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Alberta Elections: 1959 Prosperity at Home, Communism Abroad and the Threat of Nuclear Destruction

Between the elections of 1955 and 1959, the contentment of prosperity continued to dominate the politics of Alberta. In 1957, the Social Credit government issued a dividend of twenty dollars to every adult in the province. And as historian David Leonard explains, it was easy for people to see the spending priorities of Ernest Manning?s government:

So much prosperity could be seen in the increased number of paved roads, in the growing population and the greater expansion of the cities and large towns in the province. It was an age of consolidation. The old rural school district was now disappearing and larger school divisions in the towns and large villages of the province was taking place. And everywhere throughout the province, the school bus was a standard feature of town life. Cars were everywhere. Most households had cars. Some had two or three. Indeed, Edmonton in 1959, on a per capita basis, had the greatest number of automobiles per individual in North America.

But despite the prosperity, the late 1950?s did present some worries for Alberta?s public.

The fear of international communism was as great as ever before, evidenced by the fact that the Russians had put the first satellite into space: Sputnik. It scared an awful lot of people to think that the Soviet Union was technologically in advance of us. That all gave great rise to further impetus for education. And the government of Ernest Manning was now a government of education, with greater expenditures towards the University of Alberta as well as the technical college at Calgary.

Albertans watched as nuclear testing went unabated by the Russians and Americans. World War Three looked like it was just around the corner. No wonder Albertans questioned what this meant for the next generation.

This was the age of the juvenile delinquent. Rock-and-roll predominated. Pop culture amongst the younger set seemed increasingly bent on developing their own lifestyles, which were not necessarily the lifestyles that their parents would have wanted them to. Everyone was fearful of teenage gangs in the large cities at the time. So the question was in the air, where are our young people going these days?

It was against this background that Ernest Manning took his Social Credit government to the polls in June of 1959.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.

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