Jump to content

1929 Edmonton municipal election

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 1929 municipal election was held December 9, 1929 to elect a mayor and five aldermen to sit on Edmonton City Council and four trustees to sit on the public school board, while four trustees were acclaimed to the separate school board). In the election's only plebiscite, voters didn't endorse the extension of the half day Wednesday shopping holiday by the required two-thirds majority.

There were ten aldermen on city council, but five of the positions were already filled: James Collisson, Alfred Farmilo, James Findlay, Charles Gibbs, and Frederick Keillor (SS) were all elected to two-year terms in 1928 and were still in office.

There were seven trustees on the public school board, but four of the positions were already filled: Samuel Barnes, Thyrza Bishop, and Frederick Casselman had all been elected to two-year terms in 1928 and were still in office. The same was true on the separate board, where Robert Adrien Crowe (SS), J O Pilon, and W B Trainor were continuing.

Electoral system

[edit]

The mayor was elected through First-past-the-post voting. First past the post does not require that the successful candidate takes a majority of the votes, as the Instant-runoff voting system previously used had, but in this election the successful candidate did in fact receive a majority of the votes cast.

The aldermanic race, where five seats were being filled, was conducted using Plurality block voting and each voter could cast up to five votes. The successful candidates received a total of approximately 39,000 votes of the 76,000 voters cast by the 41,000 voters. The vote tally received by the successful candidates might have been cast by less than 8,000 of the 41,000 voters who cast a ballot in this election.[1]

Voter turnout

[edit]

There were 18,549 ballots cast out of 40,993 eligible voters, for a voter turnout of 45.2%.

A total of about 76,000 votes were cast in the aldermanic race due to the use of Plurality block voting.

Results

[edit]

Mayor

[edit]
Party Candidate Votes %
Civic Government Association James McCrie Douglas 9,754 53.06%
Labour James East 6,898 37.52%
Independent Gerald Pelton 1,602 8.71%
Independent William Gunn 130 0.71%

Aldermen

[edit]
Party Candidate Votes Elected
Civic Government Association Ralph Bellamy 8,542 Green tickY
Civic Government Association Arthur Gainer 7,979 Green tickY
Civic Government Association Herbert Baker 7,681 Green tickY
Labour Dan Knott 7,419 Green tickY
Labour Rice Sheppard 7,032 SS Green tickY
Civic Government Association Thomas Shaftoe Thompson 6,643
Labour Edward James Thompson 5,612
Labour George Latham 5,482
Independent Hugh MacDonald 5,287
Labour James Herlihy 4,834 SS
Independent Joseph Clarke 4,139
Independent Joseph Adair 3,670
Communist Jan Lakeman 1,283
Communist Herbert John Pallot 590
Independent Wilfred Rose 418

Public school trustees

[edit]
Party Candidate Votes Elected
Civic Government Association Albert Ottewell 9,779 SS Green tickY
Civic Government Association Arthur Cushing 8,742 Green tickY
Labour Frank Crang 8,321 SS Green tickY
Civic Government Association Shurburne Tupper Bigelow 7,900 Green tickY
Civic Government Association Robert Muir 7,860
Labour Thomas John Johnston 7,124
Labour Sophie N. Bell 6,788
Labour Sidney Bowcott 4,744

Separate (Catholic) school trustees

[edit]

Charles Gariepy, Thomas Magee, A J Ryan and J Tansey (SS) were acclaimed to the separate school board.

Wednesday Holiday Plebiscite

[edit]
  • Plebiscite items required a minimum two-thirds "Yes" majority to bring about action

In favour of having Wednesday half-holiday extended to cover all the year except the month of December?

  • Yes - 1,097
  • No - 654

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Rek, Municipal Elections in Edmonton