1971 Alberta general election

The Alberta general election of 1971 was the seventeenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on August 30 1971 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

The Progressive Conservative Party, led by Peter Lougheed, broke the 36-year hegemony on Alberta politics of the Social Credit Party. Ernest C. Manning had resigned Social Credit leader and premier in 1968, a year after leading the Socreds to their ninth consecutive majority government. His successor, Harry E. Strom, had been unable to revive what was seen as a tired regime. Meanwhile, Lougheed had significant momentum going into the 1971 election, increasing his caucus from six members to ten after two floor crossings and two by-election wins. The collapse of the other opposition parties made the PCs the only credible challenger to the Socreds. Lougheed, with 46% of the popular vote, won 49 of the 75 seats in the legislature, and formed a strong majority government.

Ironically, Social Credit garnered a record number of votes in this election compared to previous elections. Although Social Credit lost only a small share of its popular vote from 1967, their support in the province's two largest cities, Edmonton and Calgary, almost disappeared. The party lost all of its seats in Edmonton, and all but five seats in Calgary. Due to a quirk in the first past the post system, this decimated the Socred caucus, knocking them down to 25 seats.

The defeat sent Social Credit into headlong decline. While it managed to stay in the legislature until 1982, it has never again been a significant force in Alberta politics.

The Liberal Party was shut out of the legislature, and had no momentum going into the election with one member crossing the floor to the PCs and the rest resigning long before the 1971 vote, while Alberta New Democratic Party leader Grant Notley was the only NDPer to win election. He sat as the only New Democrat in the legislature until 1982.

Results

Party	Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vote
Party	Party leader	# of candidates	1967	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Progressive Conservatives/row	Progressive Conservative	Peter Lougheed	75	6	49	+717%	296,934	46.40%	+20.40% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Social Credit/row	Social Credit	Harry E. Strom	75	55	25	-54.5%	262,953	41.10%	-3.5% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/NDP/row	New Democrats	Grant Notley	70	-	1	73,038	11.42%	-4.56% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Liberal/row	Liberal	Bob Russell	20	3	-	-100%	6,475	1.01%	-9.80% Template:Canadian politics/party colours/Independents/row	Independent	3	1	-	-100%	462	0.07%	-1.31%
Total		243	65	75	+15.4%	639,862	100%
Source: Elections Alberta

Note:

* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Daylight Savings Time plebiscite

The province of Alberta voted on its fourth provincial plebiscite. Voters were again asked to endorse a proposal to adopt Daylight Savings Time (summer time). The proposal was rejected by a very slim margin in 1967. This time however it passed with a wide margin of 61.37% of the vote.

Do you favour province-wide Daylight Saving Time?
For	Against
386,846 61.47%	242,431 38.53%

For break down of results see individual districts

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

	District	Member
17th Alberta Legislative Assembly
Athabasca	Frank Appleby	Progressive Conservative
Banff-Cochrane	Clarence Copithorne	Progressive Conservative
Barrhead	Hugh Horner	Progressive Conservative
Bonnyville	Donald Hansen	Progressive Conservative
Bow Valley	Fred Mandeville	Social Credit
Calgary Bow	Roy Wilson	Social Credit
Calgary Buffalo	Ron Ghitter	Progressive Conservative
Calgary Currie	Fred Peacock	Progressive Conservative
Calgary Elbow	David John Russell	Progressive Conservative
Calgary Egmont	Merv Leitch	Progressive Conservative
Calgary Foothills	Len Werry	Progressive Conservative
Calgary Glenmore	Bill Dickie	Progressive Conservative
Calgary McCall	George Ho Lem	Social Credit
Calgary McKnight	Cal Lee	Progressive Conservative
Calgary Millican	Arthur J. Dixon	Social Credit
Calgary Mountain View	Albert Ludwig	Social Credit
Calgary North Hill	Roy Farran	Progressive Conservative
Calgary West	Peter Lougheed	Progressive Conservative
Camrose	Gordon Stromberg	Progressive Conservative
Cardston	Edgar Hinman	Social Credit
Clover Bar	Walt Buck	Social Credit
Cypress	Harry Strom	Social Credit
Drayton Valley	Rudolph Zander	Progressive Conservative
Drumheller	Gordon Taylor	Social Credit
Edmonton Avonmore	Horst Schmid	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Belmont	Bert Hohol	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Beverly	Bill Diachuk	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Calder	Tom Chambers	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Centre	Gordon Miniely	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Glenora	Lou Hyndman	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Gold Bar	William Yurko	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Highlands	David Thomas King	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Jasper Place	Leslie Young	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Kingsway	Kenneth Paproski	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Meadowlark	Gerard Amerongen	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Norwood	Catherine Chichak	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Ottewell	John Ashton	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Parkallen	Neil Stanley Crawford	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Strathcona	Julian Koziak	Progressive Conservative
Edmonton Whitemud	Don Getty	Progressive Conservative
Edson	Robert Dowling	Progressive Conservative
Grand Prairie	Winston Backus	Progressive Conservative
Hanna-Oyen	Clinton Keith French	Social Credit
Highwood	Edward Benoit	Social Credit
Innisfail	Clifford L. Doan	Progressive Conservative
Lac La Biche-McMurray	Dan Bouvier	Social Credit
Lacombe	Jack Cookson	Progressive Conservative
Lesser Slave Lake	James Henderson	Social Credit
Lethbridge East	John Victor Anderson	Social Credit
Lethbridge West	Richard Gruenwald	Social Credit
Little Bow	Raymond Speaker	Social Credit
Lloydminster	Bud Miller	Progressive Conservative
Macleod	Leighton Buckwell	Social Credit
Medicine Hat-Redcliff	William Wyse	Social Credit
Olds-Didsbury	Robert C. Clark	Social Credit
Peace River	Al Adair	Progressive Conservative
Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	Charles Drain	Social Credit
Ponoka	Don McCrimmon	Progressive Conservative
Red Deer	Jim Foster	Progressive Conservative
Redwater-Andrew	George Topolnisky	Progressive Conservative
Rocky Mountain House	Helen Hunley	Progressive Conservative
Sedgewick-Coronation	Ralph Sorenson	Social Credit
Smoky River	Marvin Moore	Progressive Conservative
Spirit River-Fairview	Grant Notley	NDP
St. Albert	William Jamison	Progressive Conservative
St. Paul	Mick Fluker	Progressive Conservative
Stettler	Jack Robertson	Progressive Conservative
Stony Plain	William Purdy	Progressive Conservative
Taber-Warner	Douglas Miller	Social Credit
Three Hills	Allan Warrack	Progressive Conservative
Vegreville	John Batiuk	Progressive Conservative
Vermilion-Viking	Ashley Cooper	Social Credit
Wainwright	Henry Ruste	Social Credit
Wetaskiwin-Leduc	James Henderson	Social Credit
Whitecourt	Peter Trynchy	Progressive Conservative

v t e Elections and referendums in Alberta
General elections	1905 1909 1913 1917 1921 1926 1930 1935 1940 1944 1948 1952 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1979 1982 1986 1989 1993 1997 2001 2004 2008 2012 2015 2019 2023 Next
By-elections	26th Alberta Legislature (2004–2008) 27th Alberta Legislature (2008–2012) 28th Legislature (2012–2015) 29th Legislature (2015–2019)
Senate nominee elections	1989 1998 2004 2012 2021
Municipal elections	1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2017 2021
Referendums	1915 1920 1923 1948 1957 1967 1971 2021
See also: Elections in Canada

Results

Daylight Savings Time plebiscite

Members elected

See also