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. It encouraged credit unions, printed its own money (Prosperity certificates) and established a government-owned bank (ATB).
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 dropped Alberta's use of proportional representation in 1956. Partly with that help, it stayed in power until 1971, one of the longest unbroken runs in government at the provincial level in Canada. After its defeat, it quickly faded into irrelevance. It lost its remaining seats in 1982, never to return. The party 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.
History Origins 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. Due to Aberhart's influence, the Canadian social credit movement always had a strong social conservative tinge.
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. Discussion of banking and monetary reform and social credit was not new to many Albertans. Alberta MP William Irvine (with Manitoba MP J.S. Woodsworth) had successfully pushed for an official inquiry into the subject in the early 1920s to which Edmonton-area self-taught expert George Bevington had presented evidence.Mardiros, William Irvine, p. 141 Pamphleteers, such as Edmonton's R.C. Owens and Saskatoon's H.C. Pierce, had prepared the waters.Pierce, Herbert Chandler, Our money system and what it is doing to us: It is sure doing a plenty: The remedy and how to apply it, inject gently to prevent shock. Peel's Prairie Provinces online James East, a long-serving Edmonton city councillor in the 1912-1936 period, had been proponent of monetary reform as well.Pierce, Our money system (1925)Rek, Municipal elections in Edmonton, p. 88
Rise to power
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 August 1935 Alberta general 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.
Not even the Socreds had expected to win the election. Indeed, they hadn't even named a leader during the campaign. The Socreds now found themselves having to choose a formal leader who would become the province's new premier. Aberhart was the obvious choice, having been the party's driving force from the beginning. He didn't want the office, but was persuaded to take power. He was elected as leader and premier-designate at the party's first caucus meeting, and was sworn in on 3 September. He became a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) a year later in a by-election.
The first year and a half in power was a period of adjustment for the newly elected Socred MLAs and their premier. Certain historians believe that much of the Social Credit Party's leadership, and many of its members, didn't understand Douglas' teachings. Negotiations between Aberhart and Douglas, who had been hired by the UFA as a financial advisor, were colourful but unproductive. Aberhart, consumed with details of governance and administration, made little progress along the social credit monetary reform road. After election he hired an orthodox financial expert named Magor, much to Douglas's displeasure, thus forestalling radical monetary reform. In March 1937 many Socred MLAs revolted against Aberhart's leadership, refusing to pass the provincial budget until Aberhart promised serious reform of the banking system.Johnson, L.P.V. and Ola MacNutt, Aberhart of Alberta, p. 100-149
Not "funny money" Following the 1937 revolt, the government made a serious attempt to implement social credit policies. It passed several pieces of radical populist legislation and issued Alberta's own currency, prosperity certificates, to Alberta residents (dubbed "funny money" by detractors) in accordance with the theories of Silvio Gesell. Douglas, the main leader of the international 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 and Aberhart's adoption of them.
The Socred-dominated Alberta Legislature 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 impose regulation over private banks operating in Alberta, Aberhart's government gained a foothold in the province's financial sector by creating the Alberta Treasury Branches (ATB) in 1938. The ATB banks, operating as an orthodox financial institution and crown corporation, are a legacy of Social Credit policies in Alberta. It is today the only government-owned financial institution in Canada that provides commercial banking to the public. The acrimony eventually healed, and Bowen served for a total of 13 years as lieutenant-governor, to 1950.
Bowen also refused Royal Assent to the 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.
Labour policies Though Aberhart's government initially enjoyed widespread support from Alberta's working class, labour union leaders viewed his government with suspicion, and believed that Aberhart was authoritarian. Some labour leaders took issue with the party's plan to control prices, fearing that this would also lead to strict wage controls. Aberhart's administration legislated the right to organize, although labour leaders viewed these protections as too weak to be meaningful.
In 1937, the administration created the Board of Industrial Relations, which was tasked with enforcing maximum working hours, minimum wages, and certifying workers' bargaining agents. The creation of the board, and its enforcement, won the praise of the Alberta Federation of Labour.
The Alberta Federation of Labour also praised the administration's Workmen's Compensation Board, although many unions affiliated with the Canadian Congress of Labour, including the province's largest union, the 18th District of the United Mine Workers of America, took issue with the Workmen's Compensation Board's leadership.
After discovery of oil in central Alberta in 1947, the Alberta government more and more sided with Big Oil. In 1951, the Oil Workers International Union conducted unionization drive at Edmonton British-American (now Gulf) refinery. Manning's Social Credit government delayed union certification and changed the labour law so the signatures of a majority of workers was not enough. When an unionization vote was held, it lost by ten votes. Neil Reimer was the spearhead of this drive. He later was leader of the New Democratic Party, showing divide between SC government/Big Oil and labour unions/NDP. Reimer helped found an independent Canada union, the Energy and Chemical Workers Union, in Edmonton area in 1981. This union, later part of Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, went on to unionize many Alberta workers despite the efforts of the Alberta government, which had by then been taken over by the Progressive Conservatives.Nesbitt and Stevens, "Local 594 and the Lost History of Oil Worker Unionism" https://www.rankandfile.ca/local-594-history/ accessed April 16, 2025
Other policies
To uphold its election promise of democratizing Alberta's government, Aberhart passed a law allowing for the recall of members of the Legislative Assembly by petition of constituents. However, he repealed the legislation when he himself became the target of a recall drive.
Continuing the UFA government's conservatism (which verged on prohibition) on the matter of drinking, Aberhart's government enacted several socially conservative laws, notably one restricting the sale and serving of alcohol. It was one of the strictest such laws in Canada. Well into the 1960s, commercial airlines could not serve alcohol while flying over Alberta.