Ernest Manning
Ernest Charles Manning was a Canadian politician and the eighth premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served for 25 years, longer than any other premier in the province's history and the second longest-serving provincial premier in Canadian history.
Manning's years as premier were defined by strong social conservatism and fiscal conservatism. 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 last representative in Parliament when he retired from the Senate in 1983.
Manning's son, Preston Manning, was the founder and leader of the Reform Party of Canada who served as the federal leader of the Official Opposition from 1997 to 2000.
Early life and career
Manning was born in Carnduff, Saskatchewan, in 1908 to George Henry Manning and Elizabeth Mara Dixon. George had immigrated from England in 1900 and was followed by his fiancé in 1903. Their Carnduff homestead being inadequate, they moved to a new one in Rosetown, Saskatchewan, in 1909. In his childhood, Ernest was not especially religious and only occasionally attended a Methodist church in town.Over a radio broadcast, Manning heard of William Aberhart's Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute, which opened in 1927. He was its first graduate in April 1930,. There he met his future wife, Muriel Preston, who was the institute's pianist and later served as the National Bible Hour's musical coordinator. As a student, Manning soon caught the attention of Aberhart and became his assistant at CPBI.
"During his second and third years at the institute, Manning lived in the Aberhart home. After graduation, the Aberhart devotee became a teacher at the institute and played a role in the management of the organization's business affairs." In 1930, he began preaching on Aberhart's weekly "Back to the Bible Hour" radio program, a practice that he continued throughout his life, even after he entered politics. The broadcasts were carried on over 90 radio stations across Canada from Halifax to Vancouver and had a large listening audience.
In 1935, Manning went into the realm of provincial politics as Aberhart's right-hand man. Together, they created the Alberta Social Credit Party with the aim of bringing the benefits of social credit to Albertans, who were suffering, they said, due to the effects of poor banking policies made worse by the Great Depression.
Early provincial political career
"Manning followed Aberhart into politics, becoming a key Social Credit organizer, and platform speaker before the 1935 election." In the 1935 provincial election, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as a Social Credit MLA from Calgary. The Socreds won an unexpected landslide victory in that election by winning 56 of the 62 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The United Farmers of Alberta, which had governed the province for fourteen years, lost every one of its seats and would never return to the legislature.Manning was named to the provincial cabinet at just 26 years old, becoming Alberta's provincial secretary and minister of trade and industry. Manning devoted himself wholly to his work, to such an extent that his health began to suffer. He eventually developed a bout of tuberculosis in November 1936, returning to work after just three month's convalescence. At the 1940 election, he switched seats and was elected in Edmonton, which he represented for the rest of his provincial political career. In 1943, he became Socred leader and premier.
Military career
At the outbreak of World War II, while sitting as an MLA, Manning joined the Edmonton Regiment of the Non-Permanent Active Militia, qualifying as a lieutenant. In 1943, he was promoted to the rank of captain. He had to discontinue his military duties when he was appointed Premier of Alberta.Premier of Alberta
"Manning's take-over of the premiership at Aberhart's sudden death in May 1943 was a foregone conclusion. He had been Aberhart's religious protege and his closest associate in cabinet. He was regarded by Aberhart, who had two daughters, almost as a son." Manning twice honoured Aberhart's 1935 promise to issue a Prosperity Certificate to Albertans. In 1957, his government announced a $20 Alberta Oil Royalty Dividend and issued a $17 dividend the next year. The policy was widely criticized, and the next year, Manning agreed to use oil royalties on public works and social programs instead.In 1935, Manning had famously entered the Alberta Cabinet as Provincial Secretary at only 26 years old. He was the youngest cabinet minister in all of British parliamentary history since William Pitt the Younger, who had served as the prime minister of Great Britain 152 years earlier. When he became premier at the age of 35, he was the youngest first minister since Pitt. Besides serving as premier, he also held numerous other positions including Provincial Treasurer from 1944 to 1954, Minister of Mines and Minerals from 1952 to 1962, minister of trade and industry, attorney general from 1955 to 1968, and president of the executive council.
Under Manning, Alberta became a virtual one-party province. He led Social Credit to seven consecutive election victories between 1944 and 1967, usually with more than 50% of the popular vote. His party's seat count increased when he cancelled the use of proportional representation in Edmonton and Calgary in 1956.
Only once did he face more than 10 opposition MLAs. The height of his popularity came in 1963, when the Socreds campaigned under the slogan "63 in '63," a clean sweep of the then 63-seat legislature. They fell short of that goal, but still reduced the opposition to only three MLAs in total. It is still the biggest majority government, in terms of percentage of seats won, in Alberta's history. Social Credit's electoral success was based in part on what was viewed as its good government of the province. Manning himself always held the view that "both God and the people had some say in how long he would be premier — and he was not about to argue with either."
However, an ominous sign came during Manning's last victory, when the once-moribund Progressive Conservatives, led by Peter Lougheed won six seats, mostly in Calgary and Edmonton. More seriously, the PCs, NDP and Liberals did well enough across the province to hold Social Credit to 45 percent of the vote, a mere minority of the votes and the SC party's lowest vote share since 1940. Manning resigned as MLA on December 11, 1968 and as premier a day after that. Social Credit was knocked out of office three years later. It has came within sight of power again, losing its remaining seats in 1982 and since 2017 no longer existing under that name.
By the time Manning left the legislature in 1968, of the sitting Social Credit MLAs, only he, Alfred Hooke and William Tomyn had been in the original 1935 caucus. Of that trio, Hooke was the only one who would serve in the legislature without interruption for Social Credit's entire run in government from 1935 to 1971.
Social Credit policy
Under Manning, the party largely abandoned social credit theories. He had been a devoutly loyal supporter of Aberhart from the very beginning and so it is not clear why he was so willing to abandon his party's traditional ideology. One likely explanation may have been pragmatic; many of Social Credit's policy goals infringed on responsibilities reserved to the federal government under the British North America Act. Manning, however, honoured Aberhart's 1935 promise to issue a Prosperity Certificate to Albertans twice. In 1957, his government announced a $20 Alberta Oil Royalty Dividend and issued a $17 dividend the next year. The policy was widely criticized, and the next year, Manning agreed to use oil royalties on public works and social programs instead.Development of oil sands
In 1945 the Abasand plant again burned down; this time, it was not rebuilt. The huge discoveries of conventional oil at Leduc and Redwater cast even more doubt upon the development of the oil sands because of the difficulty in accessing and processing the bitumen and the numerous technical problems. Manning, however, was not dissuaded since he was convinced that the oil sands would grant the province incredible wealth. He even went so far as to convince the entire Alberta Legislature to visit the Bitumount plant in 1949 since he believed that they would agree to continue development after it had witnessed the success in separating the oil sands. Manning also commissioned a petroleum engineer by the name of Sidney Robert Blair to prepare a report on the economic feasibility of the separation process. With Pew's support, Sun Oil's majority-owned subsidiary, Great Canadian Oil Sands, filed an application for a commercial oil sands project in Canada in 1962, the first-ever constructed.At the opening ceremonies for the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant, Pew repeated Manning's belief of the need for the oil sands. Telling his audience, "No nation can long be secure in this atomic age unless it be amply supplied with petroleum.... It is the considered opinion of our group that if the North American continent is to produce the oil to meet its requirements in the years ahead, oil from the Athabasca area must of necessity play an important role."
Adoption of Alberta flag
Around the time of the upcoming centennial celebration of Canadian Confederation, petitions were submitted in November 1966 to Manning by the Social Credit Women's Auxiliaries of the Alberta Social Credit League to give Alberta its own unique flag. The flag was designed and approved as the official provincial flag by the Alberta legislature on June 1, 1968.Social conservatism and faith
Manning's deep Christian faith gave him a sense of charity to the poor and needy, but unlike the longtime premier of neighbouring Saskatchewan, Tommy Douglas, Manning was an outspoken critic of government involvement in society. Manning remained a staunch anti-communist, and encouraged strong religious, individual, and corporate initiatives in addressing and solving social issues. Manning believed that the "government was there to motivate and give direction, not to intervene and carry the load."His views on health care and social issues were heavily shaped by his elder son, Keith, who suffered from cerebral palsy. "He and his wife Muriel lovingly raised. Keith had suffered oxygen deprivation at birth." Manning improved health services in his province but opposed universal public health insurance. Alberta only signed on to the national medicare system after Manning's retirement as premier.
Mannings's faith also heavily influenced his approach to politics. He was always prudent and careful in practicing politics by "always practicing Christian-based reconciliation and conflict resolution."