1955 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Alberta?s provincehood. It also marked the end of Ernest Manning?s decade-long honeymoon with the Alberta Electorate. As historian David Leonard explains, it began with allegations of abuse of public trust on the part of some of his cabinet ministers:

In 1955, however, we saw some apprehension in the editorial columns of the province?s newspapers as well as the Liberal Party, led by J. Harper Prouse, that perhaps some of the ministers in the cabinet of Ernest Manning were not all that above board. Some had received some pretty lucrative grants from the province?s Treasury Branches. An inquiry was called by Ernest Manning, and they were cleared of any wrongdoing. But there was still that apprehension there.

After the inquiry, Ernest Manning took the swiftest action he could to clear the air for the Social Credit Party.

The 1955 election was held on the twenty-ninth of June. And this was a snap election. It was the shortest period between elections in Alberta?s history. And it was called by Ernest Manning to try to divert public debate on allegations of corruption by certain of his ministers taking lucrative loans from the province?s Treasury Branches. Ernest Manning hotly denied this, called an election for the twenty-ninth of June, which was before the fall sitting when this would have received public debate.

While Manning?s Social Credit Party managed to win the election, it suffered some unfamiliar setbacks at the polls.

And in the election of 29 June 1955, we find that the Liberals surged with thirty-one percent of the vote in fifteen ridings. The Social Creditors fell back somewhat, taking forty-five seats. This would seem to be an overwhelming majority, but for Alberta at this time, this was something of a setback for the Social Creditors at the time. In fact, it was the lowest majority that Albertans had seen since 1921.

And in the aftermath of the election, Ernest Manning would see a number of these older cabinet ministers removed and replaced by younger, more clean-cut ministers to give them a feeling of youth and vigour that hadn?t existed prior to the 1955 election.

And so Ernest Manning put the test of 1955 behind him.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.