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Alberta Elections: 1963 Land of Prosperity, Expansion, Oil Royalties and Education

Between the elections of 1959 and 1963, it seemed as if people simply got on with the business of making Alberta an ever more pleasant and prosperous place to live. The Social Credit Party was well into its third decade in power. And as historian David Leonard points out, Albertans had to look elsewhere for problems:

Well in 1963, there weren?t many overall provincial issues. The thing on everybody?s minds was the Cold War. The Cuban Missile Crisis was only a year old at that time, and there were these massive experiments in nuclear testing, these multi-megaton bombs going off everywhere. Pollution was starting to occupy people?s minds and inflation to a small extent, but mostly, things that could be handled at the provincial level were pretty well in order. The economy was good in rural Alberta, the farm prices were high, and the yields were good. But this was now being supplemented in the provincial coffers by the number of gas wells that were built across the province.

A new pipeline transported natural gas to California. Petrochemical plants dotted the countryside. And a newfound interest in science and technology boosted government support for advanced education.

A great emphasis was given to education now. The University of Alberta was expanding at an incredible rate. It reached a population level of 12 000 in 1963. And in Calgary, the University of Alberta Calgary Campus was now open, and it handled three to four thousand students. So the theme was education, it was science, it was advancement. At the University of Alberta, a new education and engineering building were opened, and the Cameron Library, devoted mainly to the sciences, was now open and available.

The oil sands were about to develop. The province gave great incentive to Sun Oil to start developing the tar sands around Fort McMurray. The Alberta Research Council too was brought into play in this regard with experimentations. And all over the province, the feeling was that we are in an age of progress. Science is beginning to lead us to a new utopia.

This mood of expansion and progress was reflected in the election of 1963. On June 17th, Ernest Manning?s Social Credit Party once again swept the polls.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.

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