The election of May 17, 1967 saw two new blocks of voters going to the polls. It was the first time people of the post-war baby boom would cast ballots. It was also the first time Treaty Indians voted in a provincial election. Despite the air of radicalism that challenged the established order of the day, Ernest Manning and his Social Credit Party once again formed the government.

The election showed that the Social Creditors were still very much in charge. They took fifty-five of sixty-five ridings, and the opposition, oddly enough, did not come from the left, but rather with a new, energetic Progressive Conservative Party sharing politically the same philosophy as the Social Credit Party. But there were six of them now in the Legislature now providing an opposition to Premier Manning and the Social Credit Party. And feeling that we are more young, more youthful, we?re more capable than you are, that Social Credit was somehow old-fashioned.

Alberta?s population was becoming urbanized, sophisticated and professional. Over eighty percent of the population now lived in urban centres. Of the six opposition seats won by Peter Lougheed?s team, all but one of those ridings were urban.

People like Bill Dicky and Lou Hyndman from Edmonton supported Peter Lougheed with a sense of professionalism. Many of these people were lawyers; they knew how to undertake things; they were connected to big industry, most of them, Mr. Lougheed, with his connections to the Mannix Corporation and other industries. It seemed to be that these were people in the know. Social Credit had always been very strongly rural based. And in Edmonton and Calgary particularly, there was growing urbanization in the province. Only nineteen percent of the people now lived on farms. So even though their political views were not theoretically different from the Social Credit Party, the feeling was that we need to get change, to be more professional in the way we handle things.

The feeling that the Social Credit Party was somehow old-fashioned dogged the government in the years following the 1967 election. Sensing the mood of change, Ernest Manning didn?t wait until the next election. He resigned in 1968, ending his twenty-four year career as Premier of Alberta.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.