1930 Alberta general election

1930 Alberta general election
← outgoing members members →
63 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta ; 32 seats were needed for a majority
Premier before election; John E. Brownlee; United Farmers	Premier after election ; John E. Brownlee; United Farmers

The 1930 Alberta general election was held on June 19, 1930, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

The United Farmers of Alberta won election to a third term in government, and John E. Brownlee continued as premier.

This provincial election, like the previous election (1926), used district-level proportional representation (Single transferable voting) to elect the MLAs of Edmonton and Calgary. (Medicine Hat no longer had multiple seats.) City-wide districts were used to elect multiple MLAs in the two main cities.

All the other MLAs were elected in single-member districts through Instant-runoff voting.

Th United Farmers again ran one candidate in Edmonton and won that seat and did not run in Calgary.

Altogether in the cities the UFA won just one seat in the cities (in Edmonton) but won a great share of the rural seats, by securing the support of a majority of votes in each district, as required under IRV (AKA Alternative Voting).

The effect of STV in the cities was that candidates of four parties - UFA, Conservative, Liberal and Labour - were elected in Edmonton reflecting votes cast.

STV in Calgary similarly produced mixed representation reflecting votes cast. Candidates of the Conservative, Liberal and Labour parties were elected there.^[2]

Nominations

There were a significant number of Independent nominations, many of which were in districts where the Liberals chose not to field candidates. In addition, four went to Communist Party members:

Communist candidates in the 1930 election^[3]
District	Candidate	Votes received (on 1st preference)
Calgary	John O'Sullivan	460
Drumheller	John O'Sullivan	188
Edmonton	Jan Lakeman	752
Rocky Mountain	Rich Sudworth	783
Total		2,183

Beaver River

The most closely contested race in the election happened in the Beaver River electoral district. The election was a three-way race between incumbent United Farmers MLA John Delisle Liberal candidate Henry Dakin and Independent candidate Luc Lebel.^[4]

The first count results showed Delisle leading Dakin by seven votes. Lebel was in third place with 87 votes. Under Instant runoff voting, when no candidate has a majority, the least-popular candidate is eliminated and his votes transferred.^[4] Lebel was eliminated and his 87 votes were transferred where second-choice preference had been marked. The new vote tallies showed Delisle with 21 more votes than Dakin. Delisle was declared elected on June 25, 1930, six days after the election was held.^[5]

The Liberals challenged the results in provincial court. A judicial recount was ordered. Judge Taylor concluded on August 21, 1930, that the second count results showed Dakin had four more votes than Delisle. Delisle's election was overturned, and Dakin picked up the seat.^[6]

1930 redistribution of districts

An Act was passed in 1930 providing for an increase of seats from 60 to 63, upon the next election.^[7] Calgary and Edmonton now returned six MLAs each instead of five each, and the following other changes were made:

Abolished	New
New districts
	Clover Bar^{[a 1]}
	Drumheller^{[a 2]}
	Grande Prairie^{[a 3]}
Merger of districts
Claresholm Nanton	Nanton-Claresholm
High River Okotoks	Okotoks-High River

Results

Elections to the 7th Alberta Legislative Assembly (1930)
Party		Leader	Candidates	First-preference votes					Seats
Party		Leader	Candidates	Votes	±	% Fpv	Change (pp)		1926	1930	±
	United Farmers	John E. Brownlee	47	74,187	2,220	39.41	-0.27		43	39 / 63	4
	Liberal	John W. McDonald	36	46,275	1,175	24.59	-1.58		7	11 / 63	4
	Conservative	David M. Duggan	18	27,954	12,137	14.85	-7.25		4	6 / 63	2
	Labour	Fred J. White	11	14,354	231	7.63	-0.16		5	4 / 63	1
	Independent		25	23,266	10,712	12.36	11.66	11.66	–	3 / 63	3
	Communist	Jan Lakeman	4	2,183	2,183	1.16	1.16	1.16	–	0 / 63	–
	Independent Labour		–	Campaigned as Independent			-1.37		1	0 / 63	1
Total			141	188,219		100.00%
Rejected ballots				7,707	1,148
Turnout				195,926	11,934	66.7%	0.5
Registered voters				293,798	20,048

MLAs elected

Synopsis of results

Results by riding – 1930 Alberta general election (all except Calgary and Edmonton)^[8]
Riding	First-preference votes							Turnout ^{[a 1]}	Final counts					Winning party
Name	UFA	Lib	Con	Lab	Comm	Ind	Total		UFA	Lib	Con	Lab	Ind	1926		1930
Name							Total							1926		1930

Acadia	2,103	–	–	–	–	823	2,926	74.3%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Alexandra	1,725	649	–	–	–	–	2,374	54.2%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Athabasca	861	1,057	–	–	–	–	1,918	63.9%	Elected on 1st count						Lib		Lib
Beaver River^[9]	1,028	1,021	–	–	–	87	2,136	65.7%	1,032	1,036	–	–	–		UFA		Lib
Bow Valley	959	–	–	–	–	1,253	2,212	81.8%	Elected on 1st count						Lib		Ind
Camrose	3,137	2,086	–	–	–	–	5,223	78.1%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Cardston	1,364	825	–	–	–	–	2,189	65.4%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Clover Bar	1,338	–	692	–	–	866	2,896	68.9%	1,462	–	–	–	1,115	New			UFA
Cochrane	1,174	1,162	–	–	–	–	2,336	76.4%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Coronation	2,084	–	–	–	–	1,983	4,067	80.5%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Cypress	1,315	1,060	–	–	–	–	2,375	76.7%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Didsbury	1,756	–	–	–	–	1,470	3,226	78.5%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Drumheller	–	–	–	866	188	1,644^{[a 2]}	2,698	80.6%	–	–	–	1,036	1,113	New			Ind
Edson	–	777	–	2,434	–	–	3,211	61.4%	Elected on 1st count						Lab		Lab
Empress	941	–	–	–	–	617	1,558	71.3%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Gleichen	1,566	–	–	–	–	1,069	2,635	67.2%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Grande Prairie	Acclamation^{[a 3]}													New			UFA
Grouard	1,017	1,706	–	–	–	–	2,723	68.4%	Elected on 1st count						Lib		Lib
Hand Hills	2,689	–	–	–	–	1,507	4,196	74.3%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Innisfail	1,243	878	604	–	–	–	2,725	71.8%	1,362	1,147	–	–	–		UFA		UFA
Lac Ste. Anne	Acclamation														UFA		UFA
Lacombe	1,932	–	–	–	–	1,830	3,762	75.4%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Leduc	1,408	1,468	–	–	–	–	2,876	65.2%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		Lib
Lethbridge	–	–	–	2,036	–	2,603^{[a 4]}	4,639	67.1%	–	–	–	2,238	1,978		Lab		Lab
Little Bow	Acclamation														UFA		UFA
Macleod	1,539	800	–	–	–	–	2,339	76.2%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Medicine Hat	–	1,774	1,150	–	–	935	3,859	74.1%	–	2,046	1,365	–	–		Lib		Lib
Nanton-Claresholm	1,415	–	733	–	–	–	2,148	65.4%	Elected on 1st count					New			UFA
Okotoks-High River	2,834	1,668	–	–	–	–	4,502	72.9%	Elected on 1st count					New			UFA
Olds	1,790	1,577	–	–	–	–	3,367	74.2%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Peace River	1,331	–	–	–	–	795	2,126	47.7%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Pembina	2,094	–	–	–	–	1,160	3,254	67.7%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Pincher Creek	920	959	–	–	–	–	1,879	79.1%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		Lib
Ponoka	Acclamation														UFA		UFA
Red Deer	2,144	–	2,056	–	–	–	4,200	76.4%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Ribstone	1,672	837	271	–	–	–	2,780	71.7%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Rocky Mountain	–	–	–	820	783	1,604	3,207	66.5%	Elected on 1st count						Lab		Ind
St. Albert	1,427	1,161	–	–	–	–	2,588	80.0%	Elected on 1st count						Lib		UFA
St. Paul	1,635	1,653	–	–	–	–	3,288	71.9%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		Lib
Sedgewick	2,265	–	828	–	–	–	3,093	62.6%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Stettler	1,934	761	1,147	–	–	–	3,842	70.7%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Stony Plain	1,406	1,247	–	–	–	–	2,653	69.2%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Sturgeon	2,556	1,129	–	–	–	–	3,685	63.0%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Taber	1,848	–	–	–	–	1,516	3,364	72.2%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Vegreville	2,364	1,757	–	–	–	–	4,121	72.9%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Vermilion	2,551	815	–	–	–	–	3,366	62.3%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Victoria	1,588	1,522	–	–	–	47	3,157	77.0%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Wainwright	1,446	650	–	–	–	1,005	3,101	74.9%	1,564	–	–	–	1,254		UFA		UFA
Warner	1,342	709	–	–	–	–	2,051	70.7%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA
Wetaskiwin	1,417	1,713	–	–	–	–	3,130	77.5%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		Lib
Whitford	1,799	766	–	–	–	47	2,612	59.8%	Elected on 1st count						UFA		UFA

= 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

= on judicial recount

Multi-member districts

	UFA
	Liberal
	Conservative
	Labour

= Candidate was in previous Legislature

= First-time MLA

= Previously incumbent in another district.

STV analysis

Exhausted votes

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

Exhausted votes (1930)
District	Counts		Exhausted
District	1st preference	Final	Votes	% of 1st pref
Beaver River^[9]	2,136	2,068	68	3.18	3.18
Calgary	24,417	23,375	1,042	4.27	4.27
Clover Bar	2,896	2,577	319	11.02	11.02
Drumheller	2,698	2,121	577	21.38	21.38
Edmonton	21,189	19,546	1,643	7.75	7.75
Innisfail	2,725	2,509	216	7.93	7.93
Lethbridge	4,639	4,216	423	9.12	9.12
Medicine Hat	3,859	3,411	448	11.61	11.61
Wainwright	3,101	2,818	283	9.13	9.13

But of the remaining votes, 88 percent were used to elect someone in Edmonton; 90 percent were used to elect someone in Calgary; more than 50 percent were used to elect the winner in each district outside Edmonton and Calgary.^[10]

Calgary

Calgary (1930 Alberta general election)^[11]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
	Conservative	John Irwin	22.61%	5,520	3,489
	Liberal	George Webster	14.95%	3,651	3,651	3,489
	Liberal	John Bowlen	10.64%	2,598	2,667	2,700	2,711	2,721	2,727	2,821	2,823	2,869	3,588
	Labour	Fred J. White	10.59%	2,585	2,659	2,673	2,874	2,916	3,335	3,515	3,489
	Conservative	Hugh Farthing	9.33%	2,279	2,957	2,966	2,979	2,994	3,001	3,132	3,133	3,731	3,731
	Conservative	Harold McGill	6.69%	1,634	2,226	2,238	2,252	2,260	2,266	2,446	2,449	3,089	3,293
	Independent	Robert Parkyn	6.32%	1,544	1,608	1,616	1,699	1,856	1,933	2,056	2,067	2,106	2,296
	Liberal	Robert Weir	4.88%	1,191	1,260	1,328	1,339	1,344	1,359	1,502	1,508	1,579
	Conservative	H.S. Patterson	4.12%	1,007	1,368	1,374	1,382	1,395	1,405	1,480	1,480
	Independent	A.C. MacKay	4.06%	992	1,078	1,083	1,092	1,097	1,107
	Labour	W.E. Turner	2.35%	575	589	590	590	590
	Communist	John O'Sullivan	1.88%	460	469	469	469
	Labour	Thomas Vickers	1.56%	381	390	391
Exhausted ballots			—	—	6	11	52	266	306	487	490	576	1,042
Electorate: 43,217 Valid: 24,417 Spoilt: 564 Quota: 3,489 Turnout: 57.80

The vote count proceeded in the following order:^[11]

Irwin and Webster, having achieved the quota, were declared elected on the first count, and their excess amounts were distributed in 2nd and 3rd Count.
Vickers, O'Sullivan and Turner were then eliminated in turn. (A candidate once eliminated or elected does not receive more votes.)
MacKay was then eliminaerd. His vote transfers pushed White over the quota and he was declared elected.
White's surplus votes were transferred
Patterson was eliminated. His vote transfers pushed Farthing over the quota and he was declared elected. It was not necessary to allocate Farthing's excess quota as it was less than the difference between the remaining candidates.
Weir was eliminated. The transfers of his votes did not affect the order of popularity of the three remaining candidates. Thrre were two remaining open seats. Bowlen and McGill, being the top two of the remaining three candidates, were declared elected. Parkyn was the only incumbent MLA to be defeated, and he was the only candidate who was not either elected or eliminated.

Calgary (1930 Alberta general election)
(analysis of transferred votes, candidates ranked in order of 1st preference)
Party		Candidate	Maximum round	Maximum votes	Share in maximum round
	Conservative	John Irwin	1	5,520	22.61%
	Liberal	George Webster	1	3,651	14.95%
	Liberal	John Bowlen	10	3,588	15.35%
	Labour	Fred J. White	7	3,515	14.69%
	Conservative	Hugh Farthing	9	3,731	15.65%
	Conservative	Harold McGill	10	3,293	14.09%
	Independent	Robert Parkyn	10	2,296	9.82%
	Liberal	Robert Weir	9	1,579	6.62%
	Conservative	H.S. Patterson	7	1,480	6.18%
	Independent	A.C. MacKay	6	1,107	4.59%
	Labour	W.E. Turner	5	590	2.44%
	Communist	John O'Sullivan	4	469	1.92%
	Labour	Thomas Vickers	3	391	1.60%
Exhausted votes				1,042	4.27%

Initial terminal transfer rates for votes (1930)
Transferred from	Non-transferrable	% transferred to					Total
Transferred from	Non-transferrable	Conservative	Liberal	Labour	Independent	Communist	Total
█ Conservative (Irwin)	6	1,631	138	97	150	9	2,031
█ Conservative (Irwin)	0.30%	80.31%	6.79%	4.78%	7.39%	0.44%	100.00%
█ Independent (MacKay)	181	386	237	180	123	–	1,107
█ Independent (MacKay)	16.35%	34.87%	21.41%	16.26%	11.11%	–	100.00%
█ Liberal (Weir)	466	204	719	–	190	–	1,579
█ Liberal (Weir)	29.51%	12.92%	45.54%	–	12.03%	–	100.00%

Edmonton

Edmonton (1930 Alberta general election)^[12]^[13]
Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
Party		Candidate	FPv%	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
	United Farmers	John Lymburn	14.76%	3,230	3,028
	Conservative	David Duggan	12.18%	2,665	2,685	2,712	2,746	2,870	2,895	2,978	2,986	3,004	3,006	3,128	3,028
	Labour	Charles Gibbs	10.34%	2,262	2,300	2,306	2,371	2,391	2,423	2,439	2,660	3,148	3,028
	Conservative	Charles Weaver	9.20%	2,013	2,046	2,102	2,138	2,247	2,272	2,440	2,469	2,499	2,504	2,555	2,573	2,645	2,903
	Liberal	William R. Howson	8.39%	1,835	1,857	1,865	1,897	1,922	2,054	2,094	2,123	2,152	2,155	2,181	2,187	2,778	2,915
	Conservative	William Atkinson	8.16%	1,786	1,798	1,806	1,823	1,877	1,895	1,985	2,013	2,033	2,034	2,088	2,118	2,189	2,360
	Liberal	Warren Prevey	6.08%	1,331	1,349	1,357	1,376	1,390	1,534	1,563	1,597	1,621	1,623	1,703	1,734	2,101	2,284
	Liberal	James Collisson	4.75%	1,040	1,047	1,084	1,142	1,171	1,220	1,225	1,232	1,247	1,249	1,302	1,306
	Labour	Alfred Farmilo	3.80%	832	837	839	866	878	883	888	925	1,061	1,118	1,671	1,682	1,749
	Labour	Samuel Barnes	3.74%	818	826	826	841	845	852	870	914	1,004	1,052
	Communist	Jan Lakeman	3.44%	752	754	755	771	776	779	781
	Labour	Daniel Kennedy Knott	3.41%	745	756	759	776	787	800	809	889
	Conservative	N. C. Willson	2.06%	451	455	464	465	480	480
	Liberal	G. V. Pelton	2.02%	442	451	451	476	479
	Conservative	J. A. Buchanan	1.94%	424	426	430	438
	Independent	Joseph Clarke	1.71%	374	382	390
	Conservative	R. D. Tighe	0.86%	189	191
Exhausted ballots			—	—	1	15	35	48	74	89	353	392	392	505	505	643	1,643
Electorate: 39,209 Valid: 21,189 Spoilt: 690 Quota: 3,028 Turnout: 55.80

Lymburn, Gibbs and Duncan were the only candidates that won by achieving the quota. Howson, Weaver and Atkinson won by attaining the three highest amounts of the last four candidates standing in the final count.

Edmonton (1930 Alberta general election)
(analysis of transferred votes, candidates ranked in order of 1st preference)
Party		Candidate	Maximum round	Maximum votes	Share in maximum round
	UFA	John Lymburn	1	3,230	15.24%
	Conservative	David Duggan	11	3,128	15.12%
	Labour	Charles Gibbs	9	3,148	15.14%
	Conservative	Charles Weaver	14	2,903	14.85%
	Liberal	William R. Howson	14	2,915	14.91%
	Conservative	William Atkinson	14	2,360	12.07%
	Liberal	Warren Prevey	14	2,284	11.69%
	Liberal	James Collisson	12	1,306	6.31%
	Labour	Alfred Farmilo	13	1,749	8.51%
	Labour	Samuel Barnes	10	1,052	5.06%
	Communist	Jan Lakeman	7	781	3.70%
	Labour	Daniel Kennedy Knott	8	889	4.27%
	Conservative	N. C. Willson	6	480	2.27%
	Liberal	G. V. Pelton	5	479	2.27%
	Conservative	J. A. Buchanan	4	438	2.07%
	Independent	Joseph Clarke	3	390	1.84%
	Conservative	R. D. Tighe	2	191	0.90%
Exhausted votes				1,643	7.75%

Initial terminal transfer rates for votes (1930)
Transferred from	Non-transferrable	% transferred to					Total
Transferred from	Non-transferrable	Conservative	Liberal	Labour	Independent	Communist	Total
█ United Farmers (Lymburn)	1	73	56	62	8	2	202
█ United Farmers (Lymburn)	0.50%	36.14%	27.72%	30.69%	3.96%	0.99%	100.00%
█ Conservative (Tighe)	14	104	53	11	8	1	191
█ Conservative (Tighe)	7.33%	54.45%	27.75%	5.76%	4.19%	0.52%	100.00%
█ Independent (Clarke)	20	96	134	124	–	16	390
█ Independent (Clarke)	5.13%	24.62%	34.36%	31.79%	–	4.10%	100.00%
█ Liberal (Pelton)	26	68	325	57	–	3	479
█ Liberal (Pelton)	5.43%	14.20%	67.85%	11.90%	–	0.63%	100.00%
█ Communist (Lakeman)	264	65	70	382	–	–	781
█ Communist (Lakeman)	33.80%	8.32%	8.96%	48.91%	–	–	100.00%
█ Labour (Knott)	39	68	68	714	–	–	889
█ Labour (Knott)	4.39%	7.65%	7.65%	80.31%	–	–	100.00%

References

External links

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