page_title: Premiership of John Edward Brownlee
section_title: Agricultural policy
hierarchical_section_title: Premiership of John Edward Brownlee / Road to prosperity (1925–29) / Agricultural policy
caption_attribution_description: English: Members of the cabinets of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Left to right: Unknown, unknown, unknown, Richard Reid, Oran McPherson, James Thomas Milton Anderson, John Brownlee, unknown, unknown, unknown
context_page_description: John Edward Brownlee was Premier of Alberta, Canada, from 1925 to 1934 as leader of the United Farmers of Alberta caucus in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. After a number of early successes, his popularity and his government's suffered from the hardships of the Great Depression. In 1934, he was embroiled in a sex scandal when a family friend sued him for seduction. Though Brownlee denied the events she alleged, when the jury found in her favour he announced his resignation as premier.
  Brownlee became premier on November 23, 1925, when, at the request of the UFA caucus, he took over from the indecisive Herbert Greenfield, in whose cabinet he had served as attorney-general. After winning the 1926 election for the UFA, Brownlee achieved a number of successes. In 1929 he signed an agreement with the federal government that transferred control of Alberta's natural resources to its provincial government, which had been a priority of his three immediate predecessors as premier. In 1928 he divested the government of the money-losing railways it had acquired after the syndicates that founded them went out of business, by selling them to Canadian Pacific and Canadian National.
context_section_description: At Brownlee's instigation, the Greenfield government had implemented a Debt Adjustment Act, which allowed farmers in Alberta's drought-stricken southeast to access credit counselling services and provided a way to settle creditors' claims without ruining farmers or resorting to litigation.  At the time, Brownlee had wanted to extend it province-wide, but had been dissuaded by the opposition of moneylenders.  In 1928, as premier, Brownlee tried again.  Lending institutions again objected, and threatened to withdraw from the province if the act was extended.  Brownlee felt that these threats were disingenuous, noting that similar measures already existed to protect merchants.  However, it was a prosperous time for farmers, and so mobilized support for the legislation was in shorter supply than it might have been during a time of economic hardship; Brownlee, newly disillusioned with bankers, withdrew the bill.
  In autumn 1928, an early frost reduced farm incomes by between ten and 25 percent.  Farmers began to demand the extension of the Debt Adjustment Act over the entire province, along with more radical measures.  Citing the example of R. W. Barritt, a farmer near Mirror who had lost his farm at the end of 1928 to Canada Permanent Mortgage Corporation despite diligent efforts to pay off his debt, they demanded legislation that would spread the burden of failed crops between debtor and creditor, rather than leaving it all on farmers.  Brownlee rejected such calls: "Unless we are to say that individuals or companies who lend money in this Province in good faith must wait indefinitely for repayment, whatever may be the contract or agreement at the time, there comes a limit to the extent to which the Government is justified in interfering".
  As attorney-general, Brownlee had played a major role in the creation of the Alberta Wheat Pool.  As premier, he continued his support of it.  In May 1927 he attended the Second International Cooperative Wheat Pool Conference in Kansas City, where he spoke on the importance of wheat pools in ensuring that farmers received "not occasionally, but with reasonable regularity, the cost of production plus an adequate and substantial return for [their] labor and investment".  On his return to Alberta, he participated in a rally to encourage farmers to sign on with the pool; the effort enticed several new farmers, including the manager of the Prince of Wales' ranch, to join.  On a July 1927 trip to Europe, he investigated the possibility of marketing Alberta wheat directly to European millers, rather than passing it through multiple grain buyers, exporters, shippers, and importers, but found that European millers feared that buying directly from foreign sources would alienate domestic producers.
caption: The cabinets of Alberta and Saskatchewan: Brownlee stands fourth from the right.
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