Альберта әлеуметтік кредит партиясы: Тарихы мен эволюциясы

Alberta Social Credit was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on social credit monetary policy put forward by Clifford Hugh Douglas and on conservative Christian social values. The Canadian social credit movement was largely an out growth of Alberta Social Credit. The Social Credit Party of Canada was strongest in Alberta, before developing a base in Quebec when Réal Caouette agreed to merge his Ralliement créditiste movement into the federal party. The British Columbia Social Credit Party formed the government for many years in neighbouring British Columbia, although this was effectively a coalition of centre right forces in the province that had no interest in social credit monetary policies. The Alberta Social Credit party won a majority government in 1935, in the first election it contested, barely months after its formation. During its first years, when led by William Aberhart, it was a radical monetary reform party, at least in theory if not in effect. After Aberhart's death in 1943 and the rise to leadership of Ernest Manning, followed quickly by the discovery of oil in north central Alberta and its accompanying wealth for many, Social Credit took on a more conservative hue. Its policies were pro business and anti union, and largely opposed to government intervention in the economy. It stayed in power until 1971, one of the longest unbroken runs in government at the provincial level in Canada. However, it held no seats after 1982, and finished a distant seventh in the 2012 and 2015 general elections, before the party's name change. In May 2017, the party changed its name to Pro Life Alberta Political Association (or Prolife Alberta, for short) following the election of anti abortion activist Jeremy Fraser as leader. The change in name reflected the change in direction from the comprehensive political platform of Social Credit with aims of forming government, to the Party's new, and sole, focus of promoting pro life public policy.

William Aberhart, a Baptist lay preacher and evangelist in Calgary, was attracted to social credit theory while Alberta (and much of the western world) was in the depths of the Great Depression. He soon began promoting it through his radio program on CFCN in Calgary, adding a heavy dose of fundamentalist Christianity to the Social Credit theories of C. H. Douglas. The basic premise of social credit is that all citizens should be paid a dividend as capital and technology replace labour in production; this was especially attractive to farmers sinking under the weight of the Depression. Many study groups devoted to the theory sprang up across the province, which united into the Social Credit League of Alberta.

From 1932 to 1935, Aberhart tried to get the governing United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) to adopt social credit. However, the 1935 UFA convention voted against adopting social credit and UFA Premier Richard Reid rejected the proposals as being outside the province's constitutional powers, so Aberhart entered Social Credit candidates in that year's provincial election. There was widespread discontent with the overly cautious behaviour of the UFA government, and in some cases, local UFA chapters openly supported Social Credit candidates. The UFA government was also reeling from a scandal that had forced Reid's predecessor, John Brownlee, to resign a year earlier. This, in particular, caused some socially conservative UFA members to transfer their allegiance to the Christian based Social Credit movement. The Social Credit Party campaigned on price controls, and social dividends of $25 a month to Albertan adults. In the 22 August 1935 election, much to its own surprise, Social Credit won a landslide victory, taking 54% of the vote and winning 56 of the 63 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The only elected opposition was five Liberals and two Conservatives. The UFA lost all of its seats in the worst defeat for a sitting provincial government in Canadian history. Alberta thus elected the first Social Credit government in the world. The Social Credit Party's success is largely attributed to the charisma of Aberhart, who brought together a broad coalition ranging from social credit supporters to moderate socialists.

Following the 1937 revolt, the government made a serious attempt to implement social credit policies. It passed several pieces of radical populist legislation, such as the issuance of prosperity certificates to Alberta residents (dubbed "funny money" by detractors) in accordance with the theories of Silvio Gesell. Douglas, the main leader of the Social Credit movement, did not like the idea of prosperity certificates, which depreciated in value the longer they were held, and openly criticized Gesell's theories. The Socreds also passed bills that would have placed the province's banks under government control. However, Lieutenant Governor John C. Bowen refused to grant Royal Assent to the bills. The Supreme Court of Canada sided with Bowen and struck down the bills because only the federal government can legislate on banking. Thwarted in its attempt to gain control of Alberta's private banks, Aberhart's government gained a foothold in the province's financial sector by creating the Alberta Treasury Branches (ATB) in 1938. ATB has become a lasting legacy of Social Credit Party policies in Alberta, operating as of 2017 as an orthodox financial institution and crown corporation. It is today the only government owned financial institution in Canada that provides commercial banking to the public. Bowen also refused Royal Assent to the government's Accurate News and Information Act, which would have forced newspapers to print government rebuttals to stories to which the Executive Council (cabinet) objected. The government's relationship with Bowen became so acrimonious that in 1938, Bowen threatened to use his reserve power to dismiss Aberhart. In the end, Bowen chose not to take this extraordinary action. Had Bowen sacked Aberhart, it would have triggered a new election, and the Socreds were so popular that they would have almost certainly been re elected. Manning moved to purge anti Semites from the party. While anti Semitism had been part of the party's Christian populist rhetoric for years, it had become far less fashionable after World War II. Several socially conservative laws remained in place for years, such as the ban on airlines serving alcohol over provincial airspace. Manning led Social Credit to seven consecutive election victories. He governed with very large majorities for virtually his entire tenure, winning well over 50 percent of the popular vote and rarely facing more than ten opposition MLAs. For most of the next two decades, Alberta was virtually a one party state. He wielded considerable influence over the party's federal counterparts as well. For example, he let it be known that his province would never accept francophone Catholic Real Caouette, leader of the party's Quebec wing, as the party's leader—even though Caouette headed the party's third strongest faction (behind the Alberta and British Columbia Socreds). This led to rumours that Caouette had defeated Robert N. Thompson for the federal party's leadership in 1961, only to have his win vetoed by Manning and the Alberta Socreds.

In 1946, Manning's government began a Red Scare, censoring "communist propaganda films" in the hopes of "eliminating communist thought from Alberta shown movies". And that socialists were trying to "enslave the ordinary people of the world, whose only real salvation lay in the issuance of Social Credit." Manning also fought against the media and education system, believing that they were full of Marxists and sympathetic to the communist cause. Stating that it is "evident, in my view, in the news media, which are very heavily slanted, as a general rule favorably slanted, to socialist philosophy. This isn't by chance, it's because communism has been smart enough to see that there are always a goodly number of men in that field who are sympathetic to the socialistic and even communistic philosophy. You even have the same thing, to varying degrees, in the field of education. It isn't by chance that you find these agitations of Marxism and so forth in many of our universities. It isn't by chance."

Clark returned to the backbench a little more than a year after the election. On 29 November 1980, former Calgary mayor Rod Sykes became the party's new leader, defeating Edmonton alderman Julian Kinisky 538–292. Again without its leader in the legislature, the party continued to sag in the polls. The beginning of the end for Social Credit came when Clark retired from politics in 1981. His seat of Olds Didsbury, a longstanding Social Credit bastion (parts of the riding had been in Social Credit hands for all but one month since 1935), was resoundingly lost to Western Canada Concept. In the process, Social Credit lost official status in the legislature. Unable to resolve the party's internal and financial problems, Sykes quit as leader in March 1982. On 31 March 1982, Social Credit parliamentary leader Raymond Speaker, the leader of the opposition in the Legislative Assembly, announced that Social Credit would sit out that year's election. In his press release, he said it would be useless for Social Credit to fight the next election since there were not enough Social Credit voters left in the province. The Social Credit Party council quickly distanced itself from Speaker's statement. There was wide speculation at the time that Speaker would cross the floor to Western Canada Concept. Unable to attract a new leader, the Social Credit membership held an emergency meeting 18 September 1982. A resolution was put forward that would have dissolved the party. This was soundly rejected by the attending delegates and a new president was elected. As soon as the writs were dropped in October, Speaker and Walt Buck left the party to become independent candidates for the legislature. The party's third MLA, Fred Mandeville announced his retirement. For the first time since 1935, the party had no incumbents. George Richardson was named acting leader. Social Credit went into the 1982 election in a precarious position. Not only was it without a full time leader or incumbents, but it had been unable to get its leader elected to the legislature at any point during the parliamentary term. The party ran only 23 candidates and garnered only 0.8 percent of the vote. It was shut out of the Legislative Assembly altogether for the first time, and has never elected another MLA. In 1986, Social Credit, Western Canada Concept and the Heritage Party of Alberta joined to form the Alberta Alliance Political Association. The Alliance fell apart when the WCC left, followed by Social Credit. The AAPA became the present day Alberta Party. Social Credit sat out the 1986 election. Most of its remaining supporters joined and ran for the Representative Party, which had been formed by Speaker after he and Buck were denied funding normally reserved to opposition parties.

Interim leadership of the party was given to Martin Hattersley, an Edmonton lawyer, and later to Harvey Yuill of Barrhead. What remained of the party ran six candidates in the 1989 election. The party was rekindled under the leadership of Robert Alford from 1990 to 1992. In 1991, Randy Thorsteinson, a Reform Party of Canada activist, was elected as party president. In 1992, Thorsteinson was elected as leader, and Robert Alford as president. Social Credit improved its performance in the 1993 election, but won no seats. In the 1997 election, the party nominated 70 candidates, and won 64,667 votes, over 7% of the popular vote. After the 1997 election, polling revealed that the Social Credit Party was poised for a break through: an estimated 150,000 Albertans would have been ready to once again support Social Credit as an alternative. This could have meant eight seats in the Legislature. However, in April 1999, Thorsteinson, a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, resigned to protest an internal party proposal to limit Mormon involvement within the party. Social Credit's fortunes quickly faded. In November 1999, James Albers was elected over Jon Dykstra and Norm Racine to lead the party in a hotly contested race. Wiebo Ludwig was disqualified. During the election of 2001, the right wing vote fractured between the newly formed Alberta First Party and Social Credit. Most right wing voters went back to supporting the Progressive Conservatives, who had experienced a resurgence in popularity. Thorsteinson founded the Alberta Alliance Party in October 2002. Lavern Ahlstrom was appointed Social Credit leader in February 2001. Under Ahlstrom's leadership, the party made moves toward re embracing elements of social credit monetary theory. The party nominated 12 candidates in the 2001 election (down from 70 in 1997) and received 5,361 votes (0.5% of the popular vote), down from 64,667. The party nominated 42 candidates for the 2004 election, and won 10,874 votes (1.2% of the popular vote, an increase of 0.7% from 2001.) It polled well in a few ridings, most notably Rocky Mountain House where Lavern Ahlstrom tied for second place. In late 2005, the party entered discussion about merging with the Alberta Party and the Alberta Alliance. Despite cooperation and successful merger talks between the party leaders, the Social Credit Party membership voted down the motion to merge at the 2006 Social Credit Convention. In the Drumheller Stettler by election on 12 June 2007, the party's candidate Larry Davidson placed third with 11.7% of the vote.

In early November 2007, Len Skowronski replaced Lavern Ahlstrom as leader of the party. The party fielded eight candidates for the 2008 general election on 3 March. The party received 0.22% of the total or 2,051 votes, a decline of 1.0% from the previous election. The best individual riding result, and the only result over 3.0 percent, was for Wilf Tricker in Rocky Mountain House, who received 6.4% of the vote, finishing fifth in a field of seven candidates, just 0.62% behind the Green candidate and well ahead of the NDP and Separation Party of Alberta candidates. It fielded three candidates in the 2012 election, and garnered 0.023% of the total vote. Its six nominated candidates won 832 votes in the 2015 election, 0.056% of the total vote—an increase of 0.033% over its 2012 result.

In 2016, pro life activist Jeremy Fraser won the Social Credit Party's leadership. Bearing no resemblance to its predecessor, the Party changed its registered name with Elections Alberta to the Pro Life Alberta Political Association (or Prolife Alberta, for short). The change in name reflected the change in direction from the comprehensive political platform of Social Credit, to the singular focus of promoting pro life public policy. Whereas Alberta Social Credit had aims of forming government, Prolife Alberta is a single issue political association solely focused on promoting right to life issues, and anti abortion efforts, in the province of Alberta. Prolife Alberta advertises itself as " a group of women and men committed to promoting pro life public policy in Alberta, through politics."

Election Leader Candidates Votes % Seats +/– Position Government1935William Aberhart63 / 63163,70054.25% 56 1st194056 / 57132,50742.90% 20 1st1944Ernest Manning57 / 57146,36751.88% 15 1st194857 / 57164,00355.63% 1st195261 / 61167,78956.24% 1 1st195561 / 61175,55346.42% 15 1st195964 / 65230,28355.69% 24 1st196363 / 63221,10754.81% 1 1st196765 / 65222,27044.60% 5 1st1971Harry Strom75 / 75262,95341.10% 30 2nd1975Werner Schmidt70 / 75107,21118.17% 21 2nd1979Robert Curtis Clark 79 / 79141,28419.87% 2nd1982George Richardson23 / 797,8430.83% 4 6th1986 did not contest the 1986 general election (see Representative Party)1989Harvey Yuill6 / 833,9390.47% 4th1993Randy Thorsteinson39 / 8323,8852.41% 4th199770 / 8364,6676.84% 4th2001James Albers12 / 835,3610.53% 6th2004Lavern Ahlstrom42 / 8310,8741.22% 6th2008Len Skowronski8 / 832,0510.22% 6th20123 / 872940.02% 7th20156 / 878320.06% 8th2016 Changed its name to Pro Life Alberta Political Association 2019Jeremy Fraser1 / 87600.00% 122023Murray Ruhl1 / 87900.01% 15