The Alberta general election of 1940 was the ninth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada, was held on March 21, 1940 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.
Despite its failure to implement its key policy, providing prosperity certificates to all Albertans, the Social Credit Party of Premier William Aberhart won a second term in government. Social Credit did despite lose a significant share of the popular vote.
The Conservative and Liberal parties, recognizing the wide-spread popularity of the Social Credit party, ran joint candidates as independents in what was called the "Independent Movement" or the "Unity Movement". Although indepdent candidates won almost as many votes as Social Credit, the strategy was unsuccessful in preventing Social Credit from winning a majority of the seats in the legislature.
The social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation nominated cnadidates for the first time, but failed to win any seats in the legislature, despite wining over 10% of the popular vote.
Results
| Party
| Party Leader
| # of candidates
| Seats
| Popular Vote
|
| 1935
| Elected
| % Change
| #
| %
| % Change
| Social Credit
| | 56
| 56
| 36
| -35.7%
| 132,507
| 42.90%
| -11.35%
| Independent
| 59
| -
| 19
|
| 131,172
| 42.47%
| +41.57%
| Labour
|
| 2
| -
| 1
|
| 3,258
| 1.05%
| -0.63%
| Liberal
|
| 2
| 5
| 1
| -80.0%
| 2,755
| 0.89%
| -22.25%
| Cooperative Commonwealth
|
| 36
|
| -
|
| 34,316
| 11.11%
|
|
|
| Independent Progressive
| 4
|
| -
|
| 1,726
| 0.56%
|
|
|
| Independent Liberal
| 1
| -
| -
|
| 1,136
| 0.37%
| 0.06%
| Communist
|
| 1
| -
| -
| -
| 1,067
| 0.35%
| -1.56%
|
|
| Independent Social Credit
| 1
|
| -
|
| 362
| 0.12%
|
|
|
| Independent Farmer
| 2
|
| -
|
| 314
| 0.10%
|
|
|
| Independent Labour
| 1
| -
| -
| -
| 251
| 0.08%
| +0.01%
|
| Total
| 165
| 63
| 57
| -9.5%
| 308,864 1
| 100%
|
|
| Source: Elections Alberta
|
Notes:
1 First vote count used.
See also