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Alberta Elections: 1905 to 1909

Once the Liberals of Alexander Cameron Rutherford were elected in 1905, the new Alberta government went to work setting up its bureaucracy. According to historian David Leonard, it was a time of great activity and progress:

They began setting up the departments of government. A Department of Agriculture, the Department of Audit, Education, Health, Provincial Secretary of Public Works and Telephones. In the Public Works Department, work began on grading the roads that would be the arteries of Alberta, building ferries and building bridges. The rural areas were now more populace than the urban areas, although Calgary and Edmonton were in the middle of a great big economic boom, each city. Coal was coming into its own near Lethbridge and now within the Crowsnest Pass. And in the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, you could see the progress of the times. Soon a legislature building would be developed on the north bank of the North Saskatchewan River. A university was promised for the City of Strathcona. And everything seemed to be progressing. And basically, people were very happy with the government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford.

By 1909, it was time to call another election. And Rutherford?s government surprised the people with an election goodie.

The provincial government undertook on the eve of the election to establish Alberta Government Telephones. Being unsuccessful in buying the Alberta portion of Bell Canada, they set up their own telephone company, a Crown Corporation, which before long would bring telephones to many of the rural areas which had been served by small little party lines: rural telephone companies. But before too long, much of Alberta would be accessible by telephone.

The big issue leading into the 1909 election was railways. Premier Rutherford ran his campaign on promises of more railways. And the Opposition ran on a harangue against subsidies to railways.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.

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