1940: Alberta

In a preview of the Canadian National elections, the Social Credit Government of Premier William Aberhard was returned to power on March 21, 1940, for a third term, after one of the bitterest contests in the province's history. Final results, which, owing to proportional representation, were not known until more than two weeks after the election, gave the Social Credit Party thirty-six seats in the province's fifty-seven-seat legislature. Independents won nineteen seats, Labor one, and the Liberals one. In the previous legislature, the Social Credit Party had held forty-seven seats. A year earlier, political observers had freely predicted Aberhard's defeat, but it was felt that the war, which Aberhard had loyally supported, had diverted attention from provincial problems and permitted the Social Credit Party to retain power. Among the defeated candidates was J. A. Maurice, provincial secretary of the Social Credit League. Maurice was defeated by a narrow margin of four votes by Lieutenant Tremblay who was overseas with the First Division of the Canadian Active Service Force at the time of the election. Solon Low, former provincial treasurer and one of Premier Aberhard's chief lieutenants, was decisively defeated in Warner by J. H. Waller, an Independent. E. L. Gray, leader of the Alberta Liberal Party and mentioned as possible Premier in case Aberhard were beaten, was defeated in the Bow Valley-Empress district.

In the national parliamentary elections which followed the provincial poll by five days, the Social Credit (New Democracy) representation was sharply reduced. The Social Credit group won only nine seats as against the fifteen held in the previous Parliament. The Liberals won the remaining eight seats, a gain of six.

The Social Credit members of the House of Commons applied again during the November session of Parliament on the behalf of the Aberhard government for a charter for an Alberta provincial bank which could function in providing social credit 'during the years of strain and stress and in the period of reconstruction after the war.' The proposal had previously been declared unconstitutional and there seemed little likelihood that the King government, despite a desire to obtain provincial support, would accede to the request.

In the six months ending September 30, 1940, the provincial government had a surplus of nearly $800,000 as compared with $182,600 in the same period of 1939.

Alberta's oil production during the first ten months of 1940 was 6,813,347 barrels as compared with 6,396,614 in the corresponding period of 1939. A special effort was made to expand production in order to make Canada free from the necessity of importing American oil and gasoline.