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Wiseman, Nelson, "THE AMERICAN IMPRINT ON ALBERTA POLITICS" (2011). Great Plains Quarterly. 2657. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2657

This Article is brought to for free and access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. THE AMERICAN IMPRINT ON ALBERTA POLITICS

NELSON WISEMAN

Characteristics assigned to America's clas­ the liberal society in Tocqueville's sical liberal ideology-rugged individualism, in America: high status was accorded the self­ market , in the sense made man, laissez-faire defined the economic of equality of opportunity, and fierce hostility , and a multiplicity of religious sects com­ toward centralized and ­ peted in the market for salvation.l Secondary are particularly appropriate for fathoming sources hint at this thesis in their reading of Alberta's political culture. In this article, I the papers of organizations such as the United contend that Alberta's early American settlers Farmers of Alberta (UFA) and Alberta's were pivotal in shaping Alberta's political cul­ Social Party.2 This article teases out its ture and that Albertans have demonstrated a hypothesis from such secondary sources and particular affinity for American political ideas covers new ground in linking the influence and movements. Alberta came to resemble of to Alberta's exceptionalism in politics, the where federal and provincial conservative parties have been strongest and where resistance to federal intru­ Key words: political culture, ideology, , sions has been the vigorous in English , religion . Alberta has been Canada's "maverick" province, more receptive to (or Born in Bucharest, Nelson Wiseman is an associate what many term neoconservatism) than the professor in the Department of Political Science at the Canadian norm. where he specializes in Canadian government and politics. Choice designated his book, In Search of Canadian Political Culture, as an THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: IDEOLOGICAL Outstanding Academic Title in 2009. He has appeared FRAGMENTATION AND FORMATIVE EVENTS as an invited witness at of the Canadian House of Commons and . In 's scheme, the ideological path of a new society is determined at the point [GPQ 31 ( 2011): 39-53] of its departure from the society.3 From

39 40 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2011

this perspective, the new society reflects only In Alberta, has been hegemonic, one slice of the older society's total ideological its cultural face more American than British. spectrum. America's liberal Puritan found­ and socialist touches have been more ers, for example, split off from the totality of marginal in Alberta's political culture than in Britain's broader ideological spectrum, escaped English Canadian political culture as a whole. its Old toryism and its later socialism. Evidence on the federal partisan in the The dialectical dance between clas­ 1990s was the undoing of the older federal sical and upstart revolutionary Progressive Conservative Party, identified by liberalism eventually produced socialist visions its tory touches, by the Alberta-based neo­ in that were not replicated in the United liberal Reform Party. At the provincial level, States because its founding and reigning ideol­ Alberta is notable as the only province west ogy, liberalism, congealed at America's point of where the social democratic NDP of departure from Europe. Lockean liberalism () has not formed a gov­ became a national cult-the civil religion-of ernment. the United States. In this ken, the collectivism To be sure, Alberta has not been wholly of both toryism and socialism contrasts liberal­ bereft of tory and socialist tinges in its political ism's primacy of place for the individual and culture. As with the rest of English Canada, market competition. English Canada's found­ Alberta represents an ideologically impure ers, the Loyalists, were essentially American liberal fragment. Toryism and socialism in liberals but were infected with a "tory touch," small measure have inevitably leaked into the and embedded in their toryism was the seed for provincial political culture through Alberta's socialism to emerge in Canada later.4 early connection with British institutions This article applies Hartz's theory of ideo­ and its continuing cultural ties to the rest of logical fragmentation at the provincial level, Canada. Toryism in Alberta, however, has to Alberta. It makes no connection, however, been much weaker than in eastern between toryism and socialism in Alberta Canada, and its socialism has been less robust except insofar as the toryism of the larger than elsewhere in .6 The first English Canadian political culture inevitably prime minister based in Alberta, R. B. Bennett, influenced Alberta. Highlighted are Alberta's had something tory and un-American in his Americans as founding settlers and their influ­ outlook. He became prime minister, however, ential ideas. The argument here also draws despite Alberta; his Conservatives captured on Seymour Upset's idea that a formative only a third of the province's votes and only event shapes a new society's political culture four of its sixteen in the 1930 election and applies the idea at the provincial level. in which half the national electorate voted For Upset, the formative event for both the Conservative and anti-Americanism was an United States and Canada was the American issue. Loyalist toryism had little purchase as it led directly to the creation of in Alberta. Nevertheless, viewed from an (now ) by America's out­ American perspective and in comparison to cast .5 The Revolution had no relevance, states south of it such as , , and however, to Alberta's settlement, which came Utah, the provincial political culture evinces more than a century later. The contention here some nonliberal elements. is that Alberta's political culture congealed Connections to the rest of Canada have in conjunction with the province's formative meant that socialism has also had some pres­ event at the turn of the twentieth century­ ence in Alberta politics. Socialism did not the disappearance of good, cheap agricultural completely fade out in Alberta as it did in the land in the United States and the emergence United States, where it appeared as a largely of Alberta and western as foreign blip at the turn of the twentieth cen­ America's "." tury and soon vanished. British, particularly THE AMERICAN IMPRINT ON ALBERTA POLITICS 41

Scottish, socialists helped turn into grants were generally urban born and bred and an early hotbed for labor radicalism; the more inclined to support labor-socialist causes served as the birthplace of both the syndical­ as they had in Britain. They headed to politi­ ist and the NDP's predecessor, cally underrepresented such as Calgary, the Commonwealth and this lessened their influence in shaping (CCF). Like toryism, however, the socialist provincial politics. touch in Alberta's political culture has always in the 1880s, according to W. L. been relatively weak, and socialist fortunes in Morton, represented "the triumph of Ontario the province pale in comparison to those in the democracy," and the 1890s made it "a British neighboring . and Canadian province" as more Britons Some surveys of popular values indicate that arrived.lO Parallel descriptions of Alberta in the Albertans' attitudes on many issues are similar twentieth century's first and second decades to those of other English , but many could be "the triumph of populist democracy" other surveys point to Alberta as an outlier. and "an American and Canadian province." Certainly, the political behavior of Albertans Unlike Manitoba and Saskatchewan where and their governments has been notably dis­ Ontarian settlers were first on the scene after similar in a comparative provincial context. , the various national groups They have often adopted more extreme pos­ constituting Alberta's pioneers arrived almost tures and positions at odds with most simultaneously. Unlike English Canadian provinces-on provincial rights, language political culture as a whole, which developed rights, , , gun con­ over much time and from a variety of sources, trol, capital punishment, same-sex , Alberta's particular political culture congealed and the environment.7 Many of these positions in its formative and coincided with the have been more in harmony with neoliberal American influx. preferences common in the United States. American homesteaders and their political ideas enjoyed high status in these foundational ALBERTA'S CHARTER AMERICANS years, and Canadian specifically sought out Americans for Alberta because of In the first decade of the twentieth century, their expertise in ranching and dry farming when Canada's population grew by 34 percent, techniques. Americans constituted a charter Alberta's population grew by a phenomenal immigrant group in Alberta, and while other 413 percent. The province expanded from 1 groups-Ontarians, Britons, and continental to 5 percent of the national population and in Europeans-contributed to molding provincial several of those years, Americans outnumbered politics, Americans and their ideas proved British emigrants to Canada and to Alberta exceptionally influential. Most of Alberta's in particular.s Alberta in 1911 was the only Americans were of British ethnic origins, which province in which the Canadian-born were reinforced their standing as preferred immi­ a minority. Trains from Minnesota brought grants. European Americans had lower social hundreds of settlers nightly to Regina and from status than the ethnically , there they connected to the Canadian Pacific but both groups enjoyed higher status than the Rail line to Alberta. Some American capital­ continental Europeans who arrived directly ists came to buy land; others came as horse from the Old World. Saskatchewan, which had thieves, rustlers, and whiskey smugglers? the country's greatest concentration of conti­ They hailed largely from the rural Midwest and nental Europeans, also had fewer Americans, Great Plains states and settled overwhelmingly and fewer immigrants in Saskatchewan had in southern rural Alberta. This , over­ English as a mother tongue than in Alberta}! represented in the , drove provincial were also quite unlike the politics. In contrast, Canada's British immi- British-born labor-socialists who gravitated 42 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2011

FIG. 1. The resemblance of the red, white, and municipal (reproduced in grayscale) to the similarly colored Stars and Stripes symbolizes the American imprint on that city. to Calgary and Alberta's mining camps. The constituted 22 percent of Albertans, and contrast between the industrial orientation of Americans comprised 30 percent of Alberta's the Britons and the agrarian orientation of the immigrants between 1900 and 1920. This led Americans was evident among coal miners: an Alberta MP to declare in Parliament that only 1 percent of them in the region adjacent his province "might be regarded as a typical to the u.s. were Americans while 34 American state.,,16 The red, white, and blue percent were British.12 municipal flag of Lethbridge palpably sym­ The largest group of those of "British" ethnic bolizes the American imprint on that city; origins in were Americans. resembling the Stars and Stripes, it dates to This is significant because, since the First a fort established there by Montanans (see , southern Alberta has determined Fig. 1). An example of a quintessentially rural the dominant ideological coloration of Alberta American institution that penetrated Calgary politics. Americans outnumbered Britons in all was the . Its symbol, the , was an fifteen of the province's rural census divisions, American invention, the product of a western and half of southern Alberta's farmers were frontier experience quite different from the Americans.13 Government officials shunted Canadian experience associated with the law­ continental European-born farmers into the enforcing Royal Canadian Mounted . more northerly . and Calgary became known as "cow ," home alone outnumbered the "British" (by "racial" or of the , "the world's most ethnic, not national, origin) by a ratio of nearly extravagant celebration of the cowboy" (See 2-1 in Alberta's Victoria .14 Fig. 2).17 Cowboys and embedded them­ Ethnic clustering was also apparent at the level selves in Alberta's public iconography, and of individual : those of "British races" cowboy hats and boots still serve as staples in made up 77 percent of Hat (whose the wardrobes of Alberta's politicians. environs contained many Americans) while Alberta's first government, the Liberals, "European races" accounted for 53 percent of was not elected but appointed by and those in northerly .15 was an offshoot of Ontario's . In 1911, when Americans accounted for Initially, Americans such as Henry Wise only 3 percent of Canada's population, they Wood, the future leader of the UFA, supported THE AMERICAN IMPRINT ON ALBERTA POLITICS 43

FIG. 2. The program from the 1912 Calgary Stampede exemplifies the influence of the culture of the American West on Alberta's public iconography. Glenbow Archives, NA-604-1. 44 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2011

the Liberals as well. His opposition to launch­ sought to offset the power of industrialists, ing a secured the province for the bankers, and professionals, but he was no Liberals until 1921. Britons such as Calgary's socialist. A free-market liberal, he believed labor-socialist MP William Irvine were briefly in typically American populist fashion that forces in the city but were always marginal society's problems reflected a malaise in the players in the countryside. In contrast to the competitive process, not in capitalism itself: of German immigrants that informed "When we learn to trade right," he opined, "we urban socialism in the United States, British will largely have learned to live right.',zo Fabianism prevailed in Alberta's socialist The easy entry of the populist Non-Partisan circles as it did in the rest of English Canada. League (NPL) into provincial politics in 1916 Calgary's Scottish flavor came from its British­ pointed up the link between demographic born residents who outnumbered the city's and political impact, between Alberta and the American-born by a 4-1 ratio.I8 The cities, American Great Plains. The NPI;s muscular­ however, counted for relatively little politi­ ity on the Canadian correlated with cally: as late as the late 1950s, Calgary and the numbers of Americans, not with proxim­ together had only ten of the legisla­ ity; it was strongest in Alberta and, although ture's fifty-seven seats and the British socialist Manitoba is geographically adjacent to North touch in the provincial political culture grew Dakota where the NPL governed, it was weak­ fainter with time. est in that province as Americans constituted The described the UFA as only 3 percent of its population. American­ "the bosses" of provincial politics long before anchored southern Alberta returned both suc­ their election to provincial office in 1921. cessful NPL candidates in the 1917 provincial The organization reflected an American sway: election, and a telling comment on the power eight of its nineteen executive members were of American models was that the protagonists American born, outnumbering the British- or on both sides of the debate over whether Canadian-born members. American lawyer Alberta's farmers ought to enter the political Aaron Sapiro was pivotal in the formation arena used American experiences to buttress of the Alberta Pool, which Wood, their case. One side pointed to the sad end of the UFA leader from 1916 to 1931, chaired the People's Party, the other to the NPI;s North from 1923 to 1937. President of the Canadian Dakotan success. Council of , Wood had arrived As members of the Grange and the NPL in in Alberta as a forty-five--old veteran the United States, many of Alberta's Americans populist who had participated in had fought the grain and railroad companies. the formation of both the Farmers' Some had worked in William Jennings Bryan's and the Populist Party in the United States. presidential campaign of 1896.21 What there Dubbed the "uncrowned king of Alberta" by was of socialist influence in the United States his biographer, no American has been as prom­ peaked in the new century's first two decades inent in the politics of any other province and and some collectivist ideas did appear in the no proposed reform in UFA-governed Alberta NPI;s program. They contributed to the cre­ gained without his sanction.I9 ation of the Alberta and Saskatchewan wheat As a political thinker, Wood "can be pools and the federal UFA's initial affiliation explained only by reference to his American with the CCF, but the move was unpopular background," a person "who had toiled and with the UFA membership and Wood refused died within the simple and narrow limits of an to endorse it. As socialism went mute in the unreflecting individualism and of Jacksonian United States, it faded in Alberta but did not democracy." A survey showing American disappear altogether. A revealing bizarre exam­ parallels to western Canada's agrarian revolt ple of the American presence throughout the branded him a "Jeffersonian liberal." Wood century was that of a Dakotan who had arrived THE AMERICAN IMPRINT ON ALBERTA POLITICS 45 in Alberta in a horse-drawn wagon in 1910 and to the past was that he performed best in his lived to participate in the 1980s in a meeting of leadership quest in the same southern districts the separatist Party, where the initial American demographic which elected a Mormon cowboy and Utah col­ imprint had been strongest.27 lege graduate to the legislature.22 Nevertheless, the broader Canadian politi­ After the American influx at the turn of the cal culture has swayed Alberta; were it the fifty­ twentieth century, the proportion of Americans first state, even Alberta's American-anchored among Alberta's immigrants declined steadily. southern districts would likely vote predomi­ However, their influence and ideas continued nantly for Democrats.28 An example of the to exceed their numbers. They were prominent, Canadian experience influencing Americans for example, in the provincial oil industry: a like Flanagan is that he cited , geologist from a Danish American community the British theorist whose tory ideas helped discovered the province's largest oil field, and to shape Canada, to urge Harper to pursue between 1955 and 1970, nine of the Calgary "moderation," "inclusion," and "incremental­ Club's fifteen presidents were ism" as the path to winning over a majority of Americans.23 American investment in Canada Canadians to the Conservative Party.29 in the 1950s was greatest in Alberta's energy sector, by the early over 60 percent of IDEOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL AFFINITY the province's oil and gas industries were under American control, and by 1976 American Americans played a foundational role as ownership reached 76 percent in the total Alberta's political culture developed. This mining sector.24 Logically, the first direct flights accounts for the ideological affinities of between Canada and America's oil capital, Alberta and America's Great Plains politics. , originated in Calgary. A chronicle of Radical populist and liberal-individualist ideas Canada's business establishment in the 1970s originating in the United States gained wide noted that in Alberta, "nearly all of the largest in Alberta's last decade as a companies are headed by Canadian managers and first two decades as a province. Albertans, of American subsidiaries most of whom receive among , have been the most their daily marching orders via computer print­ receptive, in both their province's formative outs that arrive from Tulsa, Dallas, Phoenix, and later years, to embracing American out­ or ," and "like their counterparts in looks. Striking, for example, was the Alberta the United States, they often held strong right­ Conservative Party's endorsement of wing views."25 with the United States in the 1911 federal elec­ In the contemporary Conservative parties tion, unlike the federal Conservative and sister in Alberta and Ottawa, two Americans have provincial Conservative parties.30 been conspicuous: Tom Flanagan and Ted An early sign of ideological commonality Morton. Raised in a Republican , between Alberta's farmers and those in the Flanagan directed the new Conservative United States was the UFA motto, "Equity," Party's campaign in the 2004 federal election. sported by the American Society of Equity out He and Conservative prime minister Stephen of which the UFA sprang. The motto starkly Harper were among the six intellectuals who contrasted that of the Saskatchewan's Farmers had earlier authored a "firewall" calling Union of Canada, "Farmers and Workers on Alberta's government to insulate itself from of the World Unite." One Saskatchewan federal intrusions,z6 Morton, elected as a sena­ Farmers Union local in a Ukrainian district tor-in-waiting and then to the provincial legis­ recommended affiliation with the Moscow­ lature, contested the provincial Conservative based Peasant InternationaPl John Irving leadership and the premiership in 2007 and observed that the social democratic CCF, became the minister. A telling link elected in neighboring Saskatchewan in the 46 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2011

1940s, was anathema to Alberta's farmers for The UFA's emphasis on monetary reform it represented a repudiation of their "rugged rendered its followers susceptible to conflat­ individualism," not a term associated with ing those ideas with those of the British-based Saskatchewan agrarianism, which Lipset movement. Social Credit in labeled agrarian socialism. 32 Alberta inherited both the UFA's political base Alberta populism, like American populism, and some of its American-inspired ideas, such attracted some socialists but it rejected social­ as inflating the money supply and the right to ist ideology, and the 1920s wheat pools debate recall elected legislators. The transition from reflected that rejection: Saskatchewan's farmers a UFA regime to a Social Credit regime in agitated for a compulsory pool while Alberta's 1935 demonstrated the links between their farmers insisted on a voluntary pool driven . shared social bases of support and American by free-market principles. Wood deemed a settlement patterns. Social Credit triumphed compulsory pool as "a denial for freedom and resoundingly in southern Alberta (south of an attempt to do by compulsion what could be ), capturing over 60 percent of the achieved by co-operation."33 Market-oriented vote there and it scored easy victories in towns Americans like Wood led Alberta's farmers like and where the while the two most permanent officials in the UFA had held sway and where the American Saskatchewan farmers' movement had been imprint was most prominent. In contrast, members of 's Independent Labor Party Social Credit won less than half of northern and the of the United States. Alberta's votes and it trailed the Liberals in Three of Saskatchewan's four Americans elected Edmonton.36 Social Credit initially received as CCFers in the 1940s had voted for Eugene support from many radicals, progressives, and Debs for president, one as a member of the syn­ socialists disillusioned with the UFA govern­ dicalist International Workers of the World.34 ment, but they soon disowned the Social Alberta's Americans, nurtured on inflation­ Credit movement.37 ary monetary theories in the United States Social Credit transformed Alberta's radical where the Free and Greenback move­ populism gradually to become an unabashed ments had taken hold in the late nineteenth standard-bearer for conventional capitalism. It century, insisted that UFA conventions devote repealed the recall bill it had enacted-then more time to the topic than any other issue. unique in the British Commonwealth-once In contrast, other Canadian farm organiza­ a move was afoot to recall its , William tions rarely entertained it. UFA Americans Aberhart.38 UFA premiers , such as J. W. Leedy, a former Populist John Brownlee, and Reid had been crit­ of , and George Bevington, a widely ical of Aberhart and Social Credit, but Wood acknowledged monetary expert, were preoc­ had looked benignly upon them: "Aberhardt cupied as they had been in the United States [sic] won't do no harm.,,39 A somewhat similar with land control, transportation issues, and transition occurred when 's especially money supply.35 The UFA preached, technocratic, modernizing Conservatives cap­ as did the NPL, monetary reform, direct legis­ tured Social Credit's ideological and popular lation (initiative, referendum, and recall), the bases of support in 1971. The shift was consis­ single tax, proportional representation, and tent with a call by , Aberhart's abolition of Canada's unelected Senate. Many successor as premier, for a American socialists supported these ideas, but with Conservatives and Social Crediters unit­ there is little about them that is socialist. The ing as a broad rightist party to fight the leftist UFA government gave some voice to them, forces of the Liberals and NDP.4o and in later years, provincial Social Credit and The Aberhart government painted the fed­ Conservative governments echoed some of the eral government as an oppressive, illegitimate ideas as well. force. It voiced an American republican view of THE AMERICAN IMPRINT ON ALBERTA POLITICS 47 democracy when it refused to appear before the folk." These views contrasted with the aloof­ on -Provincial ness of Canadian vis-a.-vis Relations and addressed its brief to "the sov­ the United States. Their "almost unanimous ereign people of Canada." It challenged the view" was a "vigorous insistence that there is legitimacy of Westminster-style parliamentary no good reason why Canadian pupils in schools government as a form of "limited state dicta­ should have their attention called to events torship" and proposed "to restore sovereign in the United States any more, for example, to the people." 41 A Nebraska-born than to French or German development.'>44 For Social Credit member of the legislative assem­ Aberhart, the British Commonwealth and the bly criticized his government for drawing more United States were joint forces of the good, attention to the 1937 coronation festivities acting as "servants of the Lord." than to Social Credit.42 Some Albertans char­ acterized Aberhart as their Abraham Lincoln, RELIGION oddly, since Lincoln was a federal centralizer. Where Social Credit and the UFA dif­ Religion served as a filament binding fered was in their views of leadership and Alberta and the United States. Americans . Wood had theorized in favor brought with them over two dozen evangeli­ of "group government," a radical notion of cal sects, including the Disciples of Christ to occupational representation in government. which Wood belonged. Theological fundamen­ He took the idea from a Texan NPL pamphlet talists constituted a "quite exceptional" 20 per­ and American Mary Follett's The New State: cent of Alberta's Protestants, and Americans Group Organization, the Solution of Popular accounted for "a steady of unorthodox Government. Wood had adopted the idea as a social and religious leaders and associations," tactic designed to facilitate the UFA's absorp­ establishing several Bible , some tion of the NPL. The idea, however, subse­ of which still operate.45 Most evangelicals quently received summary treatment as the were suspicious of "big government," and the Americans in the UFA accommodated them­ popular weekly fundamentalist "Back to the selves to the . The popu­ Bible Hour" radio broadcasts by Aberhart and list UFA had incorporated a form of grassroots Manning contributed to shaping aspects of participatory democracy, but Aberhart person­ the provincial political culture that amplified ally selected Social Credit's candidates and American influences. Alberta's religious milieu posited an elitist concept of popular authority: proved receptive to Aberhart's assertion that "You don't have to understand Social Credit to "the principles of the old line politicians and vote for it." Governing and policy formulation, their henchmen are like those of the men who in his cosmology, were technocratic issues best betrayed the Christ."46 left to experts; the masses were to approve or As in the United States, the evangelical gos­ disapprove, with elections being essentially pel-wanting salvation for man and appealing plebiscites.43 to faith and emotion-took hold in Alberta. Albertans, more than other Canadians, It overwhelmed the social gospel, wanting perceived a commonality of American and to help man and appealing to reason. Social Canadian interests. A survey of Albertan teach­ gospelers left the established church because it ers in the 1930s revealed that they expressed was otherworldly; Aberhart and Manning left "universal" admiration "for the 'energy, opti­ it because it was too worldly. The evangelicals mism, and efficiency' of the typical American." stressed liturgical formalism, individual salva­ Many described "Great Britain as the mother tion, and sermonized about divine retribution country and the United States and Canada as while the social gospelers deprecated theologi­ offspring ... so that it is possible to regard the cal perplexities and preached social .47 American nation not as a foreign but a kindred Application of the social gospel in Canada 48 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2011

was essentially British and its followers looked own. 50 More influential in the making of oil to the British Labour Church; application policy than premier Manning, Tanner retired of evangelical Christianity in Alberta owed to serve as a Mormon Church senior elder everything to American fundamentalist sects. in Salt City. "The religious-political When Social Credit came along, wrapped in experiment in Alberta," observed S. D. Clark, eschatological garb by Aberhart looking to "resembled very closely that tried much earlier a divinely ordained future, most Albertans in Utah; in both cases, religious separation embraced it. Some hailed Aberhart as "our sought support in political separation, [and] savior" at Social Credit meetings, which often the encroachments of the federal authority ended with special prayers for him.48 were viewed as encroachments of the worldly The Latter-day Saints, or Mormon Church, society.,,51 was a notable religious sect in Alberta, and Alberta's Social Credit movement was quite Social Credit was particularly popular in unlike Britain's Social Credit movement. It had Mormon districts. In the United States, the a Catholic, cosmopolitan, urban support base, Mormon ran westward from Illinois across and an atheist, Douglas, as its oracle.52 Iowa, Nebraska, and to its Utah ter­ Aberhart recruited Douglas to help operation­ minus. Canada's Mormon Trail ran northward alize Social Credit theory, but Douglas quickly from Utah, through Idaho and Montana, and disowned his Albertan acolytes, mystified by into in southern Alberta. South of the border, their marriage of institutional persecution had driven Mormons and monetary reform. 53 His departure exposed westward and contributed to their distrust of the tenuous link between British and Alberta government, especially federal authority. The Social Credit. Manning's ascension to the prospect of pastures greener than those of premiership in 1943 after Aberhart's death Utah and the enticements of the Canadian becalmed Social Credit. He purged the party of government, rather than persecution, moti­ its more radical elements and adopted a fierce vated Mormons to come to Alberta, but they antisocialist posture. In the xenophobic brought their mistrust of government with of the , he foiled efforts to nationalize them. Mormons were Alberta's first large body some private power companies by plebiscite by of successful farmers, and Brigham Young's linking CCF support for the idea with Nazism son-in-law founded Alberta's Mormon capi­ and . His sentiment "public owner­ tal, Cards ton, in 1887. Within three decades, ship is bad in principle, worse in practice," had sixteen other Mormon settlements appeared purchase in Alberta as it did in the United within 100 miles of it.49 Young Mormons from States.54 Manning also led resistance to both a Alberta traveled to Salt Lake City's tabernacle federal national insurance scheme and to marry and advertised the province as a des­ a medicare program in the 1950s and 1960s as tination for settlement. "socialistic," entailing compulsion and "welfare The Mormon mark on Alberta expressed state-ism.,,55 itself in political leadership and voting behav­ ior. Social Credit's parliamentary leader, John POLICY Blackmore, an Idaho-born Mormon, emigrated to Cardston in 1892, and Solon Low, the Alberta's populist evolution has had much Cards ton-born son of American immigrants, in common with America's populist evolution, served as the party's federal leader between and both differ from the collectivist bent of the 1930s and 1950s. Under Cardston's Nathan Saskatchewan populism. Common to both Tanner, the minister of Lands and Mines for forms of populism is the notion of "the people" sixteen years, officials from the Railroad defined by their common cultural roots, geo­ Commission supervised the Alberta oil indus­ graphic location, and their perception of a try's regulatory regime, patterning it on their threat generated by an external power. Alberta THE AMERICAN IMPRINT ON ALBERTA POLITICS 49 populism constructed that external foe first Senate, grassroots control over elected officials, as "the money power" and then as "big gov­ the , provincial equality, and legislators' ernment" while social democratic populists review of judicial appointments. Alberta led depicted it as "big business" or "corporate capi­ the Canadian equivalent of America's "sage­ talism." Social Credit originally opposed the brush rebellion," the drive by western states "big banks" and, like 's provincial at the turn of the 1980s to lessen the federal Conservative government in later decades, government's control of their land and natural saw the "people" as "consumers." Over time, resources.60 Unlike the provinces that were however, Social Credit distanced itself from parties to Canada's confederation in the nine­ attacks on financial behemoths and its refer­ teenth century, Alberta-created by Ottawa ences to the "Fifty Big Shots of Canada." By as a province in 1905-did not gain rights to the 1940s, Social Credit had anointed itself its natural resources until 1930, something as the province's chief protagonist in the fight Albertans deeply resented as discriminatory. against socialism, and Manning went from the Every Alberta premier since 1980 has attacked premiership in the 1960s to the board of the the federal government's national energy policy, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. By which lowered the price of Alberta's petroleum the 1990s Social Credit's ideological successor, to other Canadians at the province's expense. Klein's Conservatives, embraced privatiza­ Alberta's doggedness that decade on constitu­ tion and , adopted the logic of an tional issues led to a constitutional amending international market economy, and reframed formula, as in the United States, that grants citizens as "customers."56 They supported, and no province a veto, and the province kept the Alberta's farmers voted in a plebiscite for, an federal government out of provincial affairs open, competitive grain-marketing regime by insisting on the restriction of Indian land while Saskatchewan's NDP government sup­ claims.61 ported, and its farmers voted for, maintaining a Albertans and their governments have never government-run monopoly. 57 cared much for Ottawa, the gist of a "firewall" The populist federal Alberta-based Reform letter coauthored by, among others, Flanagan, Party in the 1990s was anything but opposed Morton, and Harper. The letter proposed a to corporate power. Although their and provincial police force to replace the RCMP those of American Republicans differed, the and a provincial plan to supersede the parties were ideological kin as social conserva­ . The upstart Wildrose tives and classical economic liberals believing Alliance Party, whose advisors now include in , suspicious of a large Flanagan, has adopted key components of federal government, and in favor of lower taxes. the letter.62 This new party, the most recent The Reform program envisaged a Canada manifestation of Alberta's individualist-liberal, reimagined through a universalist American populist predilections, warmly applauded lens. It embraced "universal " to coun­ Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah ter the "politics of recognition" such as granting Palin at her first speech to a foreign audience, special status for Quebec or Aboriginals, and it in Calgary, where she advocated smaller gov­ opposed Ottawa's policies of bilingualism and ernment and fiscal restraint and compared multiculturalism.58 , speaking and Alberta.63 Palin followed George for the party, articulated Alberta's decentral­ W. Bush, whose first speech abroad was also in ized, populist image of Canada: "We propose Calgary. measures which will assert the autonomy of all Albertans have been the most leery among provinces and the power of the people."59 English Canadians of Ottawa. By a wide Albertans, more so than Canadians as a margin, Albertans have much more trust and whole, have been enamored with American confidence in their provincial government liberal prototypes such as an elected, powerful than in the federal government. They believe, 50 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2011 much more so than residents of other prov­ decamped offshoot of revolutionary America, inces do, that they get more for their money Upper Canada's tory Loyalists. The analysis from their provincial government than from here has been of a later American offshoot, Ottawa, and they are the least likely among Alberta's pioneering Americans and their Canadians to think Ottawa delivers value for formative imprint on Alberta politics. This money. Albertans are also less sympathetic analysis underscores the individualist-liberal to Ottawa's redistributive equalization policy, values of Alberta's settler Americans as a which seeks to help provinces provide com­ founding ideological fragment. Their values parable levels of at comparable rooted themselves in the province's formative levels of taxation.64 years, and those values continue to define the In the realms of foreign, defense, and trade boundaries of political discourse in Alberta. policy, Albertans have been more sympa­ Favored by rural overrepresentation in the thetic than other Canadians have been to electoral system and their early concentration American designs. The Operation Dismantle in southern Alberta, American homesteaders constitutional case in the 1980s demonstrated launched a politics of consensus, described as the benign Albertan attitude to American Alberta's ideologically hegemonic quasiparty cruise missile tests in the province, as none of system.6S Americans ingrained in the Albertan the twenty-four national, regional, and local psyche an ardent individualist streak on issues groups in the coalition that launched the of property and provincial rights and a suspi­ case was from Alberta.65 Later in that decade, cion of centralized authority and of designs Albertans stood out as the Canadians most crafted in a distant capital where eastern supportive of free trade with the United States. Canadian calculations overshadow Albertan They were also the most supportive of a U.S. interests. Alberta's American market liberal proposal for a free trade of the and anticommunitarian heritage continues to in the 1990s, and in 2003, the most supportive infuse its political ethos. of the U.S. invasion of lraq.66 Alberta's cattle and beefpacking industry, ACKNOWLEDGMENT by far the largest in Canada, contributed to "the increasing economic integration" An earlier version of this article was pre­ between the Alberta and U.S. economies, sented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian as shipments to the United States increased Political Science Association, Concordia tenfold between the 1980s and 1990s. But the University, , Quebec, on 2, 2010. evolution of the industry also demonstrated how the Canadian experience had influenced NOTES Alberta's American ranchers. Most of their was exported to the British and then to 1. Alexis de T ocqueville, Democracy in America, the central Canadian market because of the 2 vols. (1835 and 1840; reprint, New York: Vantage United States' high tariff policy both before Books, 1990). and after the 1920s.67 Alberta's American 2. For example, Carl F. Betke, "The United farmers also adapted themselves to Canada's Farmers of Alberta, 1921-1935," in Society and Politics in Alberta, ed. Carlo Caldarola (Toronto: system of supply management in agricultural Methuen, 1979), 14-32; David Laycock, Populism and products, although they had often fought it as Democratic Thought in the , 1910 to free traders. 1945 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990). 3. Louis Hartz, The Liberal in America CONCLUSION (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1955). 4. Louis Hartz, The Founding of New Societies (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1964); In delineating English Canadian politi­ Gad Horowitz, "Conservatism, Liberalism, and cal culture, many highlight the values of a : An Interpretation," Canadian THE AMERICAN IMPRINT ON ALBERTA POLITICS 51

Journal of and Political Science 32, no. 1 16. Canada, Bureau of Statistics, Origin, Birth­ (1966): 143-71. place, Nationality and Language of the Canadian 5. , Revolution and People: A Census Study Based on the Census of Counterrevolution: Change and Persistence in Social 1921 and Supplementary Data (Ottawa: Bureau Structures, rev. ed. (, NJ: Trans­ of Statistics, 1929), 99, table 46; Howard Palmer, action Books, 1988), chap. 2. Patterns of Prejudice: A History of in Alberta 6. Nelson Wiseman, In Search of Canadian (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982), 67; and Political Culture (: UBC Press, 2007). quoted in Karel Denis Bicha, The American Farmer 7. On language: after R. v. Mercure, [1988] and the Canadian West, 1896-1914 (Lawrence, KS: 1 S.C.R. 234, Saskatchewan translated many of Coronado Press, 1968), 130. its statutes into French, but Alberta did not. On 17. Robert M. Seiler and Tamara P. Seiler, "The medicare: Malcolm G. , Health Insurance Social of the Canadian Cowboy: Cal­ and Canadian Public Policy: The Seven Decisions gary Exhibition and Stampede Posters, 1952-1972," that Created the Canadian Health Insurance System Journal of Canadian Studies 33, no. 3 ( 1998): 5l. (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 18. Census of Canada, 1921, 2:343, table 54. 1978), chap. 4 and 338-40. On guns: Albertans, 19. Calgary Herald, quoted in L. G. Thomas, more so than residents of other provinces, believe The Liberal Party in Alberta, 1905-1921 (Toronto: that Canadians should have the right to University of Toronto Press, 1959), 177; W. L. arms. Ekos poll, 18, 2009, http:// Morton, The Progressive Party in Canada (Toronto: www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/ekosdata-tables-nov18. pdf University of Toronto Press, 1950), 39; William (accessed 5, 2010). On capital punish­ Kirby Rolph, Henry Wise Wood of Alberta (Toronto: ment: Albertans, more so than residents of other University of Toronto Press, 1950), 176. provinces, endorse it. "Canadians Support New 20. Morton, Progressive Party in Canada, 38-39; Stand on Clemency, Poll," http://www.canada. W. L. Morton, "The Social Philosophy of Henry com/topics/news/national/story.html? id = dfc55242- Wise Wood, The Canadian Agrarian Leader," ee80-47b8-a134-867ebe85cd65&k=71463 (accessed Agricultural History 22, no. 2 ( 1948): 115; February 5,2010). On same-sex marriage: Albertans Sharp, The Agrarian Revolt in Western Canada: are least supportive. Brian Laghi, "Gay Unions Split A Survey Showing American Parallels (New York: Country, Poll Shows," Globe and Mail, June 14, 2003, Octagon Books, 1971), 147; and quoted in C. B. and Angus Reid poll, June 7, 1996, http://www. Macpherson, Democracy in Alberta: The Theory and religioustolerance.org/hom_marz.htm (accessed Practice of a Quasi- (Toronto: University February 5, 2010). On the environment: Alberta's of Toronto Press), 35. government adopted the American position and led 21. John J. Barr, The : The Rise and Fall the charge in Canada against the . of Social Credit in Alberta (Toronto: McClelland and 8. Canada Year Book, 1942 (Ottawa: Dominion Stewart, 1974), 14. Bureau of Statistics, 1942),85, table 3; Canada Year 22. Mark Lisac, The Klein Revolution (Edmonton: Book, 1921 (Ottawa: Dominion Bureau of Statistics, NeWest, 1995), 234-35. 1922), 126, table 20. 23. Palmer with Palmer, Alberta: A New History, 9. Dirk Hoerder, Creating Societies: Immigrant 306. Lives in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen's Uni­ 24. David Leadbeater, "An Outline of Capitalist versity Press, 1999), 141. Development in Alberta," in Essays on the Political 10. W. L. Morton, Manitoba: A History (1957; , ed. David Leadbeater (Torn: reprint, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967), New Hogtown Press, 1984),50-51. See also Foreign chaps. 9 and 10. Direct Investment in Canada (Ottawa: Information 11. Census of Canada, 1921 (Ottawa: Dominion Canada, 1972), 23-24. Bureau of Statistics, 1925), 2:564, table 30; R. H. 25. Peter C. Newman, The Canadian Establishment Coats and M. C. MacLean, The American-Born (1975; reprint, Toronto: Penguin, 1999), 1:226. in Canada: A Statistical Interpretation (Toronto: 26. The letter is reproduced at Western Standard, Ryerson, 1943), 124, table 46. 15, 2010, http://westernstandard.blogs.com/ 12. Howard Palmer with Tamara Palmer, Alberta: shotgun/2010/03/the-firewall-letter.html (accessed A New History (Edmonton: Hurtig, 1990), 155. March 31, 2010). 13. Census of Canada, 1921, 2:298-330, table 50; 27. See illustration, Dawn Walton and Katherine 2:334-40, table 53; 2:480-82, table 71. Harding, "Can Alberta's Moderate Tories Take to 14. Census of Canada, 1911 (Ottawa: Bureau of 'Premier '?" Globe and Mail, November Statistics, 1913),2:332-33, table 8; 2:373, table 14. 27, 2006, AI. 15. Census of Canada, 1921 (Ottawa: Dominion 28. See, for example, the Canadian Defence Bureau of Statistics, 1924), 1:522-33, table 27. and Foreign Affairs Institute poll in Bradley 52 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 2011

Bouzane and Colin Robertson, "Obama's Popularity of Canada 49, ser. 3 (June 1955): 64; Macpherson, Higher Than Ever in Canada: Poll," , Democracy in Alberta. 20, 2009; and Agence -Presse, 44. Mark McClung, "The Outlook of Teachers in "Canadians for Obama, But Republicans for Alberta," and H. L. Stewart, "The Views of Teachers Canada," November 1, 2008, http://afp.google.com/ in the Maritime Provinces," in Canada and Her article/ALeqM5gocq7Iclt0I50 _ GCAsOfOoIIXcEg Great Neighbor: Sociological Surveys of Opinions and (accessed 8,2010). Attitudes in Canada Concerning the United States, ed. 29. Tom Flanagan, Harper's Team: Behind the H. F. Angus (New York: Russell and Russell, 1970), Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power (Montreal: 114,117. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007), 275. 45. W. E. Mann, Sect, Cult, and Church in Alberta 30. Thomas, Liberal Party in Alberta, 67, 116, 139. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1955), 4, 31. Morton, Progressive Party in Canada, 276; D. 153. S. Spafford, "The Origins of the Farmers' Union of 46. Quoted in Irving, Social Credit Movement in Canada," Saskatchewan History 18 (1965): 93. Alberta, 303. 32. John A. Irving, The Social Credit Movement in 47. Richard Allen, The Social Passion: Religion Alberta (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1959), and Social Reform in Canada, 1914-28 (Toronto: 230; Seymour Martin Lipset, Agrarian Socialism: University of Toronto Press, 1971). The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in 48. Harold J. Schultz, "Portrait of a Premier: Saskatchewan (1950; reprint, Garden City, NY: ," Canadian Historical Review 45 Anchor Books, 1968), 135. (): 198. 33. E. A. Partridge, A War on (: 49. Josiah Austin Hammer, "Mormon Trek to Wallingford Press, 1925), xi; Rolph, Henry Wise Canada," Alberta Historical Review 7, no. 2 ( Wood of Alberta, 195. 1959): 7-16; L. A. Rosenvall, "The Transfer of 34. Lipset, Agrarian Socialism, 43-44. Mormon Culture to Alberta," American Review of 35. Walter T. K. Nugent, The Tolerant Populists: Canadian Studies 12, no. 2 ( 1982): 51. Kansas Populism and Nativism (Chicago: University 50. and Larry Pratt, Cap­ of Chicago Press, 1963); Irving Brecher, "Canadian italism: Power and Influence in the New West Monetary Thought and Policy in the 1920s," (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1979), 78ff. Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 51. S. D. Clark, The Developing Canadian Society 21, no. 2 ( 1955): 154-73. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968), 36. Edward Bell, "Class Voting in the First Social 134-35. Credit Election," Canadian Journal of Political Science 52. John Finlay, Social Credit: The English Origins 23, no. 3 (September 1990): 523-54, table 1. (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1972). 37. Alvin Finkel, The Social Credit Phenomenon 53. Bob Hesketh, Major Douglas and Alberta in Alberta (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, Social Credit (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989), chap. 3. 1997), chap. 5. 38. J. R. Mallory, Social Credit and the Federal 54. Quoted in Larry Pratt, "The Political Econ­ Power in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto omy of Province-Building: Alberta's Development Press, 1954), 67-68, 79. Strategy, 1971-1981," in Essays on the Political 39. Quoted in Morton, "Social Philosophy of Economy of Alberta, ed. David Leadbeater (Toronto: Henry Wise Wood," 123. New Hogtown Press, 1984),201; Barr, The Dynasty, 40. E. C. Manning, Political Realignment (Toronto: 139. McClelland and Stewart, 1967). 55. Taylor, Health Insurance and Canadian Public 41. Government of Alberta, The Case of Alberta­ Policy, chap. 4 and 338-40. Addressed to the Sovereign People of Canada and 56. Peter , "Alberta: Experiments in Their Governments (Edmonton, 1938); Irving, Social Governance-From Social Credit to the Klein Credit Movement in Alberta, 7. Revolution," in The Provincial State in Canada, 42. H. J. Schultz, "The Social Credit Back­ ed. Keith Brownsey and Michael Howlett (Peter­ benchers' Revolt, 1937," Canadian Historical Review borough: Broadview, 2001), 303. 41, no. 1 (March 1960): 6. 57. "Producer Vote Supports Single-Desk Sale 43. Mary P. Follett, The New State: Group of ," Agrivision (Ottawa: Agriculture and Organization, the Solution of Popular Government Agri-Food Canada), April 1997; "One Vote Could (New York: Longmans, 1918); Theodore Soloutos, Decide Barley Marketing," Agriweek (Winnipeg), "The Rise of the Non-Partisan League in North November 11, 1997. Dakota, 1915-1917," Agricultural History 20, no. 1 58. Steve Patten, "The Reform Party's Re-imag­ ( 1946): 49-50; W. L. Morton, "The Bias ining of Canada," Journal of Canadian Studies 34, of Prairie Politics," Transactions of the Royal Society no. 1 (Spring 1999): 27-51. THE AMERICAN IMPRINT ON ALBERTA POLITICS 53

59. Quoted in William Neville, "A Vision for 65. Operation Dismantle v. The Queen [1985] Dismantling Canada," Winnipeg , April 13, 1 S.C.R. 441. 2007. 66. Michael Adams, Donna Dasko, and James 60. A. Constadina Titus, "The Nevada 'Sagebrush Matsui, "Poll Says Canadians Want to Renegotiate, Rebellion' Act: A Question of Constitutionality," Not Rip Up Trade Deal," Globe and Mail, November Arizona Law Review 23, no. 1 (1981): 264. 11, 1988; Canada Research and Information 61. James Ross Hurley, Amending Canada's Centre, Trade, , and Constitution: History, Processes, Problems, and (Montreal: CRIC, April 2001), 9; Jeff Sallot, Prospects (Ottawa: Privy Council Office, 1996), 50. "Canadians Oppose U.S. Stand, Poll Says," Globe 62. Wildrose Alliance Policy Platform, http://www. and Mail, February 8, 2003, A15. canada.com/calgaryherald/features/albertavotes/story. 67. David Breen, The Canadian Prairie West html?id=c371acf6-bb5f-4b4f-9202-4ba94cOeec86&k and the Ranching Frontier: 1874-1924 (Toronto: =28179 (accessed , 2011). University of Toronto Press, 1982); , 63. Patti Fong, " Warms to Calgary Farm Receipts from Farming Operations-1993, Crowd," Toronto , March 7, 2010, http://www. cat. no. 21-603E (Ottawa: Minister of Industry, thestar.com/news/canada/article/776190; Danielle 1994); Joel Novek, "Peripheralizing Core Labour Smith quoted in Shannon Montgomery, "Calgary Markets?: The Case of the Canadian Meat Packing Audience Fans of Former U.S. VP Candidate Sarah Industry," Work, Employment and Society 3, no. 2 Palin? You Betcha!" Daily Courier, March (1989): 157-78; Michael J. Broadway, "Where's 7, 2010, http://www.dailycourier.ca/includes/data­ the Beef? The Integration of the Canadian and files/CP_print.php lid =248174&title= Calgary%20audi­ American Beefpacking Industries," Prairie Forum 23, ence% 20fans %20of%20former% 20U. S. % 20VP no. 1 (Spring 1998): 29; Simon Evans, "Canadian %20candidate%20Sarah%20Palin?%20You%20betcha! Beef for Victorian Britain," Agricultural History 53, (accessed January 21, 2011). no. 4 (October 1979): 748-62; Max Foran, "Mixed 64. Canada Research and Information Centre, Blessings: The Second 'Golden Age' of the Alberta Canada-US- Comparative Federalism Sur­ Cattle Industry, 1914-1920," Alberta History 46, no. 3 vey, (Montreal: CIRC, June 2004), 2-3; Portraits of (Summer 1998): 10-19. Canada, 2004 (Montreal: CRIC, 2005), 10. 68. Macpherson, Democracy in Alberta.