Willard Moody "Mood" Washburn (September 12, 1875 – August 16, 1961) was a provincial level 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 1921 to 1930 sitting with the governing United Farmers caucus.

Political career

Washburn ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature in 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 ...

. He stood as the United Farmers candidate in the electoral district of Stony Plain and defeated Conservative incumbent Frederick Lundy and three other candidates winning just over half the popular vote to pick up the seat for his party. Washburn stood for a second term in office in the

1926 Alberta general election The 1926 Alberta general election was held on June 28, 1926, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The United Farmers of Alberta government that had first been elected in 1921 was re-elected, taking a majority of the seats in ...

. He would face three other opponents including Lundy for the second time. On election night Washburn despite being at the head of the polls had lost almost 10% of his popular vote from the 1921 election and lacked a clear majority. Under the new

Single Transferable Vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

rules put in place a second count was needed. He won on the ballot transfers from Independent Liberal candidate M. McKinley to hold the district. The United Farmers held primaries for the

1930 Alberta general election The 1930 Alberta general election was held on June 19, 1930, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The United Farmers of Alberta won election to a third term in government, and John E. Brownlee continued as premier. This pro ...

on May 26, 1930, in the Stony Plain electoral district. The election was hotly contested with three other candidates running for the seat. Washburn would be defeated for the nomination by Donald Macleod. Washburn would retire at dissolution of the legislature in 1930. He died in 1961 and is interred at the Inga Cemetery.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washburn, Willard United Farmers of Alberta MLAs 1961 deaths 1875 births American emigrants to Canada 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta