Between the elections of 1944 and 1948, the Social Credit Party continued to dominate the political scene in Alberta. Ernest Manning was in his mid-thirties when elected Premier. And as historian David Leonard explains, it was a youthful Manning who oversaw the successful transition of Alberta?s economy after the Second World War:

There was a fear that inflation would occur after the war because rationing would be brought to an end and the veterans would be coming back to spend their money at home. But that didn?t happen. The veterans were engaged in looking for jobs. And there were jobs to be had. Interest-free business loans were available for people. Free tuition was promised to people and paid to veterans to attend university. The Veterans Land Act facilitated the returned soldiers to go into farming in the more remote areas of the province, particularly up in the Peace River Country.

And what happened also was the beginning of the oil age in Alberta. In 1947, what Vern Barford described as the most beautiful little smoke ring you ever saw began belching out of Imperial Number One at Leduc. And the Leduc field quickly became the biggest in Canada.

The Alberta Treasury received royalties of fifteen cents a barrel. While it wasn?t a huge amount, it added up. And in 1948, Premier Manning declared that once again, Alberta was a debt-free province.

Ernest Manning had, since his takeover in the victory of 1944, been running a very straightforward, non-ideological but right-of-center administrative government. When Alberta had defaulted on its debt in 1937 they had to beg Ottawa to bail them out in 1938 this had a profound effect on the young Ernest Manning. And no longer was he the ideological Social Creditor that he had grown up to be. He was now dedicated to the cause of fiscal restraint and more business opportunities for Albertans.

But there were those in the Social Credit Party who opposed Manning?s policies. And he was soon locked in a battle of wills with the party?s old guard.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.