# 1913 Alberta general election

The 1913 Alberta general election was held in March 1913. The writ was dropped on 25 March 1913 and election day was held 17 April 1913 to elect 56 members to the 3rd Alberta Legislature. Elections in two northern districts took place on 30 July 1913 to compensate for the remote location of the riding. The method to elect members was under the First Past the Post voting system with the exception of the Edmonton district which returned two members under a plurality block vote. The election was unusual with the writ period for the general election being a very short period of 23 days.
Premier Arthur Sifton led the Alberta Liberal Party into his first election as leader, after taking over from Alexander Rutherford. Premier Rutherford had resigned for his government's involvement in the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Scandal but remained a sitting member. Sifton faced great criticism for calling the snap election, after ramming gerrymandered electoral boundaries through the legislature, running up the provincial debt and neglecting on promised railways. The Socialist Party carried the banner for labour- and farmer-minded voters in five constituencies; in others, Independent candidates were of distinctively leftist sentiment.
Edward Michener, the official opposition leader of the Conservative Party, ended up capitalizing on anger toward the Sifton government. He would lead the largest opposition to date in Alberta history. The Liberals would win a comfortable majority of seats despite being almost even in the popular vote. The Socialist Party vote would collapse and lose their only seat as Charles M. O'Brien went down to defeat at the hands of a Conservative.

## Events leading to the election
### The campaign

The writ of election was issued after a sitting of the house on the night of 25 March 1913. The premier dropped the election writ and dissolved the house after he ensured that the governments legislation on new electoral boundaries had been given Royal Assent. The new boundaries gave the Liberals an advantage, not only were they blatantly gerrymandered to their favour, but the opposition and even private citizens had a tough time figuring out what district they were in.
Day one of the campaign brought controversy as it was reported that Hotel organizers and Liquor establishments were being expected to donate generously to the Liberal campaign in order to get licence renewals for their establishments.
Arthur Sifton, his lieutenant Charles 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.
The Liberal government in order to prevent possible vote splitting made promises of concessions to trade unions and labour organizations so that they would not publicly support leftist candidates.
The Conservative Party protested the snap election by filing a legal injunction in the Supreme Court, to prevent the election from being held on 17 April 1913. The grounds for the injunction were based on the date of nomination closure being in violation of statue. The writs were issued with nomination day being 10 April 1913. The Conservatives argued that this was 10 hours short of the 16 full days prescribed in the Elections Ordinance, and the election should be ruled invalid.

### Election issues

The big issues of the election centred on the Sifton government's lack of infrastructure building in Southern Alberta.
The ballooning Alberta debt which in a few years had gone from C$2 million to C$27 million was talked about often.

### Gerrymandered boundaries

Prior to the dropping of the writ the Sifton government forced a bill through the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The bill was entitled Bill 90: An Act to Amend an Act concerning members elected to the Legislative assembly of Alberta It was introduced in the assembly on 20 March 1913 and given Royal Assent on 25 March 1913.
The bill increased the number of MLAs in the province by 15. Calgary was divided into two single-member districts; Edmonton continued as two-member district. The single-member districts did not contain equal population, with one riding Clearwater, north of Edmonton, only containing 74 people enumerated. Calgary Centre was the largest population wise with 20,000 people enumerated. The bill drew districts so that a line at the centre of the province's population (about in line with Red Deer), gave 30 seats to the people of the north half with 26 seats to the southern half. (The bill drew districts so that a line at the centre of the province (about in line with Edmonton), gave 19 seats to the north half of the province, up from the previous 13, with 37 seats in the south half, nine more than previously.)
The Conservative and Socialist opposition vigorously opposed the bill, but failed to pass any amendments. The bill was jammed through third reading in the 25 March legislative sitting and given Royal Assent that evening, just shy of the writ of elections being dropped.

### Siftonism

The Liberal campaign was dubbed "Siftonism" inferring that Sifton was a disease that needed to be cleaned from Alberta. The media at the time picked up on that, and roasted the Liberal party. The Conservative party attacked the Liberals on the Railway Scandal and Lack of provincial infrastructure.

## Electoral system

First-past-the-post voting was used in the single-member districts.
In Edmonton the seats were filled through Plurality block voting, where each voter could cast two votes. (Unusually for block voting, in Edmonton, candidates of two different parties were elected. Usually block voting produces a one-party sweep of a district's seats, as had been done in Edmonton in 1909 and was the case in Edmonton in 1921.)

## Results

The final result was the Liberal Party, under its new leader, Arthur L. Sifton, won a third term in office, defeating the Conservative Party, which was once again led by Edward Michener. Liberal party candidates took 49 percent of the vote and with the election of 38 members, the party took 68 percent of the seats in the Legislature.
The votes were split almost evenly between the Conservatives and Liberals with a difference of 4 percent separating the two parties. The opposition Conservatives received a larger proportion of the votes than it had done in 1909 (45 percent versus 32 in 1909) and increased its seat count to 17 from 2, while the Liberals again got more votes than any other party and won many of the new seats, allowing them to hang onto a majority of seats in the legislative assembly.
In the Rocky Mountain constituency, the Socialist vote doubled but the vote for the Conservative candidate went up even more, to make that candidate the winner, and the Socialist Party lost its only seat in the Assembly.
Oddly, the Assembly elected in 1913 never had its full complement of MLAs, as C.W. Cross was elected to two seats (one in Edmonton and the Edson seat). When this happened elsewhere, such as in 1896, when Laurier was elected as MP in both the riding of Saskatchewan, North-West Territories (including part of what would be Alberta) (the provisional district of Saskatchewan) and a seat in Quebec, the double winner resigned one of the seats. But in Alberta from 1913 to 1917, Cross held both seats.

### Summary

| Party | Party | Party Leader | # of candidates | Seats | Seats | Seats | Popular Vote | Popular Vote | Popular Vote |
| Party | Party | Party Leader | # of candidates | 1909 | Elected | % Change | # | % | % Change |
| | Liberal | Arthur L. Sifton | 51/54$^1$ $^2$ | 36 | 38/39$^1$ | +8.3% | 47,748 | 49.23% | -10.03% |
| | Conservative | Edward Michener | 56 | 2 | 17 | +750% | 43,737 | 45.10% | +13.4% |
| | Independent | Independent | 14 | 1 | - | -100% | 3,639 | 3.75% | +0.36% |
| | Socialist | Charles M. O'Brien | 5 | 1 | - | -100% | 1,814 | 1.87% | -0.73% |
| | Liberal-Labor | Arthur L. Sifton | 2$^3$ | * | - | * | $^4$ | $^4$ | * |
| | Independent Liberal | Independent Liberal | 1 | 1 | - | -100% | 47 | 0.05% | -2.57% |
| Total | Total | Total | 129/132 | 41 | 55/56 | +36.6% | 96,985 | 100% | |
| Source: Elections Alberta ||||||||||
Note
* Charles Cross ran in and won in two ridings.
* Arthur Sifton and Alexander G. MacKay ran for the Liberals in two districts but only won in 1 district.
* Liberal-Labor candidates were a result of the Liberal Labour coalition struck by Premier Sifton prior to the election, these candidates ran in place of Liberals. See also Liberal-Labour (Canada).
* Liberal-Labor popular vote is included in Liberal vote.
Popular vote
Liberal
49.23%
Conservative
45.10%
Others
5.67% :
Seats summary
Liberal
69.64%
Conservative
30.36% :
| Party name | Party name | Party name | Calgary | Edmonton$^1$ | North | Central | South | Total |
| | Liberal | Seats: | 0 | 1 | 11 | 15 | 11 | 38 |
| | Liberal | Popular vote: | 32.1% | 40.3% | 37.9% | 32.5% | 19.8% |
| | Conservative | Seats: | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 18 |
| | Conservative | Popular vote: | 50.5% | 31.5% | 38.3% | 44.1% | 55.5% |
| Total seats: | Total seats: | Total seats: | 3 | 3 | 12 | 20 | 18 | 56 |
| Parties that won no seats: |||||||||
| | Socialist | Popular vote: | 5.5% | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1.2% | 2.8% |
| | Independent | Popular vote: | 0.1% | 0.2% | - | - | 0.1% |
| | Independent Liberal | Popular vote: | 0.1% | 0.2% | - | - | 0.1% |

## Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts
| Electoral district | Candidates | Candidates | Candidates | Candidates | Candidates | Candidates | Incumbent |
| Electoral district | Liberal | Liberal | Conservative | Conservative | Other | Other | Incumbent | Incumbent |
| Acadia | | John A. McColl 637 56.27% | | W.D. Bentley 495 43.73% | | | New District |
| Alexandra | | N.C. Lyster 470 40.69% | | James R. Lowery 478 41.39% | | W.H. Anderson 207 17.92% | Alwyn Bramley-Moore |
| Athabasca | | Alexander Grant MacKay 5,327 838.90% | | J.H. Wood 221 34.80% | | | Jean Léon Côté |
| Beaver River | | Wilfrid Gariepy 457 61.67% | | A. Grey 284 38.33% | | | New District |
| Bow Valley | | George Lane 396 61.78% | | Harold William Hounsfield Riley 245 38.22% | | | New District |
| Centre Calgary | | John Chantler McDougall 728 31.76% | | Thomas M.M. Tweedie 1,564 68.24% | | | New District from Calgary Thomas M.M. Tweedie |
| North Calgary | | George Henry Ross 822 32.11% | | Samuel Bacon Hillocks 1,482 57.89% | | Harry Roderick Burge (Socialist) 256 10.00% | New District from Calgary |
| South Calgary | | Clifford Teasdale Jones 1,423 28.03% | | Thomas H. Blow 3,654 71.97% | | | New District from Calgary |
| Camrose | | George P. Smith 1,651 86.89% | | R.L. Rushton 249 13.11% | | | George P. Smith |
| Cardston | | Martin Woolf 518 51.96% | | C. Jensen 479 48.04% | | | John William Woolf |
| Claresholm | | William Moffat 496 51.08% | | D.S. McMillan 348 35.84% | | G. Malshow 127 13.08% | Malcolm McKenzie |
| Clearwater | | Henry William McKenney 40 38.83% | | A. Williamson Taylor 39 37.86% | | Joseph Andrew Clarke (Socialist) 24 23.30% | New District |
| Cochrane | | Charles Wellington Fisher 475 55.56% | | H.F. Jarrett 380 44.44% | | | Charles Wellington Fisher |
| Coronation | | Frank H. Whiteside 739 51.61% | | William Wallace Wilson 693 48.39% | | | New District |
| Didsbury | | Joseph E. Stauffer 948 59.32% | | G.B. Sexsmith 650 40.68% | | | Joseph E. Stauffer |
| Edmonton | | Charles Wilson Cross 5,407 26.29% | | William Antrobus Griesbach 4,499 21.87% | | J.D. Blayney (Temperance) 643 3.13% | Charles Wilson Cross |
| Edmonton | | Alexander Grant MacKay 4,913 23.89% | | Albert Freeman Ewing 5,107 24.83% | | | John Alexander McDougall |
| Edmonton-South | | Alexander Cameron Rutherford 1,275 45.57% | | Herbert Howard Crawford 1,523 54.43% | | | Renamed from Strathcona Alexander Cameron Rutherford |
| Edson | | Charles Wilson Cross 6,078 462.21% | | H.H. Verge 644 48.97% | | | New District |
| Gleichen | | John P. McArthur 641 52.67% | | George McElroy 576 47.33% | | | Ezra H. Riley |
| Grouard | | Jean Léon Côté 347 63.32% | | O. Travers 201 36.68% | | | New District |
| Hand Hills | | Robert Berry Eaton 962 53.36% | | Albert J. Robertson 841 46.64% | | | New District |
| High River | | R.L. McMillan 558 47.53% | | George Douglas Stanley 616 52.47% | | | Louis Melville Roberts |
| Innisfail | | John A. Simpson 526 49.58% | | Frederick William Archer 535 50.42% | | | John A. Simpson |
| Lac Ste. Anne | | Peter Gunn 517 52.17% | | George R. Barker 474 47.83% | | | Peter Gunn |
| Lacombe | | William Franklin Puffer 878 58.46% | | Angus MacDonald 624 41.54% | | | William Franklin Puffer |
| Leduc | | Stanley G. Tobin 582 57.17% | | George Curry 436 42.83% | | | Robert T. Telford |
| Lethbridge City | | J.O. Jones 1,033 38.46% | | John S. Stewart 1,371 51.04% | | Joseph R. Knight (Socialist) 282 10.50% | John S. Stewart |
| Little Bow | | James McNaughton 721 52.02% | | John T. MacDonald 339 24.46% | | F.A. Bryant (Ind.) 202 14.57% Alfred Buddon (Socialist) 124 8.95% | New District |
| Macleod | | Arthur L. Sifton 560 49.17% | | Robert Patterson 579 50.83% | | | Robert Patterson |
| Medicine Hat | | Charles Richmond Mitchell 1,823 49.73% | | Nelson C. Spencer 1,843 50.27% | | | William Thomas Finlay |
| Nanton | | John M. Glendenning 463 59.51% | | J.T. Cooper 315 40.49% | | | John M. Glendenning |
| Okotoks | | John A. Turner 380 39.01% | | George Hoadley 594 60.99% | | | George Hoadley |
| Olds | | Duncan Marshall 709 51.94% | | George H. Cloakey 656 48.06% | | | Duncan Marshall |
| Peace River | | William A. Rae 437 45.57% | | Alphaeus Patterson 475 49.53% | | William Bredin (Ind. Liberal) 47 4.90% | James K. Cornwall |
| Pembina | | Gordon MacDonald 432 50.64% | | F.D. Armitage 421 49.36% | | | Henry William McKenney |
| Pincher Creek | | A.N. Mount 426 46.66% | | John H.W.S. Kemmis 487 53.34% | | | David Warnock |
| Ponoka | | William A. Campbell 485 51.65% | | George Gordon 257 27.37% | | P. Baker 197 20.98% | William A. Campbell |
| Red Deer | | Robert B. Welliver 786 42.44% | | Edward Michener 869 46.92% | | George Patton 197 10.64% | Edward Michener |
| Redcliff | | Charles S. Pingle 645 60.11% | | H.S. Gerow 428 39.89% | | | New District |
| Ribstone | | James Gray Turgeon 669 55.56% | | William John Blair 535 44.44% | | | New District |
| Rocky Mountain | | William B. Powell 516 19.60% | | Robert E. Campbell 1,099 41.74% | | Charles M. O'Brien (Socialist) 1,018 38.66% | Charles M. O'Brien |
| Sedgewick | | Charles Stewart 889 70.56% | | W. Watson 371 29.44% | | | Charles Stewart |
| St. Albert | | Lucien Boudreau 620 60.55% | | Hector L. Landry 404 39.45% | | | Lucien Boudreau |
| St. Paul | | Prosper-Edmond Lessard 441 55.75% | | L. Garneau 350 44.25% | | | New District |
| Stettler | | Robert L. Shaw 928 45.65% | | George W. Morris 907 44.61% | | Malcolm McNeil 198 9.74% | Robert L. Shaw |
| Stony Plain | | John A. McPherson 368 38.94% | | Conrad Weidenhammer 577 61.06% | | | John A. McPherson |
| Sturgeon | | John Robert Boyle 936 62.73% | | James Duncan Hyndman 556 37.27% | | | John Robert Boyle |
| Taber | | Archibald J. McLean 1,231 68.16% | | William C. Ives 341 18.88% | | Thomas E. Smith (Socialist) 234 12.96% | New District |
| Vegreville | | Joseph S. McCallum 812 45.72% | | F.A. Morrison 420 23.65% | | Peter Savarich 544 30.63% | James Bismark Holden |
| Vermilion | | Arthur L. Sifton 772 47.68% | | J. George Clark 571 35.27% | | Gregory Krikevsky 276 17.05% | Archibald Campbell |
| Victoria | | Francis A. Walker 773 62.49% | | R.A. Bennett 268 21.67% | | M. Gowda 196 15.84% | Francis A. Walker |
| Wainwright | | H.Y. Pawling 615 46.38% | | George LeRoy Hudson 711 53.62% | | | New District |
| Warner | | Frank S. Leffingwell 314 43.67% | | W.H. Scott 137 19.05% | | William T. Patton 268 37.27% | New District |
| Wetaskiwin | | Charles H. Olin 780 57.35% | | George B. Campbell 580 42.65% | | | Charles H. Olin |
| Whitford | | Andrew S. Shandro 499 45.70% | | R.L. Hughson 133 12.18% | | Paul Rudyk (Ind.) 312 28.57% C. F. Connolly (Ind.) 148 13.55% | New District |