1940 Alberta general election

Premier
legislative
Election name	1940 Alberta general election
Country	Alberta
Party colour	no
Party name	no
Previous election	1935 Alberta general election
Previous year	1935
Outgoing members	8th Alberta Legislative Assembly
Election date	March 21, 1940
Elected mps	members
Next election	1944 Alberta general election
Next year	1944
Seats for election	57 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 29 seats were needed for a majority
Leader 1	William Aberhart
Leader since 1	September 3, 1935
Leaders seat 1	Calgary
Last election 1	56 seats, 54.2%
Seats before 1	47
Seats 1	36
Seat change 1	11
Popular vote 1	132,507
Percentage 1	42.9%
Swing 1	11.3%
Leader 2	Andrew Davison
Leader since 2	1940
Leaders seat 2	Calgary
Last election 2	pre-creation
Seats before 2	—
Seats 2	19
Seat change 2	—
Popular vote 2	131,172
Percentage 2	42.5%
Swing 2	—
Leader 4	unknown
Leader since 4	—
Leaders seat 4	—
Last election 4	0 seats, 1.7%
Seats before 4	0
Seats 4	1
Seat change 4	1
Popular vote 4	3,258
Percentage 4	1.1%
Swing 4	0.6%
Leader 5	Edward L. Gray
Leader since 5	June 4, 1937
Leaders seat 5	ran in Edmonton presumably
Last election 5	5 seats, 23.1%
Seats before 5	6
Seats 5	1
Seat change 5	5
Popular vote 5	2,755
Percentage 5	0.9%
Swing 5	22.2%
Posttitle	Premier after election
Before election	William Aberhart
After election	William Aberhart

The 1940 Alberta general election was held on March 21, 1940, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Despite its failure to implement its key policy, providing prosperity certificates to all Albertans, the Social Credit Party of Premier William Aberhart won a second term in government. Nevertheless, it lost eleven seats that it had won in the 1935 landslide.

This provincial election, like the previous three, saw district-level proportional representation (Single transferable voting) used to elect the MLAs of Edmonton and Calgary. City-wide districts were used to elect multiple MLAs in the cities. All the other MLAs were elected in single-member districts through Instant-runoff voting.

Unity Movement

The Conservative and Liberal parties as well as the remains of the United Farmers, recognizing the widespread popularity of the Social Credit party, ran joint candidates as independents in what was called the "Independent Movement" or the "Unity Movement". Although independent candidates won almost as many votes as Social Credit, their support was dispersed across many areas so few of the movement's candidates took a majority of the votes (required under Instant-runoff voting to take the seat) so the movement's overall vote tally did not translate into its due share of seats overall. The Independent Movement lost a number of races by small margins. However, due to the Parliamentary system, which awards power solely on the basis of seats won, Social Credit was returned for a second term, albeit with a considerably reduced majority.

The Liberals under leader Edward Gray chose only to support Independent candidates that they played a hand in nominating, and nominated other candidates under its own banner. Gray felt that candidates should not be machined into the field and left it up to the individual Liberal constituency associations to decide if they would support a candidate or not.^[1]

This would be the most opposition that Social Credit would face until 1959.

Co-operative Commonwealth

The social democratic Cooperative Commonwealth Federation nominated candidates for the first time, but failed to win any seats in the legislature, despite winning over 10% of the popular vote under the leadership of former United Farmers of Alberta MLA Chester Ronning. Like Ronning, most of the CCF's candidates had run in the 1935 election for the UFA.

Reduction of electoral districts

An Act was passed in 1939 that provided for the reduction of the number of MLAs from 63 to 57, upon the next election.^[2] Calgary and Edmonton now returned five MLAs each instead of six, and the following other changes were made:

Abolished	New
New districts
	Bruce^{[a 1]}
	Spirit River^{[a 2]}
Renaming of districts
Innisfail	Rocky Mountain House^{[a 3]}
Abolition of districts
Nanton-Claresholm	divided among Macleod, Okotoks-High River and Little Bow
Ribstone	divided between Acadia-Coronation and Wainwright
Merger of districts
Acadia Coronation	Acadia-Coronation
Bow Valley Empress	Bow Valley-Empress
Reorganization of districts
Cochrane Pincher Creek Rocky Mountain	Banff-Cochrane Pincher Creek-Crowsnest
Sturgeon Victoria Whitford	Redwater Willingdon

^ from parts of Vegreville, Sedgewick and Camrose
^ from part of Grande Prairie
^ also drawing in parts of Edson, Red Deer and Lacombe
^ compared against combined 1935 totals for UFA, Conservatives and Liberals (other than Grouard)
^ 1 in Calgary; 1 in Edmonton
^ including spoilt ballots

Results

Elections to the 9th Alberta Legislative Assembly (1940)
Party	Leader	Candidates	First-preference votes				Seats
Party	Leader	Candidates	Votes	±	% Fpv	Change (pp)	1935	1940	±	William Aberhart	56	132,507	31,193	42.90	56	20 ^{[a 4]}	Andrew Davison	57	130,603	11,178	42.28	6	13	Edward Gray	2	2,755	483	0.89	1	2	3,258	1,828	1.05	–	1	Chester Ronning	36	34,316	34,316	11.11	1	1,136	181	0.37	1	1,067	4,704	0.35	^{[a 5]}	2	569	2,171	0.18	1	251	27	0.08	4	1,726	1,726	0.56	1	362	362	0.12	2	314	314	0.10
Total		165	308,864		100.00%
Rejected ballots			10,615	2,346
Turnout			319,479	9,458	74.8%	7.0
Registered voters			427,335	49,086

MLAs elected

Synopsis of results

Results by riding – 1940 Alberta general election (all except Calgary and Edmonton)^[3]
Riding	First-preference votes							Turnout ^{[a 6]}	Final counts					Winning party
Name	SC	IndM	CCF	Lib	Lab	Oth	Total		SC	IndM	CCF	Lib	Lab	1935		1940
Name							Total							1935		1940

Acadia-Coronation	2,163	1,665	559	–	–	–	4,387	76.3%	2,297	1,963	–	–	–	New			SC
Alexandra	2,215	1,255	1,273	–	–	–		73.1%	2,326	–	1,953	–	–		SC		SC
Athabasca	1,965	1,336	782	–	–	–	4,083	61.9%	2,078	1,497	–	–	–		SC		SC
Banff-Cochrane	1,869	2,931	–	–	–	–	4,800	80.4%	Elected on 1st count					New			IndM
Beaver River	2,555	–	669	–	–	1,254	4,478	70.4%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Bow Valley-Empress	2,035	1,762	–	–	–	–	3,797	70.5%	Elected on 1st count					New			SC
Bruce	2,018	1,433	752	–	–	–	4,203	71.8%	2,203	1,781	–	–	–	New			SC
Camrose	2,472	1,484	1,550	–	–	–	5,506	77.2%	2,582	–	2,508	–	–		SC		SC
Cardston	2,160	1,808	–	–	–	–	3,968	81.9%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Clover Bar	2,252	1,370	1,476	–	–	–	5,098	77.9%	2,418	–	2,261	–	–		SC		SC
Cypress	1,667	2,065	–	–	–	–	3,732	75.3%	Elected on 1st count						SC		IndM
Didsbury	2,312	2,379	–	–	–	–		74.5%	Elected on 1st count						SC		IndM
Drumheller	2,043	1,530	741	–	–	–	4,314	79.8%	2,330	1,720	–	–	–		SC		SC
Edson	1,949	–	798	–	2,211	–	4,958	72.7%	2,100	–	–	–	2,558		SC		Lab
Gleichen	1,457	2,255	670	–	–	–	4,382	75.2%	Elected on 1st count						SC		IndM
Grande Prairie	1,556	1,998	674	–	–	–	4,228	70.4%	1,784	2,233	–	–	–		SC		IndM
Grouard	1,703	–	1,024	1,747	–	–	4,474	62.0%	1,961	–	–	1,965	–		Lib		Lib
Hand Hills	2,547	1,970	–	–	–	–	4,517	75.5%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Lac Ste. Anne	1,612	1,239	1,110	–	–	–	3,961	63.9%	1,839	1,704	–	–	–		SC		SC
Lacombe	2,321	2,061	626	–	–	–	5,008	75.6%	2,457	2,361	–	–	–		SC		SC
Leduc	2,141	1,106	732	–	–	–	3,979	65.9%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Lethbridge	2,760	4,318	–	–	–	–	7,078	83.4%	Elected on 1st count						SC		IndM
Little Bow	2,162	2,034	–	–	–	–	4,196	86.0%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Macleod	2,487	2,446	–	–	–	–	4,933	82.3%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Medicine Hat	2,943	2,863	–	–	–	–	5,806	86.1%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Okotoks-High River	3,178	4,352	–	–	–	–	7,530	80.5%	Elected on 1st count						SC		IndM
Olds	2,345	2,455	–	–	–	362	5,162	76.4%	2,549	2,483	–	–	–		SC		SC
Peace River	2,114	2,253	–	–	–	–	4,367	60.0%	Elected on 1st count						SC		IndM
Pembina	1,589	1,719	743	–	–	–	4,051	60.0%	1,818	1,980	–	–	–		SC		IndM
Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	2,356	2,129	–	–	1,047	–	5,532	86.1%	2,443	2,210	–	–	–	New			SC
Ponoka	1,907	1,920	575	–	–	–	4,402	74.7%	2,045	2,234	–	–	–		SC		IndM
Red Deer	2,083	2,760	–	–	–	971	5,814	77.7%	2,330	3,142	–	–	–		SC		IndM
Redwater	2,226	945	785	–	–	–	3,956	64.9%	Elected on 1st count					New			SC
Rocky Mountain House	2,477	1,496	767	–	–	–	4,740	69.4%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
St. Albert	1,692	1,383	552	1,008	–	–	4,635	70.9%	2,018	2,304	–	–	–		SC		IndM
St. Paul	2,270	1,609	813	–	–	–	4,692	70.2%	2,421	1,785	–	–	–		SC		SC
Sedgewick	2,605	1,426	794	–	–	–	4,825	75.7%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Spirit River	1,409	1,087	772	–	–	–	3,268	63.3%	1,707	1,295	–	–	–	New			SC
Stettler	2,668	1,851	784	–	–	–	5,303	78.5%	Elected on 1st count						SC		SC
Stony Plain	1,914	1,228	942	–	–	196	4,280	72.6%	2,213	1,606	–	–	–		SC		SC
Taber	1,879	1,383	576	–	–	–	3,838	80.0%	1,998	1,618	–	–	–		SC		SC
Vegreville	2,223	1,920	523	–	–	–	4,666	75.6%	2,375	2,061	–	–	–		SC		SC
Vermilion	2,203	1,815	936	–	–	–	4,954	76.4%	2,506	2,148	–	–	–		SC		SC
Wainwright	2,296	1,611	1,039	–	–	365	5,311	76.4%	2,583	2,169	–	–	–		SC		SC
Warner	1,558	1,937	–	–	–	–	3,495	83.0%	Elected on 1st count						SC		IndM
Wetaskiwin	2,480	1,874	901	–	–	–	5,255	71.9%	2,761	2,179	–	–	–		SC		SC
Willingdon	2,329	514	968	–	–	–	3,811	64.4%	Elected on 1st count					New			SC

= Open seat

= turnout is above provincial average

= Candidate was in previous Legislature

= Incumbent had switched allegiance

= Previously incumbent in another riding

= Not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature

= Incumbency arose from by-election gain

= previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada

= Multiple candidates

Multi-member districts

District	Seats won (in order declared)
Calgary
Calgary
Edmonton
Edmonton

	Social Credit
	Independent Movement

= Candidate was in previous Legislature

= First-time MLA

= Previously incumbent in another district.

STV analysis

Exhausted votes

Twenty-eight districts went beyond first-preference counts in order to determine winning candidates:

Exhausted votes (1935)
District	Counts		Exhausted
District	1st preference	Final	Votes	% of 1st pref
Calgary	45,914	44,830	1,084
Edmonton	43,743	41,130	2,613
Acadia-Coronation	4,387	4,260	127
Alexandra	4,743	4,279	464
Athabasca	4,083	3,575	508
Bruce	4,203	3,984	219
Camrose	5,506	5,090	416
Clover Bar	5,098	4,679	419
Drumheller	4,314	4,050	264
Edson	4,958	4,658	300
Grande Prairie	4,228	4,017	211
Grouard	4,474	3,926	548
Lac Ste. Anne	3,961	3,543	418
Lacombe	5,008	4,818	190
Olds	5,162	5,032	130
Pembina	4,051	3,798	253
Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	5,532	4,653	879
Ponoka	4,402	4,279	123
Red Deer	5,814	5,472	342
St. Albert	4,635	4,322	313
St. Paul	4,692	4,206	486
Spirit River	3,268	3,002	266
Stony Plain	4,280	3,819	461
Taber	3,838	3,616	222
Vegreville	4,666	4,436	230
Vermilion	4,954	4,654	300
Wainwright	5,311	4,752	559
Wetaskiwin	5,255	4,940	315

Calgary

The Independent Movement (also called the "Citizens' Slate) fielded six candidates for the five seats. The other parties nominated fewer candidates than the maximum seats sought.

Party		Candidates			MLAs elected
Party		1940	1935	±	1940	1935	±	6	–	6	3	–	3	4	6	2	2	4	2	2	–	2	–	–	–	1	1		–	–	–	1	1		–	–	–	–	4	4	–	1	1	–	4	4	–	1	1	–	3	3	–	–	–	–	1	1	–	–	–
Total		14	20	6	5	6	1

Edmonton

The Independent Movement presented seven candidates for the five seats being contested.

Party		Candidates			MLAs elected
Party		1940	1935	±	1940	1935	±	7	–	7	3	–	3	5	6	1	2	2		3	–	3	–	–	–	2	–	2	–	–	–	1	–	1	–	–	–	1	1		–	–	–	–	6	6	–	1	1	–	6	6	–	3	3	–	1	1	–	–	–	–	6	6	–	–	–	–	1	1	–	–	–
Total		19	27	8	5	6	1

References

^ "Liberals Against Independents If "Machined into Field" - Gray". Vol. XXXIII No 36. The Lethbridge Herald. January 23, 1940. p. 7.
^ "94". 1939.
^ A Century of Democracy: Elections of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 1905-2005. Edmonton: Legislative Assembly of Alberta. 2006. pp. 134–146. ISBN 0-9689217-9-5.