1948 Alberta general election

← 1944 August 17, 1948 (1948-08-17) 1952 →
← outgoing members members →
57 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 29 seats were needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   LIB Leader Ernest Manning Elmer E. Roper James H. Prowse Party Social Credit Co-operative Commonwealth Liberal Leader since May 31, 1943 1942 June 26, 1947 Leader's seat Edmonton Edmonton Edmonton Last election 51 seats, 50.5% 2 seats, 24.2% did not run Seats before 50 2 1 Seats won 51 2 2 Seat change 1 ±0 1 Popular vote 164,003 56,387 52,655 Percentage 55.6% 19.1% 17.9% Swing 5.1% 5.1% —
Premier before election Ernest Manning Social Credit Premier after election Ernest Manning Social Credit

The 1948 Alberta general election was held on August 17, 1948, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Ernest C. Manning led the Social Credit to a fourth term in government, increasing its share of the popular vote further above the 50% mark it had set in the 1944 election. It won the same number of seats — 51 of the 57 seats in the legislature — that it had won in the previous election.

The remaining seats were won by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the Liberal Party and independents.

This provincial election, like the previous five, saw district-level proportional representation (Single transferable voting) used to elect the MLAs of Edmonton and Calgary. City-wide districts were used to elect multiple MLAs in the cities. All the other MLAs were elected in single-member districts through Instant-runoff voting.

Along with this election, voters got to also vote in a province wide plebiscite. The ballot asked voters about utility regulation.

Elections to the 11th Alberta Legislative Assembly (1948)

Party		Leader	Candidates	First-preference votes						Seats
				Votes	±	% Fpv	Change (pp)			1944	1948	±
	Social Credit	Ernest C. Manning	57	164,003	17,636	55.63	5.17		5.17	51	51 / 57
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Elmer Roper	51	56,387	13,920	19.13	-5.11			2	2 / 57
	Liberal	James H. Prowse	49	52,655	52,655	17.86	17.86		17.86	–	2 / 57	2
	Independent Citizen's Association[a 1]	John P. Page	9	12,983	34,256	4.40	-11.88			3	1 / 57	2
	Independent Social Credit		3	2,958	2,958	1.00	1.00		1	–	1 / 57	1
	Veteran's & Active Force		Did not campaign				-1.22			1	0 / 57	1
	Labour		1	3,579	3,579	1.21	1.21		1.21
	Labor–Progressive	Ben Swankey	2	1,372	10,631	0.47	-3.67
	United Labour		1	856	932	0.30	-0.32
Total			173	294,793		100.00%
Rejected ballots				17,707	9,625
Turnout				312,500	14,327	63.5%	7.2
Registered voters				489,311	67,810

The fourth plebiscite conducted province-wide in Alberta's history, the 1948 electrification referendum was not a traditional yes–no question but presented two options on electricity generation and transmission. It asked the voter to indicate whether the province should create "a publicly-owned utility administered by the Alberta Government Power Commission"^[1] or leave the electricity industry in the hands of companies already in the business, a mixture of municipal operations and private companies. The driving force behind the referendum was whether to provide rural electrification through provincial government ownership or leave it in the hands of private corporations, who had done very little up to that time and did not have the financial resources to perform the task.^[2] The referendum result was a slight majority in favour of retention of the existing companies. Despite that, the government sponsored the creation of many Rural Electrification Associations, some of which still are in operation today.^[3][4]

The result shows how evenly divided the province was on the issue, with a majority of only 151 votes in favour of leaving the old system in place. In fact, voters in Edmonton were effectively split and the rural areas were in favour of provincial control, but an even larger majority in Calgary voted to retain the old system.^[5]

  = Open seat

  = turnout is above provincial average

  = Candidate was in previous Legislature

  = Incumbent had switched allegiance

  = Previously incumbent in another riding

  = Not incumbent; was previously elected to the Legislature

  = Incumbency arose from by-election gain

  = previously an MP in the House of Commons of Canada

  = Multiple candidates

  = Candidate was in previous Legislature

  = First-time MLA

Ten districts went beyond first-preference counts in order to determine winning candidates:

All parties other than the Independent Movement fielded full slates.

Party		Candidates			MLAs elected
		1944	1940	±	1944	1940	±
	Social Credit	5	5		2	2
	Co-operative Commonwealth	5	5		1	1
	Liberal	5	–	5	1	–	1
	Independent Citizen's Association	3	4	1	1	2	1
	Labor–Progressive	1	5	4	–	–	–
	Labour	1	–	1	–	–	–
	Independent Social Credit	2	–	2	–	–	–
Total		22	19	3	5	5

Three parties had full slates. The Independent Movement presented four candidates, and Williams campaigned under his own banner.

Party		Candidates			MLAs elected
		1944	1940	±	1944	1940	±
	Social Credit	5	5		3	2	1
	Co-operative Commonwealth	5	5		1	1
	Liberal	5	–	5	1	–	1
	Independent Citizen's Association	1	4	3	–	1	1
	Veteran's & Active Force	–	1	1	–	1	1
	Labor–Progressive	–	5	5	–	–	–
Total		16	20	4	5	5

• 1957 Liquor Plebiscite
• 1967 Daylight Saving Plebiscite
• 1971 Daylight Saving Plebiscite
• List of Alberta political parties