Louis Wesley Heard (March 8, 1909 – February 27, 1987) was a 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 ...

twice. The first stint was from 1948 to 1952, and the second was from 1959 to 1971. Heard sat with the Social Credit caucus in government both times.

Early life

Heard was born in Saskatchewan in 1909. He moved to a house once owned by

Ambrose Bury Ambrose Upton Gledstanes Bury, KC (1 August 1869 – 29 March 1951) was a politician in Alberta, Canada, a mayor of Edmonton, and a member of the House of Commons of Canada. Early life Ambrose Bury was born in Downings House, County Kildare ...

in the

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

neighborhood of the Highlands in 1946.

Political career

Heard ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature for the first time in the electoral district of

as a Social Credit candidate 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 ab ...

. He won the second place seat to earn is first term in office. Heard did not run again at dissolution of the Legislature in 1952. Heard ran for a second term in office in the

1959 Alberta general election The 1959 Alberta general election was held on June 18, 1959, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Ernest C. Manning, in his fifth election as party leader and provincial premier, led the Social Credit Party to its seventh c ...

in the new electoral district of Edmonton North East. He defeated four other candidates with a sizable majority to pick up the new seat for his party. After winning the election, Heard did not run for another term on the Social Credit provincial executive. Heard ran for a third term in office in the

1963 Alberta general election The 1963 Alberta general election was held on June 17, 1963, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The Social Credit Party, led by Ernest C. Manning, won its eighth consecutive term in government, winning roughly the same nu ...

, facing a strong challenge from Alberta

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National Dev ...

Leader Neil Reimer. Heard won the district defeating the three other candidates with just over 40% of the popular vote. Heard ran for a fourth term in 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 ...

. He was nearly defeated by NDP candidate

Ivor Dent Ivor Graham Dent, (February 7, 1924 – March 29, 2009) was a politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as mayor of Edmonton from 1968-1974 and was a candidate for the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Alberta on be ...

and Progressive Conservative candidate Alan Cooke who also polled a strong vote. Heard took the district with just 35% of the popular vote. The 1971 boundary redistribution saw Edmonton North East abolished. Heard ran for re-election that year in the new district of

Edmonton-Beverly Edmonton-Beverly was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting from 1971 to 1993. History The Edmonton-Beverly ...

. Heard was easily defeated by Progressive Conservative candidate Bill Diachuk.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heard, Louis 1909 births 1987 deaths Alberta Social Credit Party MLAs 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta