Taber (provincial electoral district)

Taber was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1913 to 1963.[1]

Taber

Alberta electoral district
Defunct provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Alberta
District created	1913
District abolished	1963
First contested	1913
Last contested	1959

History

The Taber electoral district was formed prior to the 1913 Alberta general election from the south-eastern portion of the Lethbridge District.

The Taber electoral district would be abolished prior to the 1963 Alberta general election, and the territory would be split between the Taber-Warner and Little Bow electoral districts.

Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs)

Members of the Legislative Assembly for Taber
Assembly	Years	Member		Party
See Lethbridge District from 1909-1913
3rd	1913–1917		Archibald J. McLean	Liberal
4th	1917–1921
5th	1921–1926		Lawrence Peterson	United Farmers
6th	1926–1930
7th	1930–1935		James Hanson	Social Credit
8th	1935–1940		Roy S. Lee
9th	1940–1944
10th	1944–1948
11th	1948–1952
12th	1952–1955
13th	1955–1959
14th	1959–1963
See Taber-Warner electoral district from 1963-1997 and Little Bow electoral district from 1963-2019

Election results

1913 general election

1913 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Archibald J. McLean	1,231	68.16%	–
	Conservative	William Carlos Ives	341	18.88%	–
	Socialist	Thomas E. Smith	234	12.96%	–
Total			1,806	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			N/A	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			3,341	54.06%	–
	Liberal pickup new district.
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1913 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1917 general election

1917 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Archibald J. McLean	1,804	63.75%	-4.42%
	Conservative	Thomas O. King	1,026	36.25%	17.37%
Total			2,830	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			N/A	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			4,965	57.00%	2.94%
	Liberal hold		Swing		-10.89%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1917 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1921 general election

1921 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United Farmers	Lawrence Peterson	2,309	53.70%	–
	Liberal	Archibald J. McLean	1,991	46.30%	-17.44%
Total			4,300	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			N/A	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			5,638	76.27%	19.27%
	United Farmers gain from Liberal		Swing		-10.05%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1921 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1926 general election

1926 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United Farmers	Lawrence Peterson	1,929	60.49%	6.79%
	Liberal	J. J. Horrigan	709	22.23%	-24.07%
	Conservative	J. H. Prowse	551	17.28%	–
Total			3,189	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			173	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			5,138	65.43%	-10.83%
	United Farmers hold		Swing		15.43%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1926 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1930 general election

1930 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United Farmers	John J. MacLellan	1,848	54.93%	-5.55%
	Independent	J. E. Evanson	1,516	45.07%	–
Total			3,364	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			122	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			4,829	72.19%	6.75%
	United Farmers hold		Swing		-14.19%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1930 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1935 general election

1935 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	James Hanson	2,879	67.30%	–
	United Farmers	John J. MacLellan	757	17.70%	-37.24%
	Liberal	B. L. Cooke	642	15.01%	–
Total			4,278	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			176	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			5,589	79.69%	7.50%
	Social Credit gain from United Farmers		Swing		19.87%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1935 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1940 general election

1940 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes 1st count	%	Votes final count	±%
	Social Credit	Roy S. Lee	1,879	48.96%	1,998	-18.34%
	Independent	J. L. Nelson	1,383	36.03%	1,618	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	W. W. Scott	576	15.01%	–	–
Total			3,838	–	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			204	–	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			5,050	80.04%	0.35%	–
	Social Credit hold		Swing		-18.34%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1940 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Instant-runoff voting requires a candidate to receive a plurality (greater than 50%) of the votes. As no candidate received a plurality of votes, the bottom candidate was eliminated and their 2nd place votes were applied to both other candidates until one received a plurality.

1944 general election

1944 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Roy S. Lee	2,490	69.51%	20.56%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Leo Hinds	679	18.96%	3.95%
	Liberal	E. N. Davidson	413	11.53%	–
Total			3,582	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			130	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			5,028	73.83%	-6.21%
	Social Credit hold		Swing		18.82%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1944 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1948 general election

1948 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Roy S. Lee	2,559	72.64%	3.12%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Guy F. Harris	501	14.22%	-4.74%
	Liberal	Richard L. Higgins	463	13.14%	1.61%
Total			3,523	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			442	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			6,333	62.61%	-11.22%
	Social Credit hold		Swing		3.93%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1948 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1952 general election

1952 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Roy S. Lee	2,809	79.67%	7.03%
	Liberal	Harold Wood	717	20.33%	7.19%
Total			3,526	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			279	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			6,566	57.95%	-4.66%
	Social Credit hold		Swing		0.46%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1952 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1955 general election

1955 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Roy S. Lee	2,788	61.02%	-18.65%
	Liberal	Fred M. Pritchard	1,186	25.96%	5.62%
	Independent Social Credit	Ben Platt	595	13.02%	–
Total			4,569	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			238	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			7,070	67.99%	10.04%
	Social Credit hold		Swing		-12.13%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1955 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1959 general election

1959 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Roy S. Lee	3,678	78.01%	16.99%
	Progressive Conservative	Leslie P. Cluff	1,037	21.99%	–
Total			4,715	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			22	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			7,518	63.01%	-4.98%
	Social Credit hold		Swing		10.48%
Source(s) Source: "Taber Official Results 1959 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

Plebiscite results

1957 liquor plebiscite

1957 Alberta liquor plebiscite results: Taber[2]
Question A: Do you approve additional types of outlets for the sale of beer, wine and spirituous liquor subject to a local vote?
Ballot choice		Votes	%
	No	1,923	67.14%
	Yes	941	32.86%
Total votes		2,864	100%
Rejected, spoiled and declined		35
6,627 eligible electors, turnout 43.75%

On October 30, 1957 a stand alone plebiscite was held province wide in all 50 of the then current provincial electoral districts in Alberta. The government decided to consult Alberta voters to decide on liquor sales and mixed drinking after a divisive debate in the legislature. The plebiscite was intended to deal with the growing demand for reforming antiquated liquor control laws.[3]

The plebiscite was conducted in two parts. Question A, asked in all districts, asked the voters if the sale of liquor should be expanded in Alberta, while Question B, asked in a handful of districts within the corporate limits of Calgary and Edmonton, asked if men and women should be allowed to drink together in establishments.[2]

Province wide Question A of the plebiscite passed in 33 of the 50 districts while Question B passed in all five districts. Taber strongly voted against the proposal. The voter turnout in the district was light, and fell below the province wide average of 46%.[2]

Official district returns were released to the public on December 31, 1957.[2] The Social Credit government in power at the time did not consider the results binding.[4] However the results of the vote led the government to repeal all existing liquor legislation and introduce an entirely new Liquor Act.[5]

Municipal districts lying inside electoral districts that voted against the plebiscite such as Taber were designated Local Option Zones by the Alberta Liquor Control Board and considered effective dry zones. Business owners who wanted a license had to petition for a binding municipal plebiscite in order to be granted a license.[6]

See also

• Alberta provincial electoral districts
• Taber, a town in southern Alberta

References

1. "Election results for Taber". abheritage.ca. Wayback Machine: Heritage Community Foundation. Archived from the original on December 8, 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
2. Alberta Gazette. 53 (December 31 ed.). Government of Alberta. 1957. pp. 2, 247–2, 249.
3. "Albertans Vote 2 to 1 For More Liquor Outlets". Vol L No 273. The Lethbridge Herald. October 31, 1957. pp. 1–2.
4. "No Sudden Change In Alberta Drinking Habits Is Seen". Vol L No 267. The Lethbridge Herald. October 24, 1957. p. 1.
5. "Entirely New Act On Liquor". Vol LI No 72. The Lethbridge Herald. March 5, 1968. p. 1.
6. "Bill 81". Alberta Bills 12th Legislature 1st Session. Government of Alberta. 1958. p. 40.

Further reading

• Office of the Chief Electoral Officer; Legislative Assembly Office (2006). A Century of Democracy: Elections of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 1905-2005. The Centennial Series. Edmonton, AB: Legislative Assembly of Alberta. ISBN 0-9689217-8-7. Retrieved 25 May 2020.

External links

• Elections Alberta
• The Legislative Assembly of Alberta