Roy Smith Lee (October 16, 1887 – June 9, 1972) 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 Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. 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 1940 to 1963 sitting with the Social Credit caucus in government.

Political career

Lee ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature in the

1940 Alberta general election The 1940 Alberta general election was held on March 21, 1940, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Despite its failure to implement its key policy, providing prosperity certificates to all Albertans, the Social Credit Part ...

as a Social Credit candidate in the electoral district of Taber. Lee faced a tough fight in the election as did not secure a clear majority on the first vote count. Despite getting few second choice preferences he earned enough to finish first. While serving in his first term in the Legislature Lee introduced a motion to have all Japanese Settlers Removed from

at the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The motion received unanimous support. He also opposed Japanese working in the agriculture sector. Lee ran for a second term in

1944 Alberta general election The 1944 Alberta general election was held on August 8, 1944, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. As well, in late 1944 and early 1945, Armed Forces voters voted for separate representation - by electing an Army, an Air Forc ...

. He held his seat defeating two other candidates with a substantial majority on the first ballot. 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 ...

would see Lee run for his third term in office. For the third election in a row he increased his popular support. Lee was easily returned to office defeating two candidates. Lee ran for a fourth term in office 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 faced a two way race against Liberal candidate Harold Wood. Lee won the election easily with a landslide majority. Lee ran for a fifth term 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 defeated two other candidates with a smaller popular vote then 1952. Lee faced a potential split in the Social Credit ranks as Ben Platt ran as an Independent Social Credit candidate but finished a distant third place. 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 ...

would see Lee run for his sixth term in office. He ran in another two way race against Progressive Conservative candidate Leslie Cluff. Lee won the largest popular vote of his career to return to office with a landslide. Lee retired from provincial politics at dissolution of the assembly in 1963.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Roy 1887 births 1972 deaths Alberta Social Credit Party MLAs 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta