Arthur Henry Wray (September 13, 1906 – December 1, 1993) was a provincial level politician from

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. He served as a member 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. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from sing ...

from 1944 to 1952. He first sat with the governing Social Credit caucus and then as an Independent in 1946 after he was expelled.

Political career

Wray ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature for the first time in the

1944 Alberta general election The 1944 Alberta general election was held on August 8, 1944 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Overview The election was the first contested by leader Ernest C. Manning. Previously Provincial Secretary, he became leader ...

as a Social Credit candidate. He won the electoral district of

Banff-Cochrane Banff-Cochrane was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1940 to 1975, and again from 1979 to 2019. The Banff-Cochrane electoral district is home to ...

in a tight race defeating Independent incumbent Frank Laut. Wray was trailing in second place on the first count. The second choice preferences of Co-operative Commonwealth candidate D. MacGregor put Wray ahead of Laut and gave him a slim majority to pick up the district for his party. The winter of 1946 would bring a series of terrific snow storms to the town of Cochrane,

. The storms paralyzed the town and the areas to north, causing school children to miss 63 out of 114 school days. Wray lobbied Public Work's minister William Fallow to begin clearing the provincial main and secondary highways that became impassable outside of the town. Fallow refused to give any priority to Cochrane and said the government does not clear secondary highways. He dismissed a delegation from the town including Wray who went to Edmonton to meet with the minister. Wray lost the battle with the cabinet to clear the roads. He continued to be a Social Credit government supporter but tensions between him and his caucus and the ministry began to rise. This came to a head in February 1947 when the Assembly moved and voted on a motion forcing Wray to cross the floor to the opposition benches. Speaker Peter Dawson forced Wray to move by not recognizing him as a speaker in the debate because he wasn't at his desk which was now on the opposition side. Wray took his desk in protest but failed in his bid to return to the government side of the house. He was forced to move a second time when the Army, Navy, Airforce caucus objected to Wray sitting with them. He was moved to the other end of the opposition benches to sit with Veterans' and Active Force MLA William J. Williams. Wray would run for re-election in the

1948 Alberta general election The 1948 Alberta general election was held on August 17, 1948, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Ernest C. Manning led the Social Credit to a fourth term in government, increasing its share of the popular vote further abov ...

as an Independent Social Credit candidate. He would face Laut and former Cochrane MLA William King. The election was hotly contested with Wray finishing second on the first ballot. The elimination of King gave Wray enough second choice votes to finish ahead of Laut and hold his district. Wray would run for a third term in the

1952 Alberta general election The 1952 Alberta general election was held on August 5, 1952, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Ernest C. Manning in his third election as leader of the Social Credit Party, and its first election since the Social Credit ...

. He would be easily defeated by Social Credit candidate

Lee Leavitt Lorne Lee Leavitt (December 6, 1906 – January 13, 1984) was a teacher and a provincial level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1952 to 1955 and a second stint from 1963 to 1971 s ...

finishing a very distant third place. Wray would run once more for a seat as an Independent candidate in the

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

electoral district in the

1955 Alberta general election The 1955 Alberta general election was held on June 29, 1955, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Despite losing almost 10% of the popular vote (compared to its 1952 proportion of the vote) and 30% of its seats in the legisla ...

. He would be not be much of a contender finishing very distant in the field of candidates.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wray, Arthur Independent Alberta MLAs Alberta Social Credit Party MLAs 1906 births People from Port Colborne 1993 deaths