Edmonton (provincial electoral district)
The Edmonton provincial electoral district was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return members to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1905 to 1917 and from 1921 to 1959. It was known as Edmonton City from 1905 to 1909.
The electoral district was created when Alberta became a province, replacing the territorial electoral district of the same name. With varying boundaries, it existed in two incarnations from 1905 to 1917 and again from 1921 to 1959. In 1917 and since 1956, the city was broken up into separate single-member constituencies bearing different names.
After Alberta became a province, the Edmonton provincial district was created in 1905 to encompass residents of the city of Edmonton, which at the time was located solely on the north side of the North Saskatchewan River. The Edmonton district was created in 1921 to cover both sides of the river in 1921. By that time, the southside City of Strathcona and the northside City of Edmonton had merged into the City of Edmonton.
the Edmonton provincial constituency elected multiple members from 1909 to 1956, using either block voting or single transferable voting. The only exception was the period 1917-1921, when the city -wide district was broken up into separate districts.
From 1905 to 1926, each Edmonton voter could cast as many votes as the number of seats in the district. In 1909 and 1913, Edmonton voters could cast up to two votes each. In 1921 a city-wide district was again created and Edmonton voters could cast up to five votes, the same number as seats. From 1926 to 1959, with its district magnitude set at five, six or seven, Edmonton used STV in general elections, where each voter cast one transferable vote.
History
Three methods of electing representatives were used over the years in the Edmonton district.First past the post election of a single member was used in 1905, 1917 and from 1959 to present.
The Edmonton constituency was divided into two single-member constituencies for the provincial election of 1917: Edmonton East and Edmonton West. The adjacent constituency of Edmonton South had been renamed from the old constituency of Strathcona.
The three Edmonton districts were merged to form the Edmonton constituency in 1921, and block voting was established in 1921, to elect five members in the constituency. Block voting was used in 1909 and 1913, each voter casting up to two votes, and up to five votes in 1921.
As a semblance of proportional representation, the UFA government brought in ranked voting for all constituencies starting in 1924. It maintained Edmonton, Calgary, and Medicine Hat as multi-member constituencies, with seats now filled through single transferable voting, which at the time was called the Hare system or simply proportional representation. Under STV, each voter cast just one vote but could also mark secondary preferences as backup contingency votes. Instant-runoff voting was used outside those multi-member districts and was also used in all provincial by-elections during this period.
Edmonton elected five members 1921–1930, then six members in 1930, 1935 and 1940, then five members in 1944 and 1948. The Edmonton district elected seven seats in 1952 and 1955.
In 1959 the [Alberta Alberta Social Credit Party|Social Credit Party|Social Credit] government broke up the Calgary and Edmonton constituencies and replaced single transferable voting with first-past-the-post in single-member districts. Nine constituencies were created in Edmonton: Edmonton Centre, Edmonton North, Edmonton Norwood, Edmonton North East, Edmonton North West, Jasper West, Strathcona Centre, Strathcona East, and Strathcona West.
The first woman elected to a provincial seat in Edmonton was Liberal Nellie McClung in 1921. The next woman was not elected in Edmonton until Mary Lemessurier in 1979. Other women candidates ran in Edmonton during that period, including during the time STV was used, but none were elected.
No Labour, CCF, or NDP or UFA MLA was elected in Edmonton from 1905 to 1982, except for Lionel Gibbs and Elmer Roper who were elected during the time when PR was used.
Expansion of seats and districts in Edmonton
The first table shows at a glance, the number of seats available by general election in the Edmonton district. The second table shows the number of districts in Edmonton, when the Edmonton district was broken up.Seats
After 1956, all Alberta MLAs were elected in single member districts so since then the number of districts has been the same as the number of seats as shown in the next table.Districts
- Southside Edmonton was independent from Edmonton until 1912. The area that is present-day Edmonton was spread over many districts, such as Strathcona, Leduc, Sturgeon, and St. Albert. Gradually the city has grown to take in previously rural land.
Edmonton party composition at a glance
The representation elected from 1926 to 1955 can be seen to be more mixed and balanced than representation elected both before and after that period. Not shown in the table below is the fact that in 1917 a Liberal and a Conservative were elected.Prior to 1926, Edmonton elected its members using first past the post or block voting. District-level proportional representation was used from 1924 to 1955. Since 1955, Edmonton has elected its MLAs through first past the post.
Election results
1905
Cross was elected as the sole member for the Edmonton district.1909
This election was conducted using block voting, where each Edmonton voter could cast up to two votes. The two most popular candidates were elected..
1913
In the 1913 Alberta general election Premier Arthur Sifton, his lieutenant Charles Wilson Cross and Liberal candidate Alexander Grant MacKay each won nominations in two electoral districts. The Calgary Herald 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. Charles Cross was elected in both districts and sat as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for both Edmonton and Edson.In this election Edmonton elected two MLAs. The election was conducted using block voting, where each Edmonton voter could cast up to two votes.
1921
This election was conducted using block voting, where each Edmonton voter could cast up to five votes. All in all, 75,758 votes were cast by the approximately 18,000 voters who voted in this election. The percentages shown in the table below indicate the proportion of the voters casting votes who cast votes in the candidate's favour. About a third of the voters casting all five of their votes for the five Liberal candidates accrue a total of 150 "percent" of the votes while the candidates still only receive the support of a third of the voters. With the rest of the votes split among other parties, the Liberals with possibly only a third of the voter support did take all the Edmonton seats in this election.1924 by-election
The first election in Alberta to use ranked voting took place in Edmonton on October 27, following the resignation of Edmonton MLA J.R. Boyle. The by-election winner was determined using Instant-runoff voting, which had just introduced for elections of single members in by-elections.W.T. Henry got the most votes in the first count but no candidate received a majority so subsequent counts were held using second choices of the lower-ranking candidates, Independent G.V. Pelton and Labour's H.M. Bartholomew. Henry was elected on the third count, with 5472 votes to A.F. Ewing's 5448.
The Labour candidate H.M. Bartholomew, a Communist Party member, showed a strong third place showing, almost exceeding the Conservative candidate on the second count.
The Edmonton Bulletin criticized the new electoral system, saying that the winner was not announced until four days after the election. It wondered whether it might take even longer when several members were being elected and where dozens of candidate were in the field. The writer admitted the "delay may not be materially important but it does lessen popular interest in the election." It saw inconsistency in that the second choices of Pelton's and Bartholomew's supporters were counted while those of Ewing's and Henry's supporters were not counted. It also bemoaned that 1359 voters had had their ballot declared spoiled, and pointed out the "delusion" that representation by someone who was not the voter's first choice was any kind of real representation.
Some of these views were refuted by a representative of the Proportional Representation League in the pages of the Edmonton Journal a short time later who clarified that counting Henry's or Ewing's supporters' secondary choices might have produced a result that was not intended by those voters themselves; that secondary preferences under instant-runoff voting were used as backup contingency votes only, for a reason; that no one can get representation from someone who does not share their views but such is the myth all the time under first past the post. He predicted that in most future Edmonton elections, when STV would be used, several members would be elected and each would be able to truly represent only his or her own supporters with no pretense at representing all who live in the city.
1926
Unlike the previous election, starting in 1926, the general election was held using Single transferable voting. The districting remained the same with all of Edmonton in one city-wide district electing multiple members but now each voter cast just one vote.In this election, 18,154 valid ballots were cast in Edmonton. About 751 were rejected for being improperly filled out, a proportion of about 4 percent.
Under the STV procedure used, the quota that guaranteed winning a seat was set as the Droop quota. This quota was 3026.
As candidates were eliminated, their votes were transferred to the remaining candidates in accordance with back-up preferences marked by the voter.
With voters at complete liberty to rank the candidates along whatever criterion they wanted, some votes were transferred across party lines. Thus naturally the result under STV differed from the party vote shares as per first preferences. But in this case the results were roughly proportional to each party's take of the first preference votes with two Conservatives, a Liberal, a Labour, and a UFA winning seats. Labour and UFA were elected to their first Edmonton seat in this election, Edmonton's first PR election. This fairness was achieved not by reference to party shares but by the system's ability to produce high proportion of effective votes — votes actually used to elect someone. in this case, more than 14,000 votes, of the district's 18,000 valid votes, were used to actually elect someone, a rate of 78 percent.
The UFA ran one candidate, J.F. Lymburn. He led the polls, achieving quota in the first count and being declared elected. He was elected with just first preferences. All the other successful candidates were elected with mixture of first preference votes and votes transferred to them from unsuccessful candidates. They also each had votes received by early successful candidates that were transferred due to being surplus to the quota.
Prevey and Duggan won seats without the quota in the last count, after other candidates were eliminated or elected.
Not all the five candidates who were most popular in the first count were elected in the end.
Independent Liberal Joe Clarke received many votes on the first count but did not make quota in the first count and did not pick up enough votes from other candidates' later preferences to get quota, likely due to not being in a political party.
Liberal candidate J.C. Bowen was in the top five in first count, but also did not get quota and despite being in a party and thus likely to receive vote transfers, was not elected — many of the other Liberal party candidates' votes were transferred not to him but instead to another Liberal candidate, W.W. Prevey, a more popular individual overall, it seems. Eventually Prevey's vote total surpassed Bowen's, and Bowen, not Prevey, was eliminated when his turn came.
Labour although not having anyone in top five spots in first count, did capture a seat. This was proportional — its five candidates received about 20 percent of the vote, which was more than quota. STV's transferable votes generally prevent bad effects of vote splitting, by allowing a party's dispersed votes to be concentrated on one or two leading party candidates as happened in this case. Farmilo, the leading Labour candidate in the first count, was not elected though. Gibbs apparently as an individual was more popular overall than Farmilo. He got quota in a later count through distribution of other candidates' second preferences. This included both votes of supporters of his fellow Labour candidates and some supporters of Joe Clarke and other non-Labour candidates as well.
The Conservative party ran five candidates. The vote was spread among all five in the first count. None got quota in the first count. Weaver did better after three of his companion Conservative candidates were eliminated.
Another Conservative — plus a Liberal — got seats by being relatively popular among the last ones still standing as the field of candidates thinned to just one more than the number of remaining open seats, at which time the two top remaining candidates — Conservative Duggan and Liberal Prevey — were declared elected, although not having quota.
The order of election was Lymburn 1, Weaver 2, Gibbs 3, Prevey 4, and Duggan 5.
1930
Quota was 30281935
Six were elected. Quota was 53241936 by-election
By-election necessitated by MLA Howson's resignation.Instant-runoff voting but no vote transfers conducted
Liberal W. Morrish elected with majority of votes on the first count, defeating Margaret Crang and Harry Ainlay.
1937 by-election
By-election necessitated by death of George Van Allen.Instant-runoff voting but no vote transfers were conducted.
Liberal E.L. Gray was elected with majority of votes on the first count, defeating Margaret Crang, Joe Clarke, Jan Lakeman and Rice Sheppard.
1940
Five seats were open in this election. The quota, the number of votes certain to win a seat, was 7291.This election saw an anti-SC movement, made up of Liberals, Conservatives, and some UFA-ers, get many seats. Page, Duggan and Macdonald were elected in Edmonton this election as candidates of the People's League AKA Unity Movement, recorded as Independent in results below. Four of that group's candidates placed in the top five spots in the first count, but this was un-proportional and the process thinned them down.
SC candidate Norman James placed low in the first count but got enough votes from other candidates who were dropped out, and from Manning's surplus votes, to take a seat, pushing out O'Connor, a Unity League candidate. He did this without achieving quota but by being one of the last ones standing when the field of candidates thinned out. Due to his personal popularity, he leapfrogged over a couple SC candidates to take the seat, demonstrating that the STV-PR is about voters' preferences for individual candidates and not party lists.
The order of election was Manning 1, Page 2, James 3, Duggan 4, H.J. Macdonald 5.
Many of the candidates listed as Independents, such as sitting MLA D.M. Duggan, were candidates for the Unity League, an anti-SC alliance of Conservatives, Liberals and others.
1942 by-election
After D.M. Duggan's passing in May 1942, his Edmonton seat was filled in a by-election.This by-election was run according to Instant-runoff voting, which was used for all by-elections in Alberta in the 1924-1955 period. Voters across Edmonton voted as the city was a single constituency at this time.
There was only one seat being contested. Under IRV, the winner had to take a majority of the valid votes.
The CCF candidate, Elmer Roper, came in first on the first count. Lymburn, a former UFA cabinet minister, was running as an anti-SC Unity League candidate. In the first count his vote total swas less than that of the SC candidate. Roper however did not take a majority of the vote, so votes belonging to the lesser candidates were transferred. These transfers allowed Lymburn to pass the SC candidate. But no one took a majority of votes until after the fourth round of counting.
The winner was not known until after the fourth round, after three of the five candidates were eliminated and their votes transferred. Many ballots were exhausted because about half of the voters who voted for the SC, Soldiers Rep and Liberal candidates did not give second preferences.
Finally after the SC candidate, who had been second in the first count, was dropped off in the fourth round, there were only two candidates and one or the other of the candidates — Roper or Lymburn — would take a majority of the votes still in play. It is possible that in the 4th round, when the SC candidate was dropped off, most of his voters' second preferences went to Roper, apparently being thought more in tune with SC's help-the-little-guy philosophy than the business-minded Conservative/Liberal-member-dominated Unity League.
1944
This election was held under Hare Single Transferable Voting STV-PR system.1944 quota was 6306. Premier Manning got quota in the first count, with 8,000 votes to spare. His surplus votes were spread among the other four SC candidates so none of the other SC candidates received enough in the 2nd Count to take a seat right off.
Page, running for the anti-SC Unity League, here identified as Independent, was in top five in the first count. The League, winding down, ran only one candidate and League votes were not spread around. He took enough votes in the first count to hold on to take a seat in later counts.
Johnnie Caine, a WWII ace, running as an Independent, was personally popular but did not get quota in the first count and not having a party behind him, did not receive many of the other candidates' second preferences when they were dropped off.
The first candidates to be eliminated were mostly Communists and CCF candidates, whose voters it seems gave their second preferences to their own, such as Roper who was re-elected to the seat he had won in the 1942 by-election, and then eventually to Norman James, of the SC party. James and William J. Williams were the last two standing when the field of candidates thinned out and they took seats even without achieving the quota.
1948
This election was held under Single Transferable Voting STV-PR system, using the Droop quota.Five were elected.
The quota was 7692, one sixth of the 46,150 total valid votes. Manning got it in first count, with 14,000 votes to spare. His surplus votes helped elect two other SC candidates, Heard and Adams, at the end.
Prowse also got quota but no other Liberal got in on his shirt-tails.
CCF's Elmer Roper too exceeded quota, near to the end. His surplus was not distributed, perhaps because by then the count was at an end with only two candidates left standing to fill two remaining seats. Two SC-ers, Heard and Clayton, took these without achieving quota.
Result was roughly proportional to the first preference vote shares of the three parties that ran in this contest.
Premier Manning alone took almost half the votes in the first count, and his party took more than half the seats. The CCF took one sixth of the first preference votes and one-fifth of the seats. The Liberals took about one-fifth the votes and one-fifth of the seats. Only about one-tenth of the votes were wasted — this included Page.
On a candidate basis, two of the top five in the first count were not elected. Page was not popular with enough second preferences, while Liberal Lazarowich also did not have holding power.
1952
This election, like the previous six, was held under Hare Single Transferable Voting STV-PR system.Seven seats were filled.
Quota was 6,505, one-eighth of the 52,039 total valid votes. Five of the seven in winning positions in the First Count were elected at the end.
Manning and Prowse won in the first Count, with votes to spare. Their surplus votes were transferred to a less-popular SC and a Liberal candidate respectively, who then were elected themselves.
Three were elected with partial quotas at the end.
Seats in the end were allocated proportionally to the parties' share of the votes — SC party taking three seats, Liberals taking two, and a Conservative and CCF member also being elected.
1955
This election was held under Hare Single Transferable Voting STV-PR system.Seven members being elected
Total votes cast: 82,792 votes.
6,248 votes were spoiled and declared rejected. This was said to be due to a change of rules. Outside Edmonton, votes marked with an X were now rejected while previously they had been accepted. And this rule change there might have confused Edmonton voters. Another possible cause was that elections with higher than normal turnout saw inexperienced voters attempting to mark ranked ballots for the first time. Edmonton suffering more than 9 percent spoiled votes in 1952 was possibly caused by the strict rules that election officials had to use — by law any ballot not marked with a "1" was rejected even if the mark used by the voters might have clearly signalled their intention.
Quota was 9,569, just more than one-eighth of the 76,544 valid votes. This amount guaranteed election but it was possible to be elected with fewer votes.
1924-1942 by-elections
These by-elections were conducted using instant-runoff voting. Vote totals given are the first count tallies. In each case, the leader in the first count was elected in the end.| Party | 1942 | 1937 | 1936 | 1931 | 1924 |
| Liberal | N.V. Buchanan 2838 | Edward Leslie Gray 17,788 | W. Morrish 9,863 | John C. Bowen 2,934 | William Thomas Henry 4,640 |
| Conservative | Frederick Jamieson 8,026 | Albert Ewing 4,238 | - | ||
| Labour | H.M. Bartholomew 4,118 | ||||
| Cooperative Commonwealth Federation | Elmer Roper 4,834 | Harry Dean Ainlay 2,056 | |||
| People's Candidate | Joseph Clarke 10,000 | ||||
| Progressive Labour "United Front" | Margaret Crang 1,275 | Margaret Crang 6,129 | |||
| Social Credit | J.B. Giles 4,432 | ||||
| Soldier Representative | W. Griffin 3,389 | ||||
| Jan Lakeman 1,779 | Jan Lakeman 813 | ||||
| Independent | J.F. Lymburn 4,022 | Rice Sheppard 257 | G.V. Pelton 1,131 |
Plebiscite results
1915 Prohibition referendum
A majority of Edmonton voters voted in favour of Prohibition on July 21, 1915. A total of 5,700 voted for Prohibition; 3,386 voted against.1923 Prohibition-cancellation referendum
A majority of Edmonton voters voted in favour of Prohibition on November 5, 1923. A majority of 3549 voted for replacing Prohibition with government control of liquor sales.1948 electrification plebiscite
District results from the 1948 province wide plebiscite on electricity regulation.The result in Edmonton was closely balanced. In part this was due to the choice being between electrical generation by a city-owned corporation or by the provincial government.
1957 liquor plebiscite
On October 30, 1957, a stand-alone plebiscite was held province wide in all 50 of the then current provincial electoral districts in Alberta. The government decided to consult Alberta voters to decide on liquor sales and mixed drinking after a divisive debate in the Legislature. The plebiscite was intended to deal with the growing demand for reforming antiquated liquor control laws.The plebiscite was conducted in two parts. Question A asked in all districts, asked the voters if the sale of liquor should be expanded in Alberta, while Question B asked in a handful of districts within the corporate limits of Calgary and Edmonton asked if men and woman were allowed to drink together in establishments. Question B was slightly modified depending on which city the voters were in.
Province wide Question A of the plebiscite passed in 33 of the 50 districts while Question B passed in all five districts. Edmonton voted overwhelmingly in favour of the plebiscite. The district recorded slightly above average voter turnout almost just over the province wide 46% average with over half of eligible voters casting a ballot.
Edmonton also voted on Question B2. Residents voted for mixed drinking with a super majority. Turnout for question B. Turnout for Question B was slightly lower than for Question A.
Official district returns were released to the public on December 31, 1957. The Social Credit government in power at the time did not consider the results binding. However the results of the vote led the government to repeal all existing liquor legislation and introduce an entirely new Liquor Act.
Municipal districts lying inside electoral districts that voted against the Plebiscite were designated Local Option Zones by the Alberta Liquor Control Board and considered effective dry zones. Business owners that wanted a liquor licence had to petition for a binding municipal plebiscite and then get approval from voters in order to be granted a licence.