The summer of 1971 was marred by rising inflation and an illegal strike by the Alberta Liquor Control Workers. Premier Harry Strom could not project the image of a strong, decisive leader like his predecessor Ernest Manning. Still, as historian David Leonard points out, Alberta was generally in good shape:

Well, economically, Alberta was a very stable province. The agriculture industry was still the predominant one. The last decade had, however, seen great changes in rural Alberta. The small family farm was giving way to large farming operations. Mechanization had helped that. The growing market in China and the Soviet Union for western Canadian wheat was bringing quite a number of benefits to the farmers of rural Alberta. The gas and oil industry continued to grow at a fairly steady rate, not to the extent it would be by the end of the decade. The province was prosperous. We had no sales tax. The debt was nonexistent. The feeling was that the government was probably stable, but it?s becoming old-fashioned. It?s out of date.

And while Peter Lougheed?s opposition had never been overly critical of the government, they did emphasize in their campaign that now was the time for change.

In the election of 1971, the Progressive Conservative Party of Peter Lougheed unseated the Social Credits under Harry Strom, winning forty-nine of the seats to twenty-five for the Socreds, and getting forty-six percent of the population. So we have two basic right-wing parties vying for the vote in ?71. The only left-wing member as a result of the 1971 election was Grant Notley from the riding of Spirit River Fairview, where a very heavy Ukrainian population that had arrived in the late twenties were socialistic in their approach to things. And that, far more than urbanization or a feeling in favour of labour, was what won that riding for Grant Notley. Aside from that, the mood of Albertans was decidedly conservative, but progressively conservative.

1971 marked the end of the Social Credit dynasty in Alberta. Since 1935, the party had taken the province from the depths of the Great Depression to prosperity and the brink of the oil boom of the 1970?s.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.