Ernest Charles Manning

The Honourable Ernest Manning PC CC AOE
Ernest Charles Manning, 1943
8th Premier of Alberta
In office May 31, 1943 – December 12, 1968
Monarch	George VI Elizabeth II
Lieutenant Governor	John C. Bowen John J. Bowlen John Percy Page Grant MacEwan
Preceded by	William Aberhart
Succeeded by	Harry E. Strom
Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
In office November 4, 1935 – March 21, 1940
Preceded by	William Ross Hugh Farthing Norman Hindsley
Succeeded by	Andrew Davison William Aberhart James Mahaffey
Constituency	Calgary
In office March 21, 1940 – June 18, 1959
Preceded by	William Howson
Succeeded by	District Abolished
In office June 18, 1959 – December 11, 1968
Preceded by	New District
Succeeded by	William Yurko
Constituency	Strathcona East
Senator for Edmonton West
In office October 7, 1970 – September 20, 1983
Appointed by	Pierre Trudeau
Personal details
Born	Ernest Charles Manning (1908-09-20)September 20, 1908 Carnduff, Saskatchewan, Canada
Died	February 19, 1996(1996-02-19) (aged 87) Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Political party	Social Credit Party of Alberta
Other political affiliations	Social Credit Party of Canada
Spouse(s)	Muriel Aileen Preston (1911–2006)
Children	2
Signature

Ernest Charles Manning, PC CC AOE (September 20, 1908 – February 19, 1996), a Canadian politician, was the eighth premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any other premier in the province's history and was the second longest serving provincial premier in Canadian history (only after George H. Murray of Nova Scotia). He was also the only member of the Social Credit Party of Canada to sit in the Senate and, with the party shut out of the House of Commons in 1980, was its very last representative in Parliament.

Manning was born in Carnduff, Saskatchewan, in 1908 to English immigrants George Henry Manning (1872–1956) and Elizabeth Mara Dixon (1870–1949), and was raised on a farm. A devoted listener of the evangelistic radio broadcasts of future Premier William Aberhart, Manning enrolled in Aberhart's Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute in 1927, becoming the first graduate of that institution.

In 1930, Manning himself began speaking on the Prophetic Bible Institute's, "Back to the Bible Hour" radio broadcasts to a large audience across Canada, a practice as an evangelist he kept up throughout his life even while in politics, including his terms as premier.

In 1936, Manning married Muriel Aileen Preston, the pianist at the Prophetic Bible Institute, with William Aberhart giving the bride away. They had two sons, Keith who died in 1986, and Ernest Preston (commonly called Preston) who founded the Reform Party of Canada. Ernest and Preston have both been honoured as Companions of the Order of Canada.