Edmonton (provincial electoral district)

For the 1913 election, Edmonton South Provincial electoral district was created from the old Strathcona constituency to elect one MLA. The Edmonton constituency elected two members by the block vote system.

This election was conducted using block voting, where each Edmonton voter could cast up to two votes.

1909 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Elected
	Liberal	Charles Wilson Cross	3,282	40.01%	-6.22%	Y
	Liberal	John Alexander McDougall	2,977	36.30%	-6.22%	Y
	Conservative	Albert F. Ewing	1,595	19.45%	-10.46%	–
	Independent	John Gailbraith	348	4.24%	–	–
Total			8,202	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			N/A	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			N/A	N/A	N/A	–
	Liberal hold		Swing		N/A
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton Official Results 1909 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Note: The total number of ballots cast or eligible electors is unknown. Election held under multiple non-transferable vote to elect two members to the Legislative Assembly.

In the 1913 Alberta general election Premier Arthur Sifton, his lieutenant Charles Wilson Cross and Liberal candidate Alexander Grant MacKay each won nominations in two electoral districts. The Calgary Herald (a Conservative newspaper) surmised that Sifton and Cross were so scared of the electorate they felt they might not win if they ran in just one district. It accused Premier Sifton of having little confidence in his ability to return his government to power. Charles Cross would sit as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for both Edmonton and Edson.

This election was conducted using block voting, where each Edmonton voter could cast up to two votes.

1913 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Elected
	Liberal	Charles Wilson Cross	5,407	26.29%	-13.72%	Y
	Conservative	Albert Freeman Ewing	5,107	24.83%	–	Y
	Liberal	Alexander Grant MacKay	4,913	23.89%	4.44%	–
	Conservative	William Antrobus Griesbach	4,499	21.87%	2.43%	–
	Independent	J. D. Blayney	643	3.13%	–	–
Total			20,569	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			N/A	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			14,975	N/A	N/A	–
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton Official Results 1913 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Note: The total number of ballots cast is not known. Election held under multiple non-transferable vote for two members to the Legislative Assembly. The results do not include 10 polls which were not counted.[3] Charles Wilson Cross was elected and chose to sit as the representative in both Edmonton and Edson. Alexander Grant MacKay is erroneously listed as a Conservative for the 1913 election in many Government of Alberta publications, likewise Albert Freeman Ewing is erroneously listed as a Liberal

This election was conducted using block voting, where each Edmonton voter could cast up to five votes. The percentages shown in the table below indicate the proportion of the voters casting votes who may have cast votes in the candidate's favour. For example, a third of the voters casting all five of their votes for the Liberals would accrue a total of 150 "percent" of the votes while the candidates would still only receive the support of a third of the voters. With the rest of the votes split among other parties, the Liberals with only a third of the voter support did take all the Edmonton seats in this election.

1921 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Elected
	Liberal	Andrew Robert McLennan	6,498	36.20%	Y
	Liberal	John Campbell Bowen	5,803	32.33%	Y
	Liberal	Nellie McClung	5,388	30.02%	Y
	Liberal	John Robert Boyle	5,361	29.86%	Y
	Liberal	Jeremiah Wilfred Heffernan	5,289	29.46%	Y
	United Farmers	William Jackman	4,978	27.73%	–
	Conservative	Albert Freeman Ewing	4,777	26.61%	–
	Labour	A. A. Campbell	3,736	20.81%	–
	Conservative	Herbert Howard Crawford	3,553	19.79%	–
	Conservative	Elizabeth Ferris	3,188	17.76%	–
	Labour	Robert McCreath	2,931	16.33%	–
	Independent	Joseph Woods Adair	2,571	14.32%	–
	Labour	Elmer Ernest Roper	2,515	14.01%	–
	Conservative	Ambrose Upton Gledstanes Bury	2,509	13.98%	–
	Conservative	William A. Wells	2,329	12.97%	–
	Independent	James Kennedy Cornwall	2,082	11.60%	–
	Independent	A. L. Marks	1,744	9.72%	–
	Independent Liberal	Gerald Pelton	1,467	8.17%	–
	Independent	William Short	1,447	8.06%	–
	Independent Labour	William R. Ball	1,409	7.85%	–
	Independent	A. Boileau	1,226	6.83%	–
	Independent Labour	Mary Cantin	1,133	6.31%	–
	Independent Labour	Ernest Brown	1,073	5.98%	–
	Independent Labour	James Bailey	941	5.24%	–
	Independent Labour	Joe E. White	927	5.16%	–
	Labour Socialist	Marie Millard	883	4.92%	–
Total votes cast			17,951	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			N/A	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			N/A	N/A	N/A
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton Official Results 1921 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Election held under multiple non-transferable vote for five members to the Legislative Assembly.

This was the first election in Alberta to use STV, the system just introduced for elections in Alberta's largest cities.

W.T. Henry got the most votes in the first count but no candidate received a majority of them so subsequent counts were held using second choices of the lower-ranking candidates. He was elected on third count.

Communist Party candidate H.M. Bartholomew showed strong third place showing, almost exceeding Conservative candidate on the second count.

The sum of the candidates' vote totals below do not equal the votes cast recorded here because of the number of spoiled ballots, an unfortunate by-product of STV. 15,130 valid ballots were cast in Edmonton in this election.

Under the STV procedure used (the Hare system), the quota necessary to win a seat was 3026 (15,130 divided by 5, the number of seats being contested). Prevey and Duggan won seats without the quota in the last counts, after other candidates were dropped out.

The result was roughly proportional with two Conservatives, a Liberal, a Labour and a UFA winning seats. Not all the five leaders in the first count were elected - Independent Liberal Joe Clarke did not make quota in first count and did not pick up enough votes from other candidates' later preferences to get quota, likely due to not being in a political party. Liberal candidate J.C. Bowen was in top five in first count, but also did not get quota and despite being in a party, was not elected - many of the other Liberal party supporters' second preferences went to another Liberal candidate, Prevey, a more popular individual overall, it seems.

Labour although not having anyone in top five spots in first count, did capture a seat. This was proportional - it received about 20 percent of the vote spread over five candidates. Farmilo, the leading labour candidate in the first count, was not elected though. Gibbs, who was apparently on an individual basis more popular overall than Farmilo, got quota in later counts through distribution of others' second preferences, such as Joe Clarke supporters probably.

Conservatives Duggan and Weaver did not get quota in first count. Weaver did later when his companion Conservative candidates were dropped out. Duggan got a seat by being one of the last ones still standing when the last counts were held.

1926 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	United Farmers	John Lymburn	3,046	16.27%	3,026	Y
	Conservative	Charles Yardley Weaver	2,202	11.76%	3,026	Y
	Liberal	Warren Prevey	1,517	8.10%	2,940	Y
	Independent Liberal	Joseph Clarke	1,179	6.30%	–	–
	Liberal	John C. Bowen	1,147	6.13%	–	–
	Independent	Samuel Barnes	1,060	5.66%	–	–
	Labour	Alfred Farmilo	973	5.20%	–	–
	Conservative	F. J. Folinsbee	881	4.71%	–	–
	Labour	Charles Gibbs	879	4.70%	3,026	Y
	Liberal	William Thomas Henry	858	4.58%	–	–
	Conservative	David Duggan	857	4.58%	2,265	Y
	Conservative	Herbert Crawford	782	4.18%	–	–
	Labour	James W. Findlay	628	3.35%	–	–
	Labour	Jan Lakeman	605	3.23%	–	–
	Liberal	William Rae	561	3.00%	–	–
	Labour	Elmer Roper	478	2.55%	–	–
	Conservative	Mark W. Robertson	361	1.93%	–	–
	Independent	John W. Leedy	140	0.75%	–	–
Total			18,154	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			567	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			33,741	55.48%	–	–
Source(s) Source: "Edmonton Official Results 1926 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Election held under single transferable vote with a quota of 3,026 to elect five members to the Legislative Assembly.

Five seats were open in this election. The Hare quota, the number of votes needed to win a seat, was 7291.

This election saw an anti-SC movement, made up of Liberals, Conservatives and some UFA-ers, get many seats. Page, Duggan and Macdonald were elected in Edmonton this election as candidates of the People's League AKA Unity Movement, recorded as Independent in results below. Four of that group's candidates placed in the top five spots in the first count, but this was un-proportional and the process thinned them down.

SC candidate Norman James placed low in the first count but got enough votes from other candidates who were dropped out, and from Manning's surplus votes, to take a seat, pushing out O'Connor, a Unity League candidate. He did this without achieving quota but by being one of the last ones standing when the field of candidates thinned out. Due to his personal popularity, he leapfrogged over a couple SC candidates to take the seat, demonstrating that the STV-PR is about voters' preferences for individual candidates and not party lists.

1940 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	Social Credit	Ernest Manning	10,066	23.32%	7,291	Y
	Independent Movement	John Percy Page	5,607	12.99%	7,291	Y
	Independent Movement	Hugh John MacDonald	4,128	9.56%	6,649	Y
	Independent Movement	David Milwyn Duggan	3,878	8.98%	6,731	Y
	Independent Movement	Gerald O'Connor	3,392	7.86%	–	–
	Independent Movement	L. Y. Cairns	3,316	7.68%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	1,984	4.60%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Harry Dean Ainlay	1,840	4.26%	–	–
	Independent	E. C. Fisher	1,607	3.72%	–	–
	Social Credit	Charles Gould	1,192	2.76%	–	–
	Social Credit	Elisha East	1,117	2.59%	–	–
	Communist	James A. MacPherson	1,067	2.47%	–	–
	Social Credit	Norman B. James	967	2.24%	7,133	Y
	Social Credit	Charles B. Wills	948	2.20%	–	–
	Independent	Marjorie Pardee	822	1.90%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	William H. Miller	442	1.02%	–	–
	Independent	G. F. Hustler	400	0.93%	–	–
	Independent Progressive	Samuel Barnes	282	0.65%	–	–
	Independent Progressive	J. H. Green	108	0.25%	–	–
Total			43,163	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			1,784	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			59,685	75.31%	–	–
Source(s) "Edmonton results 1940 Alberta general election". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-12-08. Note: Five seats were awarded in the Edmonton Electoral District through single transferable vote. The Hare Quota, the number of votes needed to win a seat, was 7,291. Ernest Manning and John P. Page were elected on the first count.

Many of the candidates listed as Independents, such as sitting MLA D.M. Duggan, were candidates for the Unity League, an anti-SC alliance of Conservatives and Liberals.

This by-election was run according to the Hare STV-PR in effect for Edmonton (and Calgary) at this time. Voters across Edmonton voted as the city was a single constituency at this time.

There was only one seat being contested so the system devolved to an Alternative Vote process, whereby the winner had to take a majority of the valid votes.

Lymburn, a former UFA cabinet minister, was running as an anti-SC Unity League candidate. He did well in the first count surpassing the vote total of the SC candidate; but both being passed by CCF-er Roper. It became a tight race between Roper and Lymburn. The winner was not named until the fourth round after three of the five candidates had been eliminated and their second preferences distributed. There is such a high number of exhausted ballots because about half of the voters who voted for the SC, Soldiers Rep and Liberal candidates did not give second preferences.

But finally when the SC candidate, the third from the bottom in the first count, was dropped off in the fourth round, the final count for the last two candidates could be established and the winner decided. It is possible that in the last round, when the SC candidate was dropped off, most of his voters' second preferences went to Roper, apparently being thought more in tune with SC's help-the-little-guy philosophy than the Conservative/Liberal-member-dominated Unity League.

This election was held under the Hare STV-PR system.

1944 Hare quota was 6306 (one-fifth of the total valid ballots). Premier Manning got it in first count. His surplus votes (enough on their own to elect another candidate) were apparently spread among the other four SC candidates (or sent elsewhere or maybe his supporters did not put down a second preference) so none of the other SC candidates received enough to take a seat right off.

Page, running for the anti-SC Unity League, here identified as Independent, was in top five in the first count. The League, winding down, ran only one candidate and League votes were not spread around. He took enough votes in the first count to hold on to take a seat in later counts.

Johnnie Caine, a WWII ace, running as an Independent, was personally popular but did not get quota in the first count and not having a party behind him, did not receive many of the other candidates' second preferences when they were dropped off.

The first candidates to be dropped were mostly Communists and CCF candidates, whose voters it seems gave their second preferences to their own, such as Roper who took a seat, and then eventually to Norman James, of the SC party. He and William J. Williams were the last two standing when the field of candidates thinned out and they took seats even without achieving the quota.

1944 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	Social Credit	Ernest Manning	14,271	38.45%	6,306	Y
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	5,253	14.15%	6,345	Y
	Independent Movement	John Percy Page	4,603	12.40%	6,333	Y
	Veterans' and Active Force	William J. Williams	2,818	7.59%	5,535	Y
	Independent	Johnnie Caine	1,400	3.77%	–	–
	Social Credit	Henry Carrigan	1,188	3.20%	–	–
	Social Credit	Orvis A. Kennedy	876	2.36%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Clifford Lee	854	2.30%	–	–
	Social Credit	Norman B. James	781	2.10%	3,532	Y
	Social Credit	John Gillies	755	2.03%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	James A. MacPherson	742	2.00%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	James Enright	649	1.75%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	M. E. Butterworth	549	1.48%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Joseph Dowler	545	1.47%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	William Halina	496	1.34%	–	–
	Independent	Cecil Chapman	476	1.28%	–	–
	Independent	Clarence Richards	422	1.14%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	Jan Lakeman	251	0.68%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	Alex Herd	119	0.32%	–	–
	Labor–Progressive	G.V. Murdoch	72	0.19%	–	–
Total			37,120	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			2,927	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			65,651	61.00%	–	–
Source(s) "Edmonton results 1944 Alberta general election". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-12-08. Note: Five seats were awarded in the Edmonton Electoral District through single transferable vote. The Hare Quota, the number of votes needed to win a seat, was 6,306. Ernest Manning was elected on the first count.

This election was held under the Hare STV-PR system.

The 1948 Hare quota was 7692. Manning got it in first count. His surplus votes probably helped elect other two SC candidates.

Prowse also got quota but no other Liberal got in on his shirt-tails.

Elmer Roper too exceeded quota. His surplus was not distributed, perhaps because by then the count was at an end with only two candidates left standing to fill two remaining seats. Two SC-ers, Heard and Clayton, took these without achieving quota.

Result was roughly proportional to the three parties that ran in this contest. (The Conservatives stayed out, supporting Page, an opponent of the SC government, running for the Independent Citizens' Association.)

Premier Manning alone took almost half the votes in the first count, and his party took more than half the seats. The CCF took one sixth of the votes and one-fifth of the seats. The Liberals took about one-fifth the votes and one-fifth of the seats. Only about one-tenth of the votes were wasted - this included Page.

On a candidate basis, two of the top five in the first count were not elected. Page was not popular with enough second preferences, while Liberal Lazarowich also did not have holding power.

1948 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	Elected
	Social Credit	Ernest Manning	22,014	47.45%	7,692	Y
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Elmer Ernest Roper	6,511	14.03%	8,684	Y
	Liberal	James Harper Prowse	6,302	13.58%	7,692	Y
	Independent Citizen's	John Percy Page	2,723	5.87%	–	–
	Liberal	Peter Lazarowich	1,234	2.66%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Jack Hampson	1,046	2.25%	–	–
	Social Credit	Clayton Adams	946	2.04%	7,559	Y
	Liberal	Mary Scullion	942	2.03%	–	–
	Social Credit	Lou Heard	890	1.92%	7,746	Y
	Social Credit	John Gillies	772	1.66%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Mary Crawford	618	1.33%	–	–
	Liberal	Francis Ford	565	1.22%	–	–
	Social Credit	Walter Crockett	523	1.13%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Arthur Thornton	498	1.07%	–	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	J. H. Dowler	370	0.80%	–	–
	Liberal	William Brownlee	442	0.95%	–	–
Total			46,396	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			880	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			84,391	56.02%	–	–
Source(s) "Edmonton results 1948 Alberta general election". Alberta Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-12-08. Note: Five seats were awarded in the Edmonton Electoral District through single transferable vote. The Hare Quota, the number of votes needed to win a seat, was 7,692. Ernest Manning was elected on the first count.

District results from the first province wide plebiscite on electricity regulation.

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.[6]

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.[5] Question B was slightly modified depending on which city the voters were in.[5]

Province wide Question A of the plebiscite passed in 33 of the 50 districts while Question B passed in all five districts. Edmonton voted overwhelmingly in favor of the plebiscite. The district recorded slightly above average voter turnout almost just over the province wide 46% average with over half of eligible voters casting a ballot.[5]

Edmonton also voted on Question B2. Residents voted for mixed drinking with a super majority. Turnout for question B. Turnout for Question B was slightly lower and than Question A.[5]

Official district returns were released to the public on December 31, 1957.[5] The Social Credit government in power at the time did not considered the results binding.[7] However the results of the vote led the government to repeal all existing liquor legislation and introduce an entirely new Liquor Act.[8]

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 license had to petition for a binding municipal plebiscite in order to be granted a license.[9]