William Aberhart - Political Career

Political Career

Aberhart became interested in politics during the Great Depression in Canada, a time which was especially harsh on Albertan and Saskatchewan farmers. Particularly, he was drawn to the Social Credit theories of Major C. H. Douglas, a British engineer. From 1932 to 1935, Aberhart lobbied for the governing political party, the United Farmers of Alberta, to adopt these theories, but it is doubtful that Aberhart fully understood the theories. The basis of Douglas's A+B theorem is that prices rise faster than incomes when regarded as a flow, and individuals' purchasing power should be supplemented through issuance of new credits which have not derived from the productive system. Aberhart's lobbying to encourage the United Farmers to adopt Social Credit principles was not successful. He then helped found the Social Credit Party of Alberta, which won the 1935 provincial election by a landslide with over 54% of the popular vote.

The Social Credit Party remained in power in the province until the 1971 election, though it moved away from Douglas' monetary theories after Aberhart's death in 1943. Aberhart served as Premier of Alberta, Minister of Education and, starting in 1937, Attorney General during his tenure with the party.

His government was unable to implement much of the party platform since the social credit concept relied on control of the money supply and of the banks, both of which are a responsibility of the federal government of Canada under the British North America Act. Lieutenant-Governor John C. Bowen refused to give Royal Assent to three government bills in 1937. Two of the bills would have put the province's banks under the control of the provincial government, while a third, the Accurate News and Information Act, would have forced newspapers to print government rebuttals to stories the provincial cabinet deemed "inaccurate". All three bills were later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and for its leadership in the fight against the latter act, the Pulitzer Prize committee awarded the Edmonton Journal a Special Citation, the first time it honoured a non-American newspaper.

Aberhart instituted a variety of relief programs to help people out of poverty, as well as public-works programs and a debt-relief program that froze some collections. This, like Tommy Douglas' similar program in Saskatchewan, was later overturned in the mid-1940s by the Supreme Court although it aided people for number of years during and (for a short time) after the Great Depression.

Aberhart was the first Canadian politician to be threatened with recall from office. As the sitting Premier of Alberta, he chose to have his government repeal the recall legislation rather than face being removed from office.

By late 1937, relations with the Lieutenant-Governor became so strained that Bowen even threatened to dismiss Aberhart's government, which would have been an extraordinary use of his reserve powers, (a similar situation of which had occurred in 1932 in Australia between Jack Lang and Sir Philip Game, the Premier and Governor, respectively, of New South Wales). The Social Credit government remained immensely popular with the Albertan people, however, so the threat was not carried out. Aberhart's government was re-elected in the 1940 election. With 43% of the vote his party won 63% of the seats.

Although Aberhart was unable to gain complete control of Alberta's banks, his government eventually gained a foothold in the province's financial industry by creating the Alberta Treasury Branches in 1938. ATB has become Aberhart's legacy, operating as of 2004 as an orthodox financial institution and crown corporation.

Aberhart died unexpectedly on May 23, 1943, during a visit to his adult daughters in Vancouver, British Columbia, and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Burnaby as his widow intended to move to Vancouver to be close to her children. He was succeeded as the Premier of Alberta by his lifelong disciple, Ernest C. Manning.

The Aberhart Centre, a long-term medical care centre at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, is named in his honour, as is William Aberhart High School in Calgary.