The election of 1952 was called for August 5th. The Social Credit Party had now been in power for seventeen years. Royalties from an ever-expanding oil industry filled the provincial treasury. This helped the Social Credit government fund a higher level of health and social services. It even put more money into pensions and community nursing than the CCF government in neighbouring Saskatchewan. And with the creation of the Department of Highways in 1951, the Alberta government signalled its commitment to building good roads throughout the province. As historian David Leonard points out, it was obvious Manning?s Social Credit Party had few worries heading into the 1952 election:

Alberta was a very, very prosperous province in1952. And the people rewarded the government of Ernest Manning with their reward of fifty-six percent of the popular vote, which gave the government fifty-three of sixty ridings. They were very happy for the solid, non-ideological administration, which the government was providing, as well as the straightforward prosperity of the time.

Indeed, the problems that did concern Albertans were perceived as beyond the control of Manning?s government. These included the Korean War, the threat of nuclear holocaust and fear over the spread of communism. Closer to home, a polio epidemic in 1952 touched everyone?s lives, and travelling clinics for polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria and smallpox soon became a common feature of everyday life. There was little opposition to Manning?s Social Credit government.

The main opposition party was the Liberals, led by J. Harper Prouse, and they garnered two seats in the provincial election of 1952. The Commonwealth Cooperative Federation, which was the government in Saskatchewan at this time, it was virtually wiped out in the election of 1952. Anything that hinted of socialism or communism was considered bad in Alberta, as indeed in all of North America. This was the age of McCarthyism in the United States, and it had its reverberations up in Canada and in Alberta as well.

But contentment gave way to complacency. And by the time the next election came in 1955, scandal had raised its ugly head within Manning?s cabinet.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.