The Dominion Labor Party (Alberta) was a minor political party. It was founded on June 11, 1918 when Edmonton's Labour Representation League renamed itself the Alberta wing of the DLP. Its executive included Mr. Marshall, Mr. Mercer, Mr. Dan Knott, later mayor of the city, White (later Labour MLA), Findlay and Farmilo (both later to be aldermen), and

Elmer Roper Elmer Ernest Roper (June 4, 1893 – November 12, 1994) was a Canadian businessman, trade unionist and politician. He was an elected member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 1942-1955, as a representative of the Alberta Co-operative C ...

, later mayor Edmonton. A branch of the DLP was founded in Calgary in March 1919 as the Federated Labor Party and was renamed the Dominion Labor Party that same year. The Edmonton area locals renamed themselves locals of the

Canadian Labour Party The Canadian Labour Party (CLP) was an early, unsuccessful attempt at creating a national labour party in Canada. Although it ran candidates in the federal elections of 1917, 1921, 1925, and 1926, it never succeeded in its goal of providing a na ...

in the early 1920s, but southern Alberta locals such as the one at Lethbridge continued under the Dominion name. Both district organizations were the largest sections of each of their parties, so the terms CLP and Alberta CLP, DLP and Alberta DLP, were almost equivalent. Alberta, having strong radical working-class communities centred around coal mining and other heavy industries, elected a number of Labour MLAs in 1921 and 1926 and two Labour MPs in 1921. This string of successes ended with the massive election of the bank-reformist

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed in the 1920s and 1930s by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made t ...

government of

William Aberhart William Aberhart (December 30, 1878 – May 23, 1943), also known as "Bible Bill" for his radio sermons about the Bible, was a Canadian politician and the seventh premier of Alberta from 1935 to his death in 1943. He was the founder and first le ...

in 1935. After the founding of the

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

in 1932, the DLP was disbanded, and the CLP was disbanded in 1942.

Early history

The party was founded at a convention held in the Labor temple in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

on March 29, 1919. Holmes Jowett was named provisional president. The party was founded to contest elections in federal Alberta ridings and on the provincial level. The party consolidated the former Alberta Labor Representation League and was joined by

Centre Calgary Centre Calgary was a Provinces and territories of Canada, provincial electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single Member of the Legislative Assembly, member to the Legislative Assembl ...

Member of the Legislative Assembly

Alex Ross Nelson Alexander Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an American comic book creator, comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries ''Marvels'', on which ...

. The first executive of the party included former MLA

Donald McNabb Donald McNabb (February 1870 – June 18, 1934) was a politician from Alberta, Canada. In 1890 he helped form a committee to raise money to buy books, periodicals and furnishings for the Miner's Library in Lethbridge. McNabb was the first membe ...

as First Vice President.

1921 Alberta general election

The Labour Party contested the

1921 Alberta general election The 1921 Alberta general election was held on July 18, 1921, to elect members to the 5th Alberta Legislative Assembly. The Liberal government is replaced by the United Farmers of Alberta. It was one of only five times that Alberta has changed gov ...

. The party ran 10 candidates. In addition to its natural opponents, the Liberals and Conservatives, it competed with the Independent Labor Party, which fielded candidates in the election. Holmes Jowett was party leader. He did not contest a seat in the Legislature, instead spent his time helping his party's candidates. The party worked in close co-operation with the

United Farmers of Alberta The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) is an association of Alberta farmers that has served different roles in its 100-year history – as a lobby group, a successful political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. As a political party, it forme ...

– the two parties largely avoiding running candidates against each other. Four Dominion Labor Party members were elected to the Legislative Assembly – Fred White and

in Calgary, William Johnston in Medicine Hat. Philip Christophers (a Communist) in the Rocky Mountain constituency.

was invited to join the United Farmers cabinet and served as Minister of Public Works. In the federal election that same year, two Labour candidates were elected in Calgary, William Irvine and Joseph Shaw. (All the other Alberta ridings elected UFA MPs.) In 1922, The Dominion Labour Party was by then only active in Alberta – Labour activities in Manitoba being done under the name Independent Labour Party; in BC under the name Socialist Party of Canada. A new labour body, the Canadian Labour Party, was founded and the Edmonton area branch of the Dominion Labour Party began operating under the new name. The DLP organization in Calgary, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat carried on under the old Dominion Labor name. In the 1926 provincial election, five Labour MLAs were elected, including Lionel Gibbs in Edmonton and Fred White (Calgary) and Philip Christophers (Rocky Mountain constituency) who were re-elected. Four of them were re-elected in 1930. In the next few years, the Dominion Labour Party and the Canadian Labour Party joined with the UFA and other groups to form the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party. Soon, the DLP was disbanded; in 1942, the Edmonton CLP was disbanded.Monto, Tom. Protest and Progress, Three Labour Radicals in Early Edmonton, Crang Publishing, Alhambra Books (Edmonton), p. 90, 114.

References

{{Authority control Provincial political parties in Alberta Political parties established in 1919 1919 establishments in Alberta Political parties disestablished in 1942 1942 disestablishments in Canada Socialism in Alberta