1959 Alberta general election

The 1959 Alberta general election was held on June 18, 1959, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

1959 Alberta general election
June 18, 1959 (1959-06-18)
65 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
33 seats were needed for a majority
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Ernest Manning Cam Kirby
Party Social Credit Progressive Conservative
Leader since May 31, 1943 1958
Leader's seat Strathcona East Red Deer (lost re-election)
Last election 37 seats, 46.4% 3 seats, 9.2%
Seats before 37 3
Seats won 61 1
Seat change 24 2
Popular vote 230,283 98,730
Percentage 55.7% 23.9%
Swing 9.3% 14.7%
  Third party Fourth party
 
CCF
Leader Grant MacEwan Floyd Albin Johnson
Party Liberal Co-operative Commonwealth
Leader since November 1, 1958 1957
Leader's seat Calgary-North (lost re-election) ran in Denvegan (lost)
Last election 15 seats, 31.1% 2 seats, 8.2%
Seats before 15 2
Seats won 1 0
Seat change 14 2
Popular vote 57,408 17,899
Percentage 13.9% 4.3%
Swing 17.2% 3.9%
Premier before election

Ernest Manning
Social Credit

 Premier after election

Ernest Manning
Social Credit

Ernest C. Manning, in his fifth election as party leader and provincial premier, led the Social Credit Party to its seventh consecutive term in government, with 55% of the popular vote, and all but four of the sixty five seats in the legislature.

Social Credit was also helped by a split in the opposition vote: whereas in the 1955 election, opponents were largely united behind the Liberal Party, in this election the vote was divided between the Liberals and the resurgent Progressive Conservative Party under the leadership of Cam Kirby, won almost 15% of the popular vote, placing ahead of the Liberals whose leader, Grant MacEwan lost his Calgary seat. The Tories and Liberals each won only one seat in the legislature while the Alberta CCF was shut out of the legislature for the first time in seventeen years. The other two opposition seat were taken by a Coalition candidate in Banff and an Independent Social Credit-er, both with strong local support.

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