4.58% | |Paul Jarbeau (Comm.) 60 0.73%|||

| | | |Burke Barker 1,640 19.59% | |Jack Pickett 620 7.41% | |Keith Lawson (Ind.) 396 4.73%|||

| |Gerry Beck 386 5.97% | |Barry Roberts 1,125 17.40% | |Ed Molstad 930 14.38% | ||||

| |Al Opstad 782 7.50% | |Alex McEachern 1,837 17.61% | | | |William Askin (Con. Social.) 44 0.42% ||

| |Larry Latter 982 12.00% | |Grant Arnold 1,312 16.04% | |Don Hoyda 579 7.08% | |Harry J. Strynadka (Comm.) 28 0.34%|||

| |Ambrose Holowach 888 16.89% | |Muriel Venne 1,129 21.47% | | | |William A. Tuomi (Comm.) 82 1.56%|||

| |Don Eastcott 1,035 12.57% | |Carol Berry 1,192 14.48% | |Philip Lister 491 5.96% | ||||

| |Jake Johnson 619 8.34% | |Jane Weaver 1,418 19.10% | |Roy Landreth 472 6.36% | ||||

| |Russ Forsythe 1,093 11.01% | |Harvey Tilden 1,406 14.17% | |Vic Yanda 698 7.03% | ||||

| |Alfred J. Hooke 1,045 14.30% | |Howard Rubin 1,849 25.29% | | | |Gary Hansen (Comm.) 48 0.66%|||

| |Irvine Zemrau 1,559 12.54% | |Jim Denholm 2,003 16.11% | | | ||||

| |Glen Carlson 904 11.69% | |Brian Fish 1,546 19.98% | |Brian Erickson 461 5.96% | ||||

| |Betty Horch 768 10.42% | |Gordon S.B. Wright 2,108 28.60% | |Arthur Yates 415 5.63% | |Kimball Cariou (Comm.) 28 0.38% Harry Garfinkel (Con. Social.) 24 0.33% ||

| |Phil Dickson 1,101 7.75% | |Lila Fahlman 2,645 18.61% | |Dilys Andersen 830 5.84% | ||||

| |Ralph Bond 651 10.92% | |John Lindsay 1,426 23.92% | | | ||||

| |John Baergen 1,475 13.93% | |Ross Campbell 1,962 18.53% | |Gordon Astle 651 6.15% | ||||

| |Alfred Weik 817 19.15% | |David Urichuk 134 3.14% | |Lyall Alexander Curry 378 8.86% | ||||

| |Edward P. Benoit 1,925 30.35% | |Muriel McCreary 234 3.69% | |Melbe Cochlan 125 1.97% | ||||

| |Raymond C. Reckseidler 1,512 24.87% | |Pat Loughlin 376 6.18% | |Fred Monk 147 2.42% | ||||

| |Ken Cochrane 560 10.32% | |Ronald Morgan 530 9.77% | |Jean Davidson 703 12.95% | |Mike Chandi (Ind. P.C.) 737 13.68% ||

| |Ivan Stonehocker 1,414 23.11% | |Ed Kamps 486 7.94% | | | ||||

| |Dennis Barton 921 22.34% | |John Tomkins 791 19.19% | | | ||||

| |John V. Anderson 1,915 17.69% | |Bessie Annand 1,006 9.29% | |Shirley Wilson 645 5.96% | ||||

| |Richard David Gruenwald 1,914 27.94% | |Ian Whishaw 812 11.85% | | | ||||

| |George McMorris 2,019 37.08%||| |Raymond Albert Speaker 3,132 57.52% | |Wayne Doolittle 126 2.31% | |Ben Loman 157 2.88% | ||||

| | | |Dave Listoe 938 17.59% | | | ||||

| |Leighton E. Buckwell 2,359 35.58% | |Kathleen M. Cairns 330 4.98% | |Bill Olafson 231 3.48% | ||||

| |William Wyse 5,548 45.27% | |Bill Hartley 417 3.40% | |David Wilkins 532 4.34% | |Hilory Sorschan (Ind. P.C.) 53 0.43% ||

| |Kenneth Amthor 2,860 38.26%||| |Robert Curtis Clark 4,400 58.86% | |Margaret Hinton 209 2.80% | | | ||||

| |Budd Dennis 897 15.28% | |John Hokanson 1,292 22.01% | | | |Vera Lane (Ind. Lib.) 92 1.57 ||

| |Charles Duncan Drain 1,837 34.24% | |David Elliot 235 4.38% | | | |Gwen Gyulai (Ind.) 49 0.91%|||

| |Alvin Goetz 1,263 22.62% | |Boug Lier 932 16.69% | | | ||||

| |Cecil Spiers 1,538 15.40% | |Ken McMillan 1,317 13.19% | |Herb Fielding 549 5.50% | ||||

| | | |Graham Crosbie 1,824 31.62% | | | |Neil Stenberg (Comm.) 116 2.01%|||

| |Harvey Staudinger 1,537 24.61% | |Morris Jenson 576 9.22% | | | ||||

| |Ralph A. Sorenson 1,768 36.01% | |Gladys Creasy 370 7.54% | | | ||||

| |Obert Amundson 347 6.08% | |Victor Tardif 1,778 31.13% | |John Hinks 119 2.08% | ||||

| |Alex Woronuk 2,918 48.76% | |||| |Grant W. Notley 3,017 50.42% | | | ||||

| |Keith Everitt 2,221 18.70% | |Earl Toane 1,591 13.40% | |John Bakker 1,564 13.17% | ||||

| |John Hull 848 16.61% | |Pierre M. Vallee 764 14.97% | |Roland Genereux 561 10.99% | ||||

| |James Mah 866 17.20% | |William Cook 360 7.15% | | | ||||

| |Dean Throness 1,113 13.79% | |Jim Bell 923 11.44% | |Betty Howery 628 7.78% | |Arthur Killoran (Ind. P.C.) 269 3.34% ||

| |Werner G. Schmidt 2,418 33.32% | |Brian Aman 202 2.78% | | | ||||

| |Bob Sommerville 1,406 22.95% | |Bruce Potter 192 3.13% | |Wes Combs 252 4.11% | ||||

| |Ernie Youzwishen 908 13.27% | |Barney Welsh 2,270 33.18% | | | ||||

| |Angus MacMillan 1,274 25.24% | |Ken Jaremco 1,019 20.19% | | | ||||

| |Bev Penman 1,616 31.32% | |Harold Tangen 496 9.61% | | | ||||

| |Waldo Siemens 2,076 17.55% | |Earl R. Rasmuson 1,662 14.05% | |Pat Green 522 4.41% | ||||

| |Rig Godwin 676 12.27% | |John Udchitz 893 16.20% | | | ||||

References

Works cited

References

1. "2,000 delegates to Alberta Social Credit meeting pick successor to ex-Premier today", ''Globe and Mail'', February 3, 1973
2. "Schmidt wins Alberta Social Credit leadership, upset may split party", ''Globe and Mail'', February 5, 1973
3. Elections Alberta. (November 25, 2007). "General Elections 1975-2004 (Overall Summary of Ballots Cast and % of Voter Turnout)".