As the election approached in May of 1967, Alberta revelled in its continued economic growth. Sun Oil was engaged in the first mega-project to extract oil from the tar sands. Coal made a comeback, with the Smoky River Collieries at Grande Cache. And a third university, this one in Lethbridge, was about to open its doors. Indeed, Alberta had prospered under the Social Credit government of Ernest Manning. But as historian David Leonard explains, it was exactly this affluence that drew criticism from a new block of voters:

Baby-boomers were now voting for the first time. At universities and elsewhere, people were now questioning the policies and the attitudes of what was loosely referred to as the establishment. Hippies were now appearing along the highways and along city streets. On the minds of people were issues like Vietnam. And at universities, now referred to as multiversities because they were expanding so rapidly, teach-ins were now replacing debating societies. And there was a feeling that change was in the air; that this was the Age of Aquarius, where change is going to come about.

1967 was marked by an atmosphere of change, apprehension and radicalism. Not even Premier Manning, who?d led the Social Credit government since 1944, was immune to the winds of change.

There was a massive teach-in at the University of Alberta in the fall of 1966, just before the election, where Ernest Manning was soundly heckled, and he was questioned very strongly over the tactics of certain of his ministers who had urged that several left-wing professors at the University of Alberta be thrown out of the province for their alleged communist views. Ernest Manning simply took the tactic that, well, I believe in freedom of speech, and if certain of my cabinet ministers choose to exercise their freedom of speech, that?s the same privilege I?d like to extend to all the university professors as well. So when he left that teach-in, it was to a great round of applause. But the feeling was still in the air that there must be change, that we need a new direction in this government.

While Premier Manning survived that challenge to his power, the public?s youth-oriented desire for change was strong. And it manifested itself in a young lawyer from Calgary, Peter Lougheed.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.