Garth-Alphonse Turcott (July 30, 1930 – January 11, 2018) was a lawyer and a former provincial politician from

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, 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. Since 2012 the Legislative Assembly has had 87 members, elected first past the post f ...

from 1966 to 1967 sitting as the first member of the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

to be elected in Alberta and the only member of its caucus at that time.

Early life

Turcott went to the

University of Saskatchewan The University of Saskatchewan (U of S, or USask) is a Universities in Canada, Canadian public university, public research university, founded on March 19, 1907, and located on the east side of the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon, Saskatch ...

and graduated in 1956.

Political career

Turcott ran for a seat to the Alberta legislature in a by-election held on October 6, 1966, in the electoral district of Pincher Creek-Crowsnest. The by-election was hotly contested by all four candidates. Turcott ended up winning by just over 100 voters over

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 ...

candidate J.H. Hanrahan. This was the first election won by a candidate running under the Alberta NDP banner, although members of the NDP's predecessor, 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 ...

sat in the legislature continuously from 1942 to 1959. During the by-election and continuing after he took his seat Turcott along with NDP Leader Neil Reimer leveled accusations of corruption against the Social Credit government, specifically that Edgar Hinman and Alfred Hooke used their offices for personal gain. The

1967 Alberta general election The 1967 Alberta general election was held on May 23, 1967, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta to the 16th Alberta Legislature. The election was called after the 15th Alberta Legislature was prorogued on April 11, 1967, an ...

would be called less than a year after Turcott was elected. He would run for a second term but was defeated finishing second to Social Credit candidate Charles Drain.

Late life

Turcott runs a legal practice in Pincher Creek,

. He was also on the board of directors for the Pincher Creek Co-op Association. He died on January 11, 2018, at the age of 87.Turcott, Garth Alphonse
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References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turcott, Garth Alberta New Democratic Party MLAs University of Saskatchewan alumni Lawyers in Alberta 1930 births 2018 deaths 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta