Alberta general election, 1944

← 1940

August 8, 1944 (1944-08-08)

1948 →

60 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
31 seats were needed for a majority

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Ernest Manning	James H. Walker
Party	Social Credit	Independent Movement
Leader since	May 31, 1943	1944
Leader's seat	Edmonton	ran in Warner
Last election	36 seats, 42.9%	19 seats, 42.5%
Seats before	35	15
Seats won	51	3
Seat change	16	12
Popular vote	146,367	47,239
Percentage	50.5%	16.3%
Swing	7.6%	26.2%

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	Elmer E. Roper	William J. Williams
Party	Co-operative Commonwealth	V&AF
Leader since	1942	1944
Leader's seat	Edmonton	Edmonton
Last election	0 seats, 11.1%	pre-creation
Seats before	1	0
Seats won	2	1
Seat change	1	1
Popular vote	70,307	3,532
Percentage	24.2%	1.2%
Swing	13.1%	—

Premier before election

Ernest Manning
Social Credit

Premier-designate

Ernest Manning
Social Credit

The Alberta general election of 1944 was the tenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The Assembly was dissolved on July 8, 1944, and the vote was held on August 8, 1944, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

The election was the first contested by leader Ernest C. Manning. He became leader after the death of Social Credit Party founder and premier William Aberhart in 1943. Manning steered the party down a more moderate path, largely dispensing with the party's social credit policies of monetary reform that it had been unable to implement.

Manning led Social Credit to a third term in government with a resounding victory in the 1944 election, winning over 50% of the popular vote on the first count of ballots. The Conservative party and former United Farmers continued their strategy of running joint candidates as independents. They were not supported by the Liberals who left the coalition and lost a significant share of the popular vote.

The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation entered the election with only one seat in the legislature belonging to party leader Elmer Roper who had won a 1942 by-election. Despite winning almost a quarter of the popular vote the party won only two seats in the general election.

Servicemen and veterans from World War II voted in the first phase of the election on August 4, 1944. There was also a second vote held to elect three Canadian Armed Forces representatives from amongst the Albertans who were in active service overseas, or those who missed the first vote.

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Wikipedia