Halfway between the elections of 1921 and 1926, the UFA government turfed one premier for inattention to business and picked another to take his place. And as historian David Leonard explains, it wasn?t long before the new premier took Albertans to the polls:

The next election was June of 1926. And it seemed like a good time to hold an election because the foreclosures and the massive recession in the rural regions of the province in the early 1920?s had now abated. The crops were good. This is a period of international good relations. And it was an age of great trade, which meant that western wheat was making its way to European markets in great abundance, and this of course led to the rise in the price of wheat.

A drought in the southeastern part of the province forced some farmers to move north. But the mid 1920?s brought several improvements to prairie agriculture.

The rural areas were becoming mechanized. Tractors and combines were now seen on many farms in Alberta. And in rural areas, too, cooperative grain handling was now coming into the fore. Under the efforts of Henry Wise Wood of the UFA, the Alberta Wheat Pool is born in 1923, which brings greater evenness to the sale of wheat, making all farmers somewhat prosperous.

The Royalite strike at Turner Valley opened more jobs in the oil patch. The end of Prohibition and the introduction of the Alberta Liquor Control Board also contributed to the economic prosperity of Alberta?s Roaring Twenties. People overlooked the early stumbling of the United Farmers of Alberta, and on the 28th of June, 1926, Albertans voted the UFA into power once again.

So despite only forty percent of the vote, we find that the United Farmers of Alberta take forty-three of sixty-one ridings in the province. The established parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, are very weak at this time. There?s a feeling in the west that Liberalism and Conservativism does in fact stand for eastern monied interests, particularly the bankers. So the people of Alberta are pretty much in agreement that even though a lot of us aren?t farmers, let?s keep going with the farmers? government, UFA, who won the 1926 election.

John Brownlee had proven himself a very capable premier. But his toughest challenge was still ahead: the Great Depression.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.