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1926 Edmonton municipal election

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The 1926 municipal election was held December 13, 1926, to elect a mayor and six aldermen to sit on Edmonton City Council and three trustees to sit on the public school board. Harry Carrigan, J O Pilon, and W D Trainor were acclaimed to two-year terms on the separate school board.

There were ten aldermen on city council, but four of the positions were already filled: James East, James Findlay, Frederick Keillor (SS), and A C Sloane were all elected to two-year terms in 1925 and were still in office. James McCrie Douglas (SS) had also been elected in 1925, but had resigned to run for mayor; accordingly, L S C Dineen was elected to a one-year term.

There were seven trustees on the public school board, but four of the positions were already filled: Ralph Bellamy, Frank Crang (SS), F S MacPherson, and Elmer Roper had all been elected to two-year terms in 1925 and were still in office. The same was true on the separate board, where R Crossland (SS), Charles Gariepy, Thomas Magee, and A J Ryan were continuing.

The election of mayor was conducted using Alternative Voting; the election of councillors and school trustees was conducted using the single transferable vote system.

Voter turnout

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There were 12720 ballots cast out of 35726 eligible voters, for a voter turnout of 35.6%.

Results

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Mayor

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Party Candidate Initial Votes %
Independent Ambrose Bury 4,816 37.94%
Labour Dan Knott 2,944 23.19%
Civic Government Association Will Werner 2,388 18.81%
Independent Joseph Clarke 1,727 13.61%
Independent James McCrie Douglas 571 4.50%
Independent Rice Sheppard 247 1.95%

The mayoral election was conducted using Instant-runoff voting. No candidate had a majority of votes in the first count so the lowest-ranking candidates were eliminated and their votes were transferred based on back-up preferences marked by voters. Bury accumulated a majority of votes eventually and was declared the winner in the end.

Aldermen

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Total valid votes 12,291. Six seats to fill. Quota (the number of votes that guarantees election): 1755 One southside candidate must be elected, even if none has quota.[1]

Party Candidate Initial Votes Elected
Labour Charles Gibbs 2,107 Green tickY
Labour Alfred Farmilo 1,510 Green tickY
Independent Charles Robson 1,458 Green tickY
Civic Government Association Herbert Baker 1,287 Green tickY
Civic Government Association Robert Dolphin Tighe 1,107
Civic Government Association George Hazlett 1,009 Green tickY
Civic Government Association Robert Muir 980
Civic Government Association Charles Henry Grant 840
Civic Government Association Norman Currie Willson 657
Labour Lionel Shurley Crawford Dineen (ss) 555 Green tickY
Labour Edward James Thompson 402
Labour Edwin Evart Owen 379

Because of the single transferable vote system, although Tighe received more initial votes than Hazlitt (although not enough to capture a seat), he was not elected while initially-less-popular Hazlitt was. Hazlitt passed Tighe's vote total due to votes transferred from other candidates.

Dineen was declared elected due to the southside guarantee.

The city clerk's conducting of this STV/PR vote was criticized and the next year the city held a plebiscite on whether to continue using the STV/PR system.[2]

Public school trustees

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Party Candidate Votes Elected
Labour Samuel Barnes 3,741 Green tickY
Civic Government Association Thyrza Bishop 2,506 Green tickY
Civic Government Association D. B. Lake 1,710
Civic Government Association W. W. McBain (ss) 1,528
Labour J A Herlihy (ss) 1,127 SS Green tickY
Labour G. Teviotdale 480

Under the minimum South Side representation rule, Herlihy was elected over Lake and McBain. Later McBain challenged Herlihy's election and was given the school board seat.

Separate (Catholic) school trustees

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Harry Carrigan, J O Pilon, and W D Trainor were acclaimed.

References

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  1. ^ Rek Municipal Elections in Edmonton, 1892-1989
  2. ^ J. Paul Johnston and Miriam Koene, "Learning History's Lessons Anew" in Bowler and Grofman, Elections in Australia, Ireland and Malta (2000)