page_title: John Edward Brownlee
section_title: First term (1926–1930)
hierarchical_section_title: John Edward Brownlee / Premier / First term (1926–1930)
caption_attribution_description: English: The signing of the agreement between the Canadian and Alberta governments that gave Alberta jurisdiction over crown lands and natural resources. Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie King is seated third from left. Alberta Premier John Brownlee is seated third from right.
context_page_description: John Edward Brownlee, QC was the fifth Premier of Alberta, Canada, serving from 1925 until 1934. Born in Port Ryerse, Ontario, he studied history and political science at the University of Toronto's Victoria College before moving west to Calgary to become a lawyer. His clients included the United Farmers of Alberta; through his connection with that lobby group, he was involved in founding the United Grain Growers.
  After the UFA entered electoral politics and won the 1921 election, new premier Herbert Greenfield asked Brownlee to serve as his attorney-general. Brownlee agreed and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in a by-election in the riding of Ponoka. As attorney-general, he was an important member of Greenfield's government. He was closely involved in its most important activities, including efforts to better the lot of farmers living in Alberta's drought-ridden south, divest itself of money-losing railways, and win jurisdiction over natural resources from the federal government. When a group of UFA backbenchers grew frustrated with Greenfield's weak leadership, they asked Brownlee to replace him. Brownlee eventually agreed, and became premier in 1925.
context_section_description: Brownlee's first challenges as premier were similar to those he had faced as attorney-general: winning control of Alberta's natural resources, selling the money-losing railways, and balancing the provincial budget.  Before he could do any of these, however, he needed to win the impending provincial election.  He accomplished this by winning 43 seats in the 1926 election, an increase from the 38 that the UFA had won in 1921 and enough for a majority in the 60-seat legislature.
  Once returned to office, Brownlee turned his attention to his other priorities.  Many of them required the cooperation of King's Liberal federal government: provincial control of resources would require the acquiescence of the federal government, and Brownlee felt that the deficit was in part the result of the federal government's failure to cover its rightful share of expenses.  King was himself reliant on the UFA: his minority government was survived thank to the support of Progressives and allied factions, including the 11 UFA MPs.  Though some UFA legislators preferred Arthur Meighen's Conservatives, Brownlee personally supported the King government, and even appeared to consider an offer from the Prime Minister to take Brownlee into his cabinet.
  Brownlee attempted to leverage his relationship with King to win provincial control of natural resources.  He won such an agreement in 1926, but it was soon scuttled by the federal addition of a clause requiring Alberta to continue supporting separate Roman Catholic schools.  Wrangling over this clause persisted until 1929, when a compromise was reached.  All that remained was the question of compensation to Alberta for land given away by the federal government, and by the end of 1929 agreement on this too was reached.  Brownlee returned from Ottawa to Alberta, where he was greeted by 3,000 cheering supporters.
  Brownlee was similarly successful in divesting the government of its railways.  When his initial attempts to sell them to the CNR or CPR failed, the provincial government took over direct operation of the lines in 1927.  In 1928, they began to show a profit, and one of the lines was soon sold to the CPR.  A joint offer from the CPR and CNR for the remaining lines was judged too low, and they were sold to the CPR near the end of 1928 for $25 million.
  Control of natural resources and the divestment of the railways were two factors that permitted balanced provincial budgets, the first of which was registered in 1925.  Despite this success, Brownlee continued to advocate austerity, and tried unsuccessfully to persuade the federal government to assume a greater share of the costs of new social programs, such as the old age pension.  His resulting reputation as a penny-pincher came at a cost to his personal popularity.
  Brownlee's government also attempted to advance a progressive agenda.  One way this manifested itself was an attempt to consolidate Alberta's thousands of school districts into a far smaller number of school divisions.  The plan was supported by educational reformers who believed that the decentralized status quo made province-wide reform impossible, but was scrapped when rural residents expressed fears that it would mean the closure of local schools.  Another progressive initiative was the Sexual Sterilization Act, which allowed for the sterilization of "mental defectives".  While the Act, repealed in 1972, is now viewed as barbaric, at the time it enjoyed the support of moral reformers like Nellie McClung, who believed it was for the subjects' own protection.
caption: The natural resources agreement between Alberta and the federal government was signed December 14, 1929.
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