The 1948 Alberta general election was held on August 17, 1948, to elect members of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

. Ernest C. Manning led the Social Credit to a fourth term in government, increasing its share of the popular vote further above the 50% mark it had set in the 1944 election. It won the same number of seats — 51 of the 57 seats in the legislature — that it had won in the previous election. The remaining seats were won by the

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; , FCC) was a federal democratic socialistThe following sources describe the CCF as a democratic socialist political party: * * * * * * and social-democraticThese sources describe the CCF as ...

, the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

and independents. This provincial election, like the previous five, saw district-level

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

(

Single transferable voting The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vo ...

) used to elect the MLAs of Edmonton and Calgary. City-wide districts were used to elect multiple MLAs in the cities. All the other MLAs were elected in single-member districts through

Instant-runoff voting Instant-runoff voting (IRV; ranked-choice voting (RCV), preferential voting, alternative vote) is a single-winner ranked voting election system where Sequential loser method, one or more eliminations are used to simulate Runoff (election), ...

. Along with this election, voters got to also vote in a province wide plebiscite. The ballot asked voters about their preferred method to distribute electricity in province.

Results

Electrification plebiscite

The fourth plebiscite conducted province-wide in Alberta's history, the 1948 electrification referendum was not a traditional

yes–no question In linguistics, a yes–no question, also known as a binary question, a polar question, or a general question, is a closed-ended question whose expected answer is one of two choices, one that provides an affirmative answer to the question versus ...

but presented two options on electricity generation and transmission. It asked the voter to indicate whether the province should create "a publicly-owned utility administered by the Alberta Government Power Commission" or leave the electricity industry in the hands of companies already in the business, a mixture of municipal operations and private companies. The driving force behind the referendum was whether to provide rural electrification through provincial government ownership or leave it in the hands of private corporations, who had done very little up to that time and did not have the financial resources to perform the task. The referendum result was a slight majority in favour of retention of the existing companies. Despite that, the government sponsored the creation of many Rural Electrification Associations, some of which still are in operation today. The result shows how evenly divided the province was on the issue, with a majority of only 151 votes in favour of leaving the old system in place. In fact, voters in Edmonton were effectively split and the rural areas were in favour of provincial control, but an even larger majority in Calgary voted to retain the old system.

MLAs elected

Synopsis of results

: = Open seat : = turnout is above provincial average : = Candidate was in previous Legislature : = Incumbent had switched allegiance : = Previously incumbent in another riding : = Not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature : = Incumbency arose from by-election gain : = previously an MP in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

: = Multiple candidates

Multi-member districts

: = Candidate was in previous Legislature : = First-time MLA

STV analysis

Exhausted votes

Ten districts went beyond first-preference counts in order to determine winning candidates:

Calgary

All parties other than the Independent Movement fielded full slates. (In the original official report, exhausted votes were not recorded as a separate total but instead resided with candidate that last had the votes. Here exhausted votes reside with winning candidates but are separated out if they arise from the elimination of a candidate.)

Edmonton

In 1940 and 1944, three parties had full slates. The Independent Movement presented four candidates, and Williams campaigned under his own banner, that of the Veteran's & Active Force. (Exhausted votes reside with winning candidates but are separated out if they arise from the elimination of a candidate. On the eleventh count Roper's surplus votes were transferred where possible, but 8684 of his votes did not bear usable back-up preferences so they were retained by Roper.)General Statement by Returning Officer Edmonton August 17, 1948

References

{{AlbertaElections Alberta general election

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

General election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

Alberta general election