Leduc (provincial electoral district)

History

Leduc was one of the original 25 electoral districts contested in the 1905 Alberta general election upon Alberta becoming a province and joining Confederation in September 1905. The electoral district was named for the city of Leduc in central Alberta.

From 1924 to 1956, the district used instant-runoff voting to elect its MLA.

Leduc was dissolved in the 1971 electoral district re-distribution to form the Wetaskiwin-Leduc and Drayton Valley electoral districts. Leduc would be recreated in the 1993 electoral district re-distribution from Wetaskiwin-Leduc and Camrose electoral districts.

Leduc would once again be dissolved in the 2003 electoral boundary re-distribution and become Leduc-Beaumont-Devon.

Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs)

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Robert Telford of the Liberal party, easily won the seat in 1905. His popularity was such that no one even bothered to run against him in 1909.

Stanley Tobin, running as a Liberal candidate, easily won the seat in 1913, 1917 and in 1921 when his only competitor was UFA candidate Don Muir. In 1921 the two candidates' vote tallies were only ten apart and the count was appealed. However a judge refused to accept as legal tender the certified cheque submitted with the appeal so the appeal was not proceeded with. However, according to UFA historian Ernie Cook, it was commonly known that Muir had received more votes than Tobin.

Tobin did not run for re-election in 1926, and the seat was taken by Douglas Breton of the UFA. A well-travelled man, having been born in South Africa and serving in WWI in India and Afghanistan, he was locally respected and the village of Keystone was renamed in his honour.

In 1930 Liberal Arthur Percy Mitchell won the seat in a tight two-way race against the incumbent MLA, Douglas Breton of the UFA.

Ronald E. Ansley of the Social Credit party defeated Mitchel and three others for the seat in 1935. He held the seat for the Social Credit party until 1952, then as an Independent SC candidate until 1963.

By 1948, Ansley had become unhappy with the Social Credit government over lack of implementation of Douglas monetary reforms. But he ran for re-election in the 1948 Alberta general election under the party's label. He was returned to office for his fourth term, easily defeating the two other candidates.

Shortly after the election the Social Credit party voted to exclude Albert Bourcier from the Social Credit caucus and expelled other Douglasite Social Creditors from the party through a motion passed at the 1948 Social Credit Annual General Meeting. Ansley who was a member of the Douglasite group was not expelled but he openly opposed the expulsions.

The Social Credit League formally asked the government in 1949 to expel Ansley and other members of caucus who held membership in the Douglas Social Credit Council.

In 1951 he openly led a revolt that defeated the proposed Mineral Taxation Act 29 to 15 in a recorded division on third reading. He was expelled from caucus on June 16, 1952, after attending a nomination convention asking Bourcier to run as an Independent Social Credit candidate.

The Leduc Social Credit Constituency Association nominated Ansley as their candidate with a clause in the motion to endorse stating that he would be supported regardless of what banner he ran under. The SC party leadership disallowed his nomination as a candidate for their party.

Being unable to run as a straight Social Credit candidate, Ansley stood for re-election as an Independent Social Credit candidate. He won a hotly contested race, defeating two other candidates to return to his fifth term in office. At first during the vote count he did not have a majority of votes but vote transfers conducted under the instant-runoff voting rules gave him a majority of votes and the seat.

Ansley ran for a sixth term in office in the 1955 Alberta general election. The five-way race was closely contested. Ansley ended up holding on to his seat by winning after the three least-popular candidates were eliminated and their votes transferred.

Ansley ran for a seventh term in the 1959 Alberta general election. He held his seat, easily defeating the two other candidates - a Conservative and a CCF-er. No official Social Credit candidate ran against him. He won with less than a majority of the votes, but his plurality was enough to win as the first past the post election system had come into use.

Ansley ran for an eighth term in office in the 1963 Alberta general election. He was defeated by Social Credit candidate James Douglas Henderson. Ansley finished a distant third place in a field of six candidates.

Election results

1905

1909

1913

1917

1921

1926

1930

1935

R.J.E. (Ernie) Cook (1890–1979) farmed south of Calmar. He was provincial president of the CCF in the 1940s. He authored the booklet The UFA Experiment, 1920-1935 A Personal Recollection (Alberta Woodsworth House Association, 1985).

1940

1944

1948

1952

1955

1959

1963

1967

1993

1997

2001

Plebiscite results

1957 liquor plebiscite

On October 30, 1957, a stand-alone plebiscite was held province wide in all 50 of the then current provincial electoral districts in Alberta. The government decided to consult Alberta voters to decide on liquor sales and mixed drinking after a divisive debate in the Legislature. The plebiscite was intended to deal with the growing demand for reforming antiquated liquor control laws.

The plebiscite was conducted in two parts. Question A asked in all districts, asked the voters if the sale of liquor should be expanded in Alberta, while Question B asked in a handful of districts within the corporate limits of Calgary and Edmonton asked if men and woman were allowed to drink together in establishments.

Province wide Question A of the plebiscite passed in 33 of the 50 districts while Question B passed in all five districts. Leduc voted in favour of the proposal by a near landslide majority. Voter turnout in the district was abysmal, falling well under the province wide average of 46%.

Official district returns were released to the public on December 31, 1957. The Social Credit government in power at the time did not considered the results binding. However the results of the vote led the government to repeal all existing liquor legislation and introduce an entirely new Liquor Act.

Municipal districts lying inside electoral districts that voted against the Plebiscite were designated Local Option Zones by the Alberta Liquor Control Board and considered effective dry zones, business owners that wanted a licence had to petition for a binding municipal plebiscite in order to be granted a licence.

References

References

1. "Election results for Leduc.". Heritage Community Foundation.
2. A Report on Alberta Elections, 1905-1982
3. Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission. (February 2003). "Proposed Electoral Division Areas, Boundaries, and Names for Alberta. Final Report to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta". [[Legislative Assembly of Alberta]].
4. R.J.E. Cook, The UFA Experiment, p. 6
5. Parliament Guide
6. "Leduc Official Results 1948 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation.
7. (November 26, 1948). "S.C. Caucus Agrees Exclude Bourcier". The Lethbridge Herald.
8. (February 15, 1949). "Heavy Slate". The Lethbridge Herald.
9. (March 31, 1951). "Manning Won't Resign". The Lethbridge Herald.
10. (July 10, 1952). "Leduc Socred Reaffirm Ansley for Nomination". The Lethbridge Herald.
11. "Leduc Official Results 1952 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation.
12. "Leduc Official Results 1955 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation.
13. "Leduc Official Results 1959 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation.
14. "Leduc Official Results 1963 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation.
15. Cook, The UFA Experiment
16. (1957). "Alberta Gazette". Government of Alberta.
17. (October 31, 1957). "Albertans Vote 2 to 1 For More Liquor Outlets". The Lethbridge Herald.
18. (October 24, 1957). "No Sudden Change In Alberta Drinking Habits Is Seen". The Lethbridge Herald.
19. (March 5, 1958). "Entirely New Act On Liquor". The Lethbridge Herald.
20. (1958). "Alberta Bills 12th Legislature 1st Session". Government of Alberta.