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Alberta Elections: 1917 Prohibition, Women?s Rights and the Liberal Return Under Arthur Sifton

Two years into Arthur Sifton?s second term as Premier, the Alberta government was forced to deal with the voice of women on the issue of Prohibition. As historian David Leonard explains, the Temperance movement and the Moral Reform League were very active during the years of the Great War:

If eight percent of the voters in eighty percent of the ridings in the province signed a petition on some matter, the government was made to hold a plebiscite on the matter. In 1915, this is what happened. They held a plebiscite on Prohibition. And with so many men away fighting World War One, the women ganged up on them, and through the influence of the WTCU and the Moral Reform League, Alberta voted for Prohibition. And in 1916, Prohibition came. So all over rural Alberta, this had a devastating effect on the hotel industry because hotels were basically making the profits off the sale of beer. So this was not a happy time for the hotel keepers.

Albertans went to the polls on June 7, 1917. And as so often happens during a war, people rallied around the government of the day. Sifton?s Liberals were returned to office, winning thirty-four of fifty-six ridings.

But the women?s voice was strong. It was this time that Emily Murphy served as the first Woman Magistrate in the British Empire. In the 1917 election, Louise McKinney would be elected as a member of the Non-Partisan League for Claresholm. And Sister Roberta McAdam would be elected on the war vote serving in Europe. Despite the discovery of oil at Turner Valley and the coal boom in Alberta, all minds were focused on the war in Europe.

And every weekly newspaper the world over would publish the names of the casualties. The Casualty List was what everybody looked for when they opened up the daily newspaper. And of course everyone in the rural areas as well as the urban areas was dreading the day that they would find that familiar looking letter from Her Majesty in the mailbox. By war?s end, over 6000 Albertans would perish during World War One. And that, for the province, was, by percentage, the highest in the country.

Sifton?s true test as premier came in his third term when the end of the war brought some of the greatest unrest Alberta had ever seen.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.

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