Alberta general election, 1955

← 1952

June 29, 1955 (1955-06-29)

1959 →

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

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Ernest Manning	James H. Prowse
Party	Social Credit	Liberal
Leader since	May 31, 1943	June 25, 1947
Leader's seat	Edmonton	Edmonton
Last election	53 seats, 56.2%	3 seats, 22.4%
Seats before	53	3
Seats won	37	15
Seat change	16	12
Popular vote	175,553	117,741
Percentage	46.4%	31.1%
Swing	9.8%	8.7%

	Third party	Fourth party

Leader	John P. Page	Elmer E. Roper
Party	Conservative	Co-operative Commonwealth
Leader since	1952	1942
Leader's seat	Edmonton	Edmonton (lost re-election)
Last election	2 seats, 3.7%	1 seats, 14.1%
Seats before	2	2
Seats won	3	2
Seat change	1	±0
Popular vote	34,757	31,180
Percentage	9.2%	8.2%
Swing	5.5%	5.9%

Premier before election

Ernest Manning
Social Credit

Premier-designate

Ernest Manning
Social Credit

The Alberta general election of 1955 was the thirteenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on June 29, 1955 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Despite losing almost 10% of the popular vote (compared to its 1952 proportion of the vote) and 30% of its seats in the legislature, the Social Credit Party, led by Ernest C. Manning, received a slightly higher number of votes than in 1952 and won a comfortable majority for its sixth term in government.

The Liberal Party emerged as the principal opposition to the Social Credit juggernaut, winning over 30% of the popular vote, and increasing its legislative caucus from 4 members to 15. The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation won two seats however leader Elmer Roper was defeated ending his thirteen-year career in the legislature. The Conservative Party and various independents also won seats.

The 1955 election was brought on after Liberal leader James Harper Prowse questioned the confidence of the government in question period regarding members of the Social Credit caucus who had had dealings with the Alberta Treasury Branch. Manning was angered by the question and had the Lieutenant Governor dissolve the assembly despite having two more years left in his term.

On the last day of the campaign Ernest Manning barred candidates Roy Lee and John Landeryou from running as official Social Credit candidates. However, due to the ballots having already been printed, the two men were still listed under the Social Credit name. Lee and Landeryou had violated the Legislative Assembly Act by renting a building to the provincial government.

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Wikipedia