Arthur Lewis Sifton
Encyclopedia
Arthur Lewis Watkins Sifton, PC
, KC (October 26, 1858 – January 21, 1921) was a Canadian politician who served as the second Premier of Alberta
from 1910 until 1917 and as a minister in the Government of Canada
thereafter. Born in Ontario
, he grew up there and in Winnipeg
, where he became a lawyer. He subsequently practiced law with his brother Clifford Sifton
in Brandon
, Manitoba
, where he was also active in municipal politics. He moved west to Prince Albert
in 1885 and to Calgary
in 1889. There he was elected to the 4th
and 5th
North-West Legislative Assemblies; he later served as a minister in the government of Premier Frederick W. A. G. Haultain
. In 1903, the federal government, at the instigation of his brother who was now one of its ministers, made Arthur Sifton the Chief Justice of the Northwest Territories. When Alberta was created out of a portion of the Northwest Territories in 1905, Sifton became its first chief justice.
In 1910, the government of Alberta Premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford
was embroiled in the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal
. The Liberal Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta, George Bulyea, determined that for the sake of the Liberal Party of Alberta Rutherford had to be pushed aside in favour of a new Premier; when other prominent Liberals declined it, the position was offered to Sifton. As Premier, he smoothed over the divisions in the party that had caused and been exacerbated by the railway scandal. He made attempts to break with the Rutherford railway policy; when these were rebuffed by the courts, he adopted a course similar to Rutherford's. He unsuccessfully pursued the transfer of rights over Alberta's natural resources from the federal government, which had retained them by the terms of Alberta's provincehood.
While Sifton was Premier, the United Farmers of Alberta
rose as a political force. Sifton tried to accommodate many of their demands: his government constructed agricultural colleges, incorporated a farmer-run grain elevator
cooperative, and implemented a municipal system of hail
insurance. Outside of the agricultural sphere, the UFA was instrumental in the Sifton government's implementation of some direct democracy
measures (which resulted in prohibition
) and the extension of the vote to women.
During the conscription crisis of 1917
, Sifton supported the Conservative
Prime Minister, Robert Borden
, in his attempt to impose conscription
to help win the First World War. He backed the creation of a Union
government composed of Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals. In 1917 he left provincial politics and became a minister in this government. Over the next three and a half years he served briefly in four different ministries and was a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919
. He died in Ottawa
in January 1921 after a brief illness.
, to John Wright Sifton
(1833–1912) and Catherine "Kate" Watkins (1832–1909). He was the older brother of Clifford Sifton
. He attended public schools across southern Ontario, culminating with a boys' school in Dundas
and high school in London
. His father was a devout Methodist and a staunch Reformer
and, later, Liberal
. These allegiances permeated his home life; the Sifton household was often visited by clergy, laity, businessmen, lawyers, and politicians. In 1874 or 1875, John Sifton won contracts for preliminary construction work on the Canadian Pacific Railway
(CPR) and moved the family to Winnipeg
, where Arthur completed high school at Wesley College
. Following his graduation, he and Clifford attended Victoria College
, then located in Cobourg
, Ontario. In 1880, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
. While in Cobourg, he was not a devoted student: he skipped many classes, and was judged by his classmates to be "intellectually, morally, physically and erratically preeminent in virtue and otherwise, especially otherwise".
Upon graduation, Arthur Sifton returned to Winnipeg to article
with Albert Monkman until 1881, when he followed his father to Brandon
. John hoped to take advantage of a local real estate
boom; nominally, Arthur was running a Brandon branch of Monkman's law firm, though he had not yet finished his articling and was accordingly unqualified to practice law. On September 20, 1882, he married Mary Deering of Cobourg; the pair would have two children, Nellie Louise Sifton (born August 1883) and Lewis Raymond St Clair Sifton (born February 1898). In 1883, he wrote and passed his bar exam and joined Clifford's Brandon law firm, now styled Sifton and Sifton.
University of Alberta
historian David Hall describes the next phase of Sifton's life as "shrouded in mystery". For reasons that are not clear, in 1885 Sifton dissolved his partnership with his brother and moved his family to Prince Albert
. (Hall speculates that the brothers had a falling out, but notes that their later working relationship appears to have been amicable.) In 1885, Prince Albert's prospects did not appear bright, as it had been bypassed by the CPR line. Regardless, Sifton practiced law and was in 1885 made a notary public
. Three years later, he earned a Master of Arts
from Victoria College and a Bachelor of Laws
from the University of Toronto
. In 1889, he relocated again, to Calgary
; there is some suggestion that this move was for the sake of his wife's health. There he opened a law office, worked in the office of the city solicitor, and became a partner in the firm of Sifton, Short, and Stuart. At one point he was a crown prosecutor
. In 1892, he was appointed Queen's Counsel
.
under the auspices of the Canada Temperance Act
in the Manitoba electoral districts of Lisgar
and Marquette. His first bid for elected office took place in 1882, when he was elected to Brandon's first city council. He was re-elected in 1883, and did not seek re-election at the conclusion of this second term, though he did briefly consider running for mayor before concluding that he had insufficient support to be elected. He also served on the local school board. When his brother Clifford became Wilfrid Laurier
's Minister of the Interior in November 1896, Sifton advised him on Liberal Party affairs in western Canada. This advice included suggested patronage
appointments, one of which was an unimplemented proposal that Arthur himself be appointed chief justice of the Northwest Territories
(a position that did not at the time exist). In 1898, Sifton re-entered politics—Hall speculates to increase his chances at a judgeship—by challenging Robert Brett
, the long-time Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories for Banff, in the 1898 territorial election
. Election day returns showed Sifton with a plurality of thirty-six votes, but by the time contested ballots were dealt with this had turned into a majority of two votes for Brett. Sifton successfully challenged this result in court, and in the ensuing by-election he defeated Brett by a comfortable margin. One oft-repeated anecdote from the campaign involved a campaign forum for which Brett was late. After giving his own speech, Sifton offered to give the still-absent Brett's speech as well, since he had heard it so many times. He did so, and when Brett eventually arrived to give a speech nearly identical to the one Sifton had given on his behalf he was puzzled by the audience's amusement.
Having defeated Brett, Sifton was immediately one of the area's most prominent Liberals, and was named president of the District of Alberta
Liberals shortly thereafter. In 1901 Clifford Sifton appointed James Hamilton Ross
, Northwest Territories Treasurer and Minister of Public Works, Commissioner of Yukon. It fell to Northwest Territories Premier Frederick William Gordon Haultain to fill the ensuing vacancy and, to preserve the delicate non-partisan balance of his administration, he had to pick a successor who was, like Ross, a Liberal. The role fell to Sifton. Soon after his appointment, Clifford offered him his sought-after position of Northwest Territories Chief Justice; Arthur declined on the basis of his recently-assumed ministerial duties, but made it clear that he was still interested in receiving it eventually.
As minister, Sifton had to cope with increasing expenses and with grants from the federal government that did not keep pace. He dealt with this through support for territorial autonomy—the creation of one or more new provinces from the Northwest Territories. Campaigning on this position, he was re-elected in the 1902 territorial election
. Months later, however, T. H. Maguire retired as territorial chief justice, and this time Sifton accepted his brother's offer of the position. He resigned his political offices in January 1903.
that greeted his appointment on January 3, 1903, Sifton fast became a well-respected judge. He served as chief justice of the Northwest Territories until September 16, 1907, when the Supreme Court of Alberta was established, whereupon he headed this new court, sitting in Calgary as the first Chief Justice of Alberta. He was notoriously difficult for barristers to read: he generally heard arguments expressionlessly smoking a cigar, and it was as a judge that he first acquired his long-time nickname of the Sphinx
for his inscrutability. In one trial, he sat apparently vigorously taking notes during both sides' lengthy closing arguments and, once they concluded, immediately delivered his judgment. The bewildered lawyers wondered what he had been writing down, since he had obviously made up his mind before closing arguments; once Sifton had left the courtroom, they found their answer in the form of page after page covered with the judge's signature. He rarely recorded his ratio decidendi
but, despite this, few of his decisions were overturned on appeal. It has also been argued that his fellow judges had difficulty ruling on appeals from his decisions specifically because he rarely provided reasons. Much of his work was in criminal law
, dealing especially with theft of livestock (in which cases he generally delivered a sentence of three years hard labour, severe by the standards of the day). By the end of his judicial career, he had convicted as many Americans as Canadians. His rulings were generally concerned with practicalities rather than legal theory, based more on social morality than legal precedent, and he did not establish any important precedents
.
In 1907, Sifton was one member of a three-member commission assigned to investigate labour unrest between coal miners and mine operators. His colleagues were mining executive Lewis Stockett and miners' union executive William Haysom. Miners' demands included increased wages, a reduction in working hours to eight per day (from ten), the posting of mine inspection reports, the isolated storage of explosives, the use of non-freezing explosives, and semi-monthly rather than monthly pay. The mine operators objected to this last point on the basis that many miners did not report to work the day after payday, and it was thus desirable to keep paydays to a minimum. The commission recommended that children under sixteen should not be allowed to work in mines, that inspectors should post their reports, that mine sites should have bath houses, and that ventilation inspection should be improved. It also recommended that Albertans keep a supply of coal on hand during the summer for winter use. The commission was silent on wages (except to say that these should not be fixed by legislation), the operation of company stores (a sore point among the miners), and the incorporation
of mine unions (which was recommended by mines but opposed by the unions). It made no recommendation about working hours, but Premier Alexander Rutherford's government legislated an eight hour day anyway.
He resigned from the bench on May 25, 1910 to become Premier.
government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford
was embroiled in the Alberta and Great Waterways (A&GW) Railway scandal
. Accusations of favouritism by the government towards the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway had split the Liberal Party, and Rutherford's ability to remain at its head was in doubt. Lieutenant-Governor George Bulyea, a Liberal who had reluctantly asked Rutherford to form a government in 1905, saw his doubts about the Premier's leadership skills validated and quietly began looking for candidates to replace him and save the Liberal Party. Several possibilities—including William Henry Cushing
, Peter Talbot
, and Frank Oliver—were considered and either rejected or found to be uninterested in the job. As early as March 14, Bulyea had concluded that Sifton might be "the only permanent solution", though it was not until May that the Lieutenant-Governor was able to secure Rutherford's agreement to resign and the agreement of both major factions in the Liberal caucus to accept Sifton as Premier. Even up until the last minute, Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) loyal to Charles Wilson Cross—the province's Attorney-General and a staunch Rutherford ally—threatened to scuttle the arrangement unless Cross was kept on as attorney-general, to which Sifton refused to agree. On May 26, Rutherford resigned and Arthur Sifton became the second Premier of Alberta.
One of his first challenges was to craft a cabinet satisfactory to all factions; this he did by excluding the leaders of all sides. He himself took the portfolios of Public Works and Provincial Treasurer. Charles R. Mitchell
, who like Sifton had been a judge during the scandal and had accordingly played no part in it, became Minister of Education and Attorney-General. Archibald J. McLean
was named Provincial Secretary. His support for the insurgents (though not as one of their leaders) was offset by the continuation of Rutherford's Agriculture Minister Duncan Marshall
, who had played no particular role during the scandal but had remained loyal to Rutherford. To the consternation of the opposition Conservatives
, Bulyea prorogued the legislation before this new government's strength could be tested by a vote of confidence. Still, its acceptance by the Liberal caucus can be measured by the fact that only one member, Ezra Riley
, resigned in protest. Riley objected to the exclusion from cabinet of insurgency leader W. H. Cushing; after his resignation he ran as an independent Liberal in the ensuing by-election, but was defeated by Sifton supporter Archibald J. McArthur
. As time began to heal old wounds, Sifton expanded his cabinet to include several of the old adversaries: in February 1912 Cross was re-instated as Attorney-General and rebel leader John R. Boyle
was made Minister of Education (Mitchell, who had previously held both of these posts, was transferred to the Public Works portfolio). The other new additions to cabinet—Malcolm McKenzie
as Provincial Treasurer and Charles Stewart
in the new position of Minister of Municipal Affairs—had voted with the Rutherford government during the scandal.
Another early challenge for the new Premier was to win a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
. Although he lived and worked in Calgary, his first cabinet was composed mostly of southern members (McLean represented Lethbridge District
, Marshall represented Olds
, and Mitchell would soon be elected in Medicine Hat
), so Sifton had Archibald Campbell resign his Vermilion seat and sought election there. Sifton made few promises during the campaign, though he did identify as his priorities "the development of [Alberta's] agricultural and mining resources and the transportation facilities". Despite accusations by the Conservatives that the Liberals bought "the foreign vote" with beer, whiskey, and tobacco, he won a comfortable majority.
into the Alberta and Great Waterways affair, and this commission had not reported by the time that Sifton took office. Between that and the proroguing of the legislature, the new Premier enjoyed a calm that lasted until November 10, when the legislature reconvened. Conservative leader Edward Michener
attacked the government's speech from the throne
for failing to commit itself on railway policy and attacked Sifton for failing to call a general election or seek the confidence of the legislature during his first half year in office. In the meantime, Sifton was facing a breach in his own party on the railway question. Many Liberals from the south of the province, including Sifton himself, felt inclined to abandon the construction of "pioneer" railways (such as the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway) designed to hasten the settlement of the province's emptier areas, and concentrate only on those connecting major population centres. Members from the north of the province, who comprised most of the Liberal caucus, disagreed, and were vehement in their insistence that the A&GW be built. Even among this latter group there were divisions: some Liberals agreed with the Conservatives that the railway should be directly built by the government, while others, including Cross, favoured a partnership with a "responsible company". These divisions were not calmed by the release of the commission's report, whose majority condemned Rutherford and Cross for poor judgment even as it concluded that there was insufficient evidence to find that they had engaged in improper behaviour.
It was against this backdrop that Sifton announced his government's policy with respect to the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Company. Because it had failed to meet its construction obligations, Sifton introduced legislation to confiscate the proceeds of the sale of government-guaranteed bonds
sold to finance the railway's construction. He gave no indication of how the money, which was being held in trust by several banks, would be used. Cross's faction of (primarily northern) Liberals opposed the bill on the grounds that it did not commit the government to using the money to construct the railway, while the Conservatives opposed it as an unjustified confiscation of private property. As Conservative R. B. Bennett
said,
In speaking of A&GW President William Clarke (an American), Bennett went on to say "Clarke I despise but Clarke I am bound to respect, because this province gave him a right by charter and if I know the United States I do not think it will allow this province to take his property without due process of the law." The Conservatives, however, had not been expected to support the legislation; the real question was whether Sifton could command enough support among Liberals to pass it. After all, during the Alberta and Great Waterways crisis only nine months earlier, a legislature of very similar makeup had endorsed the Rutherford government's handling of railway policy by a vote of twenty-three votes to fifteen; would Sifton's bill, effectively a repudiation of the Rutherford policy, convince enough Liberals to change sides? The answer came in December, when the bill passed third reading by a vote of twenty-five votes to fourteen. Nine Liberals had reversed themselves and saved Sifton's government, though both Cross and Rutherford were among those to vote against it.
Despite calls from Clarke for the federal government to use its power of reservation
to stop the legislation, Bulyea granted royal assent
December 16. Sifton, in his capacity as provincial treasurer, immediately tried to access the money; the Royal
, Dominion
, and Union
banks, where the funds were deposited, refused payment. Attorney-General Mitchell sued the banks; on November 4, 1911, Justice Charles Allen Stuart
of the Supreme Court of Alberta found in the government's favour. The Royal Bank appealed this ruling and unsuccessfully petitioned the federal government to use its powers of disallowance to strike down the provincial act. In the meantime, Sifton announced a new railway policy that would see eight new lines constructed by private companies with the assistance of provincial loan guarantees, including several pioneer lines; this policy, in its resemblance to the Rutherford policy, met with the approval of the Cross faction, and the Liberals were once more united.
In 1912, Justice Stuart's ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court of Alberta en banc
. Again the Royal Bank appealed, and on January 31, 1913, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
, which was at the time Canada's highest judicial authority, found for the Royal Bank, ruling that the provincial government did not have the right to confiscate money raised outside of the province. On September 22 Sifton announced new management of the AG&W agreeable to the bondholders, the government, and the banks. The Conservatives protested that other companies were prepared to construct the railroad for less than the sum agreed on with the A&GW, to which Sifton replied that the Privy Council's ruling meant that the government could not use the money raised to deal with any other company. The Conservatives filibuster
ed the legislation and moved a series of amendments (including one calling for the scheme to be put to referendum
), but the Liberals voted unanimously in its favour. The Alberta and Great Waterways saga had reached its end, and Sifton's caucus was never more united.
had been made provinces in 1905, the federal government had retained control over their lands and natural resources, which made the new provinces unique in Canada. The Rutherford government had acquiesced to this state of affairs: because the terms of confederation had been drawn up by the Liberal
government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, it was natural for the provincial Liberal Party to cast itself as their defender. In this capacity, Rutherford pointed to the $375,000 per year that the provincial government received from the federal government as compensation. In 1910, however, Liberal MLA Alwyn Bramley-Moore (who was a staunch provincial rights advocate and who many years later would be called "Alberta's first separatist
" by the Edmonton Journal
) moved a resolution calling on the Sifton government to "take such steps as may be deemed necessary to acquire the control of all such natural resources as are of purely local concern". Sifton responded that it was already the intention of his government to begin negotiations with the federal government to this end. He asserted "I have always believed ... that we should administer our mines and timber. The question is not now whether we would like to control our natural resources, but what is the best way to get them."
Soon after, Sifton made a trip east and spoke on the subject of provincial resource control to the Canadian Club of Toronto
, where his points were well-received. In May 1910, Sifton and Saskatchewan Premier Walter Scott
met with Laurier in Ottawa
, where he was able to secure the Prime Minister's agreement that if the Liberals were re-elected in the 1911 federal election
they would transfer to Alberta control over its resources. This election was fought primarily on the issue of reciprocity
, which was popular in Alberta, and Sifton campaigned actively for Laurier (distinguishing himself from his brother, who broke with Laurier on reciprocity). Despite winning six of Alberta's seven seats, the Liberals were defeated by Robert Borden
's Conservatives
.
Initially, this did not appear to be a problem: Borden had long called for the transfer of resource control to the prairie provinces, but when Sifton and Scott raised the issue with the new Prime Minister, little action resulted. Borden stalled for some time, and it emerged that he did not wish to buoy the fortunes of the provincial Liberal parties by giving them the political victory that would result from the transfer of resource control. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, the issue fell out of public prominence, and it was not until 1930 that Alberta would achieve this long-time objective.
(UFA) as a political force. Formed in 1909 by the merger of the Society of Equity and the Alberta Farmers' Association, the UFA would later become a political party and govern Alberta from 1921 until 1935. During Sifton's tenure, however, its entry into direct politics was still several years away, and it confined itself to advocating for farmers' interests. In a province in which 50,004 people voted in the 1909 provincial election
, the UFA claimed an initial membership of 2,100, which climbed to 9,400 in 1913. Moreover, these figures did not include the many farmers who were active in the organization without paying dues; the UFA was a force to be reckoned with, and Sifton took notice.
The UFA's first provincial victory took place in 1910, and involved the construction of agricultural colleges. While Premier, Alexander Rutherford, always a stalwart ally of the University of Alberta
, approved a plan to locate Alberta's first agricultural college on the university's campus, in Rutherford's home town of Strathcona
. At the 1910 UFA convention, a resolution proposed putting the college in southern Alberta, though it was supplanted by an Edward Michener
motion calling for the UFA's leadership to consult with the province on a mutually amenable location. After consultation with the UFA, Sifton agreed that, in addition to the college, agricultural schools would be built around the province, and that farmers would be guaranteed representation on the college's board. In fact, Sifton held off on the establishment of the college all together in favour of the creation of seven demonstration farms in different regions of the province. In 1912, the government announced the creation of agricultural colleges in connection with three of these farms (all of them in the ridings
of provincial cabinet ministers: Duncan Marshall's Olds, Claresholm
in Archibald McLean's Lethbridge District, and Sifton's Vermilion
).
Another of the UFA's policies called for a single tax on land to replace most other forms of taxation. The farmers hoped that this tax would help replace tariff
s, which made it harder for them to export their produce, and shift the tax burden towards cities, where land values were higher. They also called for a surtax on undeveloped land to curb land speculation and encourage the sale of land to farmers. On this demand too, Sifton acted: in 1911–1912 he allowed municipalities to levy property tax
es and required that rural municipalities tax only land, and in 1914 he imposed a provincial tax on undeveloped land to discourage land speculation. Other UFA-motivated acts by Sifton's government included abandonment of a 1912 plan to privatize hail
insurance (it instead enacted a municipal insurance scheme) and the prohibition of contract clauses that allowed farm machinery companies to avoid responsibility for their products. Perhaps the most important piece of farm legislation passed by Sifton's government was the incorporation of the Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company, Limited (AFCEC). Though the UFA's first preference was for government ownership and operation of grain elevators, which Sifton refused, it gladly accepted the AFCEC, in which only farmers could hold shares and which was supported by provincial startup loans.
Hall writes that "the Sifton government in effect responded wholly or in part to practically every resolution from the 1913 UFA convention related to provincial powers." This rate could not sustain itself, however, especially once the First World War began to occupy an increasing share of the province's attention and resources. During the 1916 legislative session, the government acted on only two of the UFA's twenty-three demands of that year — one to allow the sale of gopher
poison by UFA locals, and one dealing with brand
inspection.
bent, and advocated direct democracy
, women's suffrage
, and prohibition
. In response to the first of these, Sifton in 1913 introduced the Direct Democracy Act. Though it went somewhat less far than the UFA would have liked—for example, it made no provision for recall
of elected officials—it did allow for Albertans to call a referendum directly by submitting a petition
including the names of eligible voters totalling ten percent of the votes cast in the previous provincial election, including at least eight percent in each of eighty-five percent of the province's ridings. The Conservatives were on record as supporting direct democracy, and could therefore criticize the bill only in detail.
The large number of signatures required (beginning with the 1913 election
, 9,399 signatures were required) meant that only an issue capable of galvanizing much of the province could lead to a referendum. Prohibition was such an issue. The Conservatives were advocates of such a referendum (during the 1st Alberta Legislative Assembly
, Conservative Cornelius Hiebert
had advocated prohibition or, failing that, a government monopoly on alcohol sales), but Sifton and his Liberals were less enthusiastic. They knew the boon to government coffers that liquor sales represented, and were not eager to alienate either the UFA's moral reformers or the province's hoteliers and saloonkeepers. Once the referendum legislation was in place, however, its advocates wasted no time: in 1914 the legislature accepted a petition bearing 23,656 names, and duly called a referendum on the subject. The Alberta prohibition referendum passed resoundingly, and the legislature passed the Prohibition Act in the spring of 1916. Initially the new Act appeared successful: in 1917 there were 5,151 convictions for all crimes across Alberta, as compared to an annual average of 12,706 over the preceding four years. By the time the province's enforcement of the act was exposed as being either deliberately lax or merely futile, depending on the observer, Sifton had left office.
Alberta's women, especially those of the UFA-affiliated United Farm Women of Alberta, were active in the province's moral reform movement. They were also active in seeking the vote: in 1913 a delegation of them arrived at the legislature demanding the vote; Sifton asked them "did you ladies wash up your luncheon dishes before you came down here to ask me for the vote? If you haven't you'd better go home because you're not going to get any votes from me." In October 1914 another delegation arrived, bearing the signatures of 40,000 people. At that time, the Premier agreed that most traditional objections to extension of the franchise were "played out", but expressed concern at the increases that would result to the cost of elections and uncertainty at whether most of the province's women actually wanted suffrage. In February 1915 a larger delegation arrived at the legislature and occupied the MLAs' seats, demanding that the franchise be extended quickly enough to allow women to vote in the upcoming prohibition referendum; an angry Sifton refused and suggested to the women that if they wanted the vote, they should contact their MLAs and promise that they would use their votes to re-elect them, "which is after all one of the strongest way in which you can appeal to male human nature, as represented in the legislature." Even so, he committed to raising the issue in the legislature after the referendum. On September 17, 1915, he told UFA President James Speakman that he had given instructions for the preparation of a statute "placing men and women in Alberta on the basis of absolute equality so far as Provincial matters are concerned." True to his word, he introduced legislation in the spring of 1916 giving women the vote in all provincial and municipal elections. The Conservatives supported it enthusiastically, and only St. Albert
MLA Lucien Boudreau
voted against it (though Ribstone Liberal James Gray Turgeon
admitted that he was supporting his leader's legislation against his own convictions).
and 1917
elections, its majorities declined each time. Moreover, his victories were marred by accusations of unethical electoral tactics.
In advance of the 1913 election, government-sponsored redistribution
legislation increased the number of ridings from 41 to 56 and left them of unequal size; only 103 votes were cast in Clearwater
in its first election. The Liberals argued that a model of straight representation by population was inappropriate in a province in which some districts were growing far more quickly than others. David Hall has called the bill a "flagrant gerrymander" and the ensuing election the "crookedest election in Alberta history". There being few policy differences separating the Liberals from the Conservatives, the electoral battle was instead an organizational one, with the two sides accusing one another of bribing ethnic minorities with alcohol and importing elections workers from outside of the province to bribe, intimidate, and mislead rural voters. The Conservatives also accused the Liberals of using government-paid civil servants to campaign for their re-election. Sifton, not confident of victory in his own riding, sought election both there and in Macleod
. In the event, he was defeated there but retained his Vermilion riding.
Since the 1917 election was held in the throes of the First World War, it was unlikely to be an election as usual—indeed, the Conservatives favoured prolonging the legislature until the end of the war. Sifton was not willing to go that far, but did introduce legislation to re-elect, by act of the legislature, the twelve MLAs who had enlisted in the armed forces—of these, seven were Liberals and five Conservatives; one of the Liberals, Joseph Stauffer
of Disbury
, was killed in action before the legislation took effect. The Conservatives supported this legislation, though they later cast aspersions on it by suggesting that of the Liberals re-elected, two had never left Canada. A second piece of election legislation provided for two special MLAs to be elected by the 38,000 Albertans serving overseas; the Conservatives protested that two MLAs was not sufficient for such a large number of voters, especially since Clearwater by this time had only 116 eligible voters.
After a sedate election that the Liberals won by a slightly reduced majority, Sifton announced his resignation as Premier to enter federal politics. Sifton's 1917 victory would be the Liberals' last: his successor, Charles Stewart
, would lose the 1921 election
to the newly-political UFA. In Thomas's estimation, Sifton would have faced a similar fate in 1917 if the UFA had run candidates then.
divided the Liberal Party of Canada, and this division extended into the provincial camp. Liberal leader Laurier opposed Prime Minister Borden's proposal to implement wartime conscription
, a stand which was denounced by many Liberals, especially those from outside of Quebec
, as unpatriotic. Borden reached out to these Liberals to propose a coalition government
, to be led by him and to include Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals. Clifford Sifton was a major broker of the resulting deal and, when the question of a suitable Alberta representative in the cabinet came up, Arthur Sifton was a natural choice. In 1914, he had announced Alberta's willingness to sacrifice "its last dollar and its last man", and was a staunch supporter of conscription. He had agreed by August 1917 to join the Unionist
government, and resigned as Premier in October.
Although he was only 58 at the time of joining government, his health was suffering. He was short of energy, and required a car to transport him even the several hundred meters from his Ottawa residence to the Canadian House of Commons
. Because of this, he was given relatively undemanding portfolios: Minister of Customs and Inland Revenue, Minister of Public Works, and Secretary of State. Hall has called him among the least visible of Borden's ministers. Because of his health and his short tenure in each position, he made very little impact. Despite this, he was highly-regarded by his colleagues, including Borden, who later stated "there was no one in whose judgment I placed firmer reliance". He was appointed to the Imperial Privy Council
in the 1920 New Year Honours, entitling him to the style "The Right Honourable".
Sifton was one of four Canadian delegates to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919
, along with Borden, Charles Doherty
, and George Eulas Foster
. There, he acted as vice chair of the Commission on Ports, Waterways, and Railways, and served on the Commission on Aerial Navigation. In these capacities he argued for Canada to be treated as an independent state at a time when its foreign policy was still managed by the United Kingdom
. On June 28, 1919, Arthur Sifton was one of two Canadians to sign the Treaty of Versailles
.
In January 1921, Sifton became ill and took leave from his duties for a few days. After recovery seemed imminent, his condition suddenly worsened and he died January 21 at the age of 62. Borden mourned the loss of "a public servant of the highest ability and of the most conspicuous patriotism".
Queen's Privy Council for Canada
The Queen's Privy Council for Canada ), sometimes called Her Majesty's Privy Council for Canada or simply the Privy Council, is the full group of personal consultants to the monarch of Canada on state and constitutional affairs, though responsible government requires the sovereign or her viceroy,...
, KC (October 26, 1858 – January 21, 1921) was a Canadian politician who served as the second Premier of Alberta
Premier of Alberta
The Premier of Alberta is the first minister for the Canadian province of Alberta. He or she is the province's head of government and de facto chief executive. The current Premier of Alberta is Alison Redford. She became Premier by winning the Progressive Conservative leadership elections on...
from 1910 until 1917 and as a minister in the Government of Canada
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...
thereafter. Born in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, he grew up there and in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, where he became a lawyer. He subsequently practiced law with his brother Clifford Sifton
Clifford Sifton
Sir Clifford Sifton, PC, KCMG was a Canadian politician best known for being Minister of the Interior under Sir Wilfrid Laurier...
in Brandon
Brandon, Manitoba
Brandon is the second largest city in Manitoba, Canada, and is located in the southwestern area of the province. Brandon is the largest city in the Westman region of Manitoba. The city is located along the Assiniboine River. Spruce Woods Provincial Park and CFB Shilo are a relatively short distance...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, where he was also active in municipal politics. He moved west to Prince Albert
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
Prince Albert is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is situated in the centre of the province on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. The city is known as the "Gateway to the North" because it is the last major centre along the route to the resources of northern Saskatchewan...
in 1885 and to Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
in 1889. There he was elected to the 4th
4th North-West Legislative Assembly
4th North-West Legislative Assembly was the 6th meeting of the Northwest Territories Legislature, it lasted from 1898 to 1902. This was also the first new council after creation of the Yukon from the extreme North West portion of the territories on June 13, 1898.-External links:*...
and 5th
5th North-West Legislative Assembly
The 5th North-West Legislative Assembly lasted from 1902 until dissolution in 1905. This would be the largest membership of any Assembly to date in the Northwest Territories and the only one that truly had political parties, it would also be the last one to be fully elected and have a speaker until...
North-West Legislative Assemblies; he later served as a minister in the government of Premier Frederick W. A. G. Haultain
Frederick W. A. G. Haultain
Sir Frederick William Alpin Gordon Haultain was a lawyer and a long serving Canadian politician and judge. His career in provincial and territorial legislatures stretched into four decades...
. In 1903, the federal government, at the instigation of his brother who was now one of its ministers, made Arthur Sifton the Chief Justice of the Northwest Territories. When Alberta was created out of a portion of the Northwest Territories in 1905, Sifton became its first chief justice.
In 1910, the government of Alberta Premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford
Alexander Cameron Rutherford
Alexander Cameron Rutherford was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the first Premier of Alberta from 1905 to 1910. Born in Ormond, Ontario, he studied and practised law in Ottawa before moving with his family to the Northwest Territories in 1895...
was embroiled in the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal
Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal
The Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Scandal was a political scandal in Alberta, Canada in 1910. It resulted in the resignation of the provincial government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford over allegations of conflict of interest in the government's involvement in the financing of the Alberta...
. The Liberal Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta, George Bulyea, determined that for the sake of the Liberal Party of Alberta Rutherford had to be pushed aside in favour of a new Premier; when other prominent Liberals declined it, the position was offered to Sifton. As Premier, he smoothed over the divisions in the party that had caused and been exacerbated by the railway scandal. He made attempts to break with the Rutherford railway policy; when these were rebuffed by the courts, he adopted a course similar to Rutherford's. He unsuccessfully pursued the transfer of rights over Alberta's natural resources from the federal government, which had retained them by the terms of Alberta's provincehood.
While Sifton was Premier, the United Farmers of Alberta
United Farmers of Alberta
The United Farmers of Alberta is an association of Alberta farmers that has served many different roles throughout its history as a lobby group, a political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. Since 1934 it has primarily been an agricultural supply cooperative headquartered in Calgary...
rose as a political force. Sifton tried to accommodate many of their demands: his government constructed agricultural colleges, incorporated a farmer-run grain elevator
Grain elevator
A grain elevator is a tower containing a bucket elevator, which scoops up, elevates, and then uses gravity to deposit grain in a silo or other storage facility...
cooperative, and implemented a municipal system of hail
Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between and in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms...
insurance. Outside of the agricultural sphere, the UFA was instrumental in the Sifton government's implementation of some direct democracy
Direct democracy
Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
measures (which resulted in prohibition
Prohibition in Canada
The temperance movement reached its height in Canada in the 1920s, when outside imports were cut off by provincial referendums. As legislation prohibiting consumption of alcohol was repealed, it was typically replaced with regulation restricting the sale of alcohol to minors and imposing excise...
) and the extension of the vote to women.
During the conscription crisis of 1917
Conscription Crisis of 1917
The Conscription Crisis of 1917 was a political and military crisis in Canada during World War I.-Background:...
, Sifton supported the Conservative
Conservative Party of Canada (historical)
The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
Prime Minister, Robert Borden
Robert Borden
Sir Robert Laird Borden, PC, GCMG, KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911 to July 10, 1920, and was the third Nova Scotian to hold this office...
, in his attempt to impose conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
to help win the First World War. He backed the creation of a Union
Unionist Party (Canada)
The Unionist Party was formed in 1917 by Members of Parliament in Canada who supported the "Union government" formed by Sir Robert Borden during the First World War....
government composed of Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals. In 1917 he left provincial politics and became a minister in this government. Over the next three and a half years he served briefly in four different ministries and was a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
. He died in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
in January 1921 after a brief illness.
Early life
Arthur Sifton was born October 26, 1858, in Arva, OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, to John Wright Sifton
John Wright Sifton
John Wright Sifton was a 19th century Manitoba politician and the founder of an important political family in Western Canada....
(1833–1912) and Catherine "Kate" Watkins (1832–1909). He was the older brother of Clifford Sifton
Clifford Sifton
Sir Clifford Sifton, PC, KCMG was a Canadian politician best known for being Minister of the Interior under Sir Wilfrid Laurier...
. He attended public schools across southern Ontario, culminating with a boys' school in Dundas
Dundas, Ontario
Dundas is a formerly independent town and now constituent community in the city of Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. It's nickname is the Valley Town. The population has been stable for decades at about twenty thousand, largely because it has not annexed rural land from the protected Dundas Valley...
and high school in London
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
. His father was a devout Methodist and a staunch Reformer
Reform Party (pre-Confederation)
The Reform movement, sometimes referred to as the Reform Party, began in the 1830s as the movement in the English speaking parts of British North America . It agitated for responsible government....
and, later, Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
. These allegiances permeated his home life; the Sifton household was often visited by clergy, laity, businessmen, lawyers, and politicians. In 1874 or 1875, John Sifton won contracts for preliminary construction work on the Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
(CPR) and moved the family to Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, where Arthur completed high school at Wesley College
Wesley College, Winnipeg
Wesley College was a college that existed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from 1888 to 1967. It was one of the University of Winnipeg's founding colleges.-History:...
. Following his graduation, he and Clifford attended Victoria College
Victoria University in the University of Toronto
Victoria University is a constituent college of the University of Toronto, founded in 1836 and named for Queen Victoria. It is commonly called Victoria College, informally Vic, after the original academic component that now forms its undergraduate division...
, then located in Cobourg
Cobourg, Ontario
Cobourg is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario 95 km east of Toronto. It is the largest town in Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is located along Highway 401 and the former Highway 2...
, Ontario. In 1880, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
. While in Cobourg, he was not a devoted student: he skipped many classes, and was judged by his classmates to be "intellectually, morally, physically and erratically preeminent in virtue and otherwise, especially otherwise".
Upon graduation, Arthur Sifton returned to Winnipeg to article
Articled clerk
An articled clerk, also known as an articling student, is an apprentice in a professional firm in Commonwealth countries. Generally the term arises in the accountancy profession and in the legal profession. The articled clerk signs a contract, known as "articles of clerkship", committing to a...
with Albert Monkman until 1881, when he followed his father to Brandon
Brandon, Manitoba
Brandon is the second largest city in Manitoba, Canada, and is located in the southwestern area of the province. Brandon is the largest city in the Westman region of Manitoba. The city is located along the Assiniboine River. Spruce Woods Provincial Park and CFB Shilo are a relatively short distance...
. John hoped to take advantage of a local real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
boom; nominally, Arthur was running a Brandon branch of Monkman's law firm, though he had not yet finished his articling and was accordingly unqualified to practice law. On September 20, 1882, he married Mary Deering of Cobourg; the pair would have two children, Nellie Louise Sifton (born August 1883) and Lewis Raymond St Clair Sifton (born February 1898). In 1883, he wrote and passed his bar exam and joined Clifford's Brandon law firm, now styled Sifton and Sifton.
University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
historian David Hall describes the next phase of Sifton's life as "shrouded in mystery". For reasons that are not clear, in 1885 Sifton dissolved his partnership with his brother and moved his family to Prince Albert
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
Prince Albert is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is situated in the centre of the province on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. The city is known as the "Gateway to the North" because it is the last major centre along the route to the resources of northern Saskatchewan...
. (Hall speculates that the brothers had a falling out, but notes that their later working relationship appears to have been amicable.) In 1885, Prince Albert's prospects did not appear bright, as it had been bypassed by the CPR line. Regardless, Sifton practiced law and was in 1885 made a notary public
Notary public
A notary public in the common law world is a public officer constituted by law to serve the public in non-contentious matters usually concerned with estates, deeds, powers-of-attorney, and foreign and international business...
. Three years later, he earned a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
from Victoria College and a Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws
The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...
from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
. In 1889, he relocated again, to Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
; there is some suggestion that this move was for the sake of his wife's health. There he opened a law office, worked in the office of the city solicitor, and became a partner in the firm of Sifton, Short, and Stuart. At one point he was a crown prosecutor
Crown Prosecutor
Crown Prosecutors are the public prosecutors in the legal system of Australia.Crown Prosecutors represent the Crown in right of the Commonwealth and in right of each State or Territory in criminal proceedings. Crown Prosecutors are appointed not elected and not public servants; they are private...
. In 1892, he was appointed Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
.
Early political career
Sifton's first foray into politics was in 1878, when he campaigned for the introduction of prohibitionProhibition in Canada
The temperance movement reached its height in Canada in the 1920s, when outside imports were cut off by provincial referendums. As legislation prohibiting consumption of alcohol was repealed, it was typically replaced with regulation restricting the sale of alcohol to minors and imposing excise...
under the auspices of the Canada Temperance Act
Canada Temperance Act
The Canada Temperance Act was an Act of the Parliament of Canada in 1878, which provided for an option for municipalities to opt-in by plebiscite to a prohibitionary scheme...
in the Manitoba electoral districts of Lisgar
Lisgar (electoral district)
Lisgarwas a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1871 to 1988. This riding was created following the admission of Manitoba into the Canadian Confederation in 1870....
and Marquette. His first bid for elected office took place in 1882, when he was elected to Brandon's first city council. He was re-elected in 1883, and did not seek re-election at the conclusion of this second term, though he did briefly consider running for mayor before concluding that he had insufficient support to be elected. He also served on the local school board. When his brother Clifford became Wilfrid Laurier
Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, GCMG, PC, KC, baptized Henri-Charles-Wilfrid Laurier was the seventh Prime Minister of Canada from 11 July 1896 to 6 October 1911....
's Minister of the Interior in November 1896, Sifton advised him on Liberal Party affairs in western Canada. This advice included suggested patronage
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
appointments, one of which was an unimplemented proposal that Arthur himself be appointed chief justice of the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
(a position that did not at the time exist). In 1898, Sifton re-entered politics—Hall speculates to increase his chances at a judgeship—by challenging Robert Brett
Robert Brett
Robert George Brett was a politician and physician in the North-West Territories and later Alberta, Canada....
, the long-time Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories for Banff, in the 1898 territorial election
Northwest Territories general election, 1898
The Northwest Territories general election of 1898 took place on 4 November 1898. This was the fourth general election in the history of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories....
. Election day returns showed Sifton with a plurality of thirty-six votes, but by the time contested ballots were dealt with this had turned into a majority of two votes for Brett. Sifton successfully challenged this result in court, and in the ensuing by-election he defeated Brett by a comfortable margin. One oft-repeated anecdote from the campaign involved a campaign forum for which Brett was late. After giving his own speech, Sifton offered to give the still-absent Brett's speech as well, since he had heard it so many times. He did so, and when Brett eventually arrived to give a speech nearly identical to the one Sifton had given on his behalf he was puzzled by the audience's amusement.
Having defeated Brett, Sifton was immediately one of the area's most prominent Liberals, and was named president of the District of Alberta
District of Alberta
The District of Alberta was one of four districts of the Northwest Territories created in 1882. It was styled the Alberta Provisional District to distinguish it from the District of Keewatin which had a more autonomous relationship from the NWT administration...
Liberals shortly thereafter. In 1901 Clifford Sifton appointed James Hamilton Ross
James Hamilton Ross
James Hamilton Ross was a Canadian politician, the Yukon Territory's third Commissioner, and an ardent defender of territorial rights...
, Northwest Territories Treasurer and Minister of Public Works, Commissioner of Yukon. It fell to Northwest Territories Premier Frederick William Gordon Haultain to fill the ensuing vacancy and, to preserve the delicate non-partisan balance of his administration, he had to pick a successor who was, like Ross, a Liberal. The role fell to Sifton. Soon after his appointment, Clifford offered him his sought-after position of Northwest Territories Chief Justice; Arthur declined on the basis of his recently-assumed ministerial duties, but made it clear that he was still interested in receiving it eventually.
As minister, Sifton had to cope with increasing expenses and with grants from the federal government that did not keep pace. He dealt with this through support for territorial autonomy—the creation of one or more new provinces from the Northwest Territories. Campaigning on this position, he was re-elected in the 1902 territorial election
Northwest Territories general election, 1902
The Northwest Territories general election of 1902, occurred on 21 May 1902 and was the fifth general election in the history of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. This was the last election held until 1951,...
. Months later, however, T. H. Maguire retired as territorial chief justice, and this time Sifton accepted his brother's offer of the position. He resigned his political offices in January 1903.
Career as a jurist
Despite the accusations of nepotismNepotism
Nepotism is favoritism granted to relatives regardless of merit. The word nepotism is from the Latin word nepos, nepotis , from which modern Romanian nepot and Italian nipote, "nephew" or "grandchild" are also descended....
that greeted his appointment on January 3, 1903, Sifton fast became a well-respected judge. He served as chief justice of the Northwest Territories until September 16, 1907, when the Supreme Court of Alberta was established, whereupon he headed this new court, sitting in Calgary as the first Chief Justice of Alberta. He was notoriously difficult for barristers to read: he generally heard arguments expressionlessly smoking a cigar, and it was as a judge that he first acquired his long-time nickname of the Sphinx
Sphinx
A sphinx is a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head or a cat head.The sphinx, in Greek tradition, has the haunches of a lion, the wings of a great bird, and the face of a woman. She is mythicised as treacherous and merciless...
for his inscrutability. In one trial, he sat apparently vigorously taking notes during both sides' lengthy closing arguments and, once they concluded, immediately delivered his judgment. The bewildered lawyers wondered what he had been writing down, since he had obviously made up his mind before closing arguments; once Sifton had left the courtroom, they found their answer in the form of page after page covered with the judge's signature. He rarely recorded his ratio decidendi
Ratio decidendi
Ratio decidendi is a Latin phrase meaning "the reason" or "the rationale for the decision." The ratio decidendi is "[t]he point in a case which determines the judgment" or "the principle which the case establishes."...
but, despite this, few of his decisions were overturned on appeal. It has also been argued that his fellow judges had difficulty ruling on appeals from his decisions specifically because he rarely provided reasons. Much of his work was in criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
, dealing especially with theft of livestock (in which cases he generally delivered a sentence of three years hard labour, severe by the standards of the day). By the end of his judicial career, he had convicted as many Americans as Canadians. His rulings were generally concerned with practicalities rather than legal theory, based more on social morality than legal precedent, and he did not establish any important precedents
Stare decisis
Stare decisis is a legal principle by which judges are obliged to respect the precedents established by prior decisions...
.
In 1907, Sifton was one member of a three-member commission assigned to investigate labour unrest between coal miners and mine operators. His colleagues were mining executive Lewis Stockett and miners' union executive William Haysom. Miners' demands included increased wages, a reduction in working hours to eight per day (from ten), the posting of mine inspection reports, the isolated storage of explosives, the use of non-freezing explosives, and semi-monthly rather than monthly pay. The mine operators objected to this last point on the basis that many miners did not report to work the day after payday, and it was thus desirable to keep paydays to a minimum. The commission recommended that children under sixteen should not be allowed to work in mines, that inspectors should post their reports, that mine sites should have bath houses, and that ventilation inspection should be improved. It also recommended that Albertans keep a supply of coal on hand during the summer for winter use. The commission was silent on wages (except to say that these should not be fixed by legislation), the operation of company stores (a sore point among the miners), and the incorporation
Incorporation (business)
Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...
of mine unions (which was recommended by mines but opposed by the unions). It made no recommendation about working hours, but Premier Alexander Rutherford's government legislated an eight hour day anyway.
He resigned from the bench on May 25, 1910 to become Premier.
Ascension and cabinet-building
In 1910, the LiberalAlberta Liberal Party
The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Originally founded in 1905, when the province was created, it was the dominant political party until 1921 when it was defeated. It has never been in government since that time...
government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford
Alexander Cameron Rutherford
Alexander Cameron Rutherford was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the first Premier of Alberta from 1905 to 1910. Born in Ormond, Ontario, he studied and practised law in Ottawa before moving with his family to the Northwest Territories in 1895...
was embroiled in the Alberta and Great Waterways (A&GW) Railway scandal
Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal
The Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Scandal was a political scandal in Alberta, Canada in 1910. It resulted in the resignation of the provincial government of Alexander Cameron Rutherford over allegations of conflict of interest in the government's involvement in the financing of the Alberta...
. Accusations of favouritism by the government towards the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway had split the Liberal Party, and Rutherford's ability to remain at its head was in doubt. Lieutenant-Governor George Bulyea, a Liberal who had reluctantly asked Rutherford to form a government in 1905, saw his doubts about the Premier's leadership skills validated and quietly began looking for candidates to replace him and save the Liberal Party. Several possibilities—including William Henry Cushing
William Henry Cushing
William Henry Cushing was a Canadian politician. Born in Ontario, he migrated west as a young adult where he started a successful lumber company and later became Alberta's first Minister of Public Works and the 11th mayor of Calgary...
, Peter Talbot
Peter Talbot (politician)
Peter Talbot was a Canadian parliamentarian.Born in Eramosa, Canada West , he moved to Fort Macleod, Alberta, in 1890 to teach school. In 1892, he moved to Lacombe, Alberta, to homestead and raise cattle.In 1902 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Northwest Territories and served until...
, and Frank Oliver—were considered and either rejected or found to be uninterested in the job. As early as March 14, Bulyea had concluded that Sifton might be "the only permanent solution", though it was not until May that the Lieutenant-Governor was able to secure Rutherford's agreement to resign and the agreement of both major factions in the Liberal caucus to accept Sifton as Premier. Even up until the last minute, Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) loyal to Charles Wilson Cross—the province's Attorney-General and a staunch Rutherford ally—threatened to scuttle the arrangement unless Cross was kept on as attorney-general, to which Sifton refused to agree. On May 26, Rutherford resigned and Arthur Sifton became the second Premier of Alberta.
One of his first challenges was to craft a cabinet satisfactory to all factions; this he did by excluding the leaders of all sides. He himself took the portfolios of Public Works and Provincial Treasurer. Charles R. Mitchell
Charles R. Mitchell
Charles Richmond Mitchell was a Canadian lawyer, judge, cabinet minister and former Leader of the Official Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.-Early life:...
, who like Sifton had been a judge during the scandal and had accordingly played no part in it, became Minister of Education and Attorney-General. Archibald J. McLean
Archibald J. McLean
Archibald J. McLean was a politician from Alberta, Canada.McLean was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1909 Alberta general election as an Independent Liberal...
was named Provincial Secretary. His support for the insurgents (though not as one of their leaders) was offset by the continuation of Rutherford's Agriculture Minister Duncan Marshall
Duncan Marshall
Duncan McLean Marshall was a journalist, publisher, rancher provincial level politician and Minister of Agriculture in 2 provinces and later served in the Canadian Senate representing the province of Ontario.-Early life:Marshall made his first run at federal politics running in the Muskoka riding...
, who had played no particular role during the scandal but had remained loyal to Rutherford. To the consternation of the opposition Conservatives
Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta
The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta is a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta...
, Bulyea prorogued the legislation before this new government's strength could be tested by a vote of confidence. Still, its acceptance by the Liberal caucus can be measured by the fact that only one member, Ezra Riley
Ezra Riley
Ezra Hounsfield Riley was a politician and rancher from Alberta, Canada.-Early life:Riley was born in 1866 in Yorkville, Ontario. He owned a large sum of land that he sold off to the City of Calgary in 1904...
, resigned in protest. Riley objected to the exclusion from cabinet of insurgency leader W. H. Cushing; after his resignation he ran as an independent Liberal in the ensuing by-election, but was defeated by Sifton supporter Archibald J. McArthur
Archibald J. McArthur
Archibald John "A.J." McArthur was a Canadian politician.-Early life:Archibald moved to Calgary in 1887, He was active in the community, founding the Calgary neighborhood of Crescent Heights...
. As time began to heal old wounds, Sifton expanded his cabinet to include several of the old adversaries: in February 1912 Cross was re-instated as Attorney-General and rebel leader John R. Boyle
John R. Boyle
John Robert Boyle was a Canadian politician and jurist who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, a cabinet minister in the Government of Alberta, and a judge on the Supreme Court of Alberta. Born in Ontario, he came west and eventually settled in Edmonton, where he practiced...
was made Minister of Education (Mitchell, who had previously held both of these posts, was transferred to the Public Works portfolio). The other new additions to cabinet—Malcolm McKenzie
Malcolm McKenzie
Malcolm McKenzie was a Canadian politician who served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and, briefly, as Alberta Provincial Treasurer.-Early life:...
as Provincial Treasurer and Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart (Canadian politician)
Charles Stewart, PC was a Canadian politician who served as the third Premier of Alberta from 1917 until 1921. Born in Strabane, Ontario, in Wentworth County, Stewart was a farmer who moved west to Alberta after his farm was destroyed by a storm...
in the new position of Minister of Municipal Affairs—had voted with the Rutherford government during the scandal.
Another early challenge for the new Premier was to win a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
Legislative Assembly of Alberta
The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is one of two components of the Legislature of Alberta, the other being the Queen, represented by the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta. The Alberta legislature meets in the Alberta Legislature Building in the provincial capital, Edmonton...
. Although he lived and worked in Calgary, his first cabinet was composed mostly of southern members (McLean represented Lethbridge District
Lethbridge District
Lethbridge District was a Provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada.The district was created during the 1909 Provincial election.The creation saw Lethbridge split into Lethbridge City and Lethbridge district...
, Marshall represented Olds
Olds (provincial electoral district)
Olds was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district was mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1909 to 1963. The district was combined with the Didsbury electoral district to form Olds-Didsbury...
, and Mitchell would soon be elected in Medicine Hat
Medicine Hat (provincial electoral district)
Medicine Hat is an Albertan provincial electoral district, covering most of the city of Medicine Hat.Under the Alberta electoral boundary re-distribution of 2004, the constituency covers the portion of the city north of the South Saskatchewan River, the Trans-Canada Highway and Carry Drive...
), so Sifton had Archibald Campbell resign his Vermilion seat and sought election there. Sifton made few promises during the campaign, though he did identify as his priorities "the development of [Alberta's] agricultural and mining resources and the transportation facilities". Despite accusations by the Conservatives that the Liberals bought "the foreign vote" with beer, whiskey, and tobacco, he won a comfortable majority.
Railway policy
Before resigning, Rutherford's government had called a Royal CommissionRoyal Commission
In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...
into the Alberta and Great Waterways affair, and this commission had not reported by the time that Sifton took office. Between that and the proroguing of the legislature, the new Premier enjoyed a calm that lasted until November 10, when the legislature reconvened. Conservative leader Edward Michener
Edward Michener
Edward Michener was a politician from Alberta, Canada. He was born in Tintern, Ontario.Edward was acclaimed as Mayor of Red Deer, Alberta. In the 1904 Mayoral race, he held that position for 2 terms until 1906....
attacked the government's speech from the throne
Speech from the Throne
A speech from the throne is an event in certain monarchies in which the reigning sovereign reads a prepared speech to a complete session of parliament, outlining the government's agenda for the coming session...
for failing to commit itself on railway policy and attacked Sifton for failing to call a general election or seek the confidence of the legislature during his first half year in office. In the meantime, Sifton was facing a breach in his own party on the railway question. Many Liberals from the south of the province, including Sifton himself, felt inclined to abandon the construction of "pioneer" railways (such as the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway) designed to hasten the settlement of the province's emptier areas, and concentrate only on those connecting major population centres. Members from the north of the province, who comprised most of the Liberal caucus, disagreed, and were vehement in their insistence that the A&GW be built. Even among this latter group there were divisions: some Liberals agreed with the Conservatives that the railway should be directly built by the government, while others, including Cross, favoured a partnership with a "responsible company". These divisions were not calmed by the release of the commission's report, whose majority condemned Rutherford and Cross for poor judgment even as it concluded that there was insufficient evidence to find that they had engaged in improper behaviour.
It was against this backdrop that Sifton announced his government's policy with respect to the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Company. Because it had failed to meet its construction obligations, Sifton introduced legislation to confiscate the proceeds of the sale of government-guaranteed bonds
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
sold to finance the railway's construction. He gave no indication of how the money, which was being held in trust by several banks, would be used. Cross's faction of (primarily northern) Liberals opposed the bill on the grounds that it did not commit the government to using the money to construct the railway, while the Conservatives opposed it as an unjustified confiscation of private property. As Conservative R. B. Bennett
R. B. Bennett
Richard Bedford Bennett, 1st Viscount Bennett, PC, KC was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, politician, and philanthropist. He served as the 11th Prime Minister of Canada from August 7, 1930, to October 23, 1935, during the worst of the Great Depression years...
said,
[The bill is] an act of confiscation, an act such as never before has been carried out in the British Empire, an act such as has few equals in the pages of history. Similar acts have been carried out, once in Nicaragua and Virginia, and in South Carolina and only in times of war or revolution ... In my opinion the bargain was an improvident one, but that does not justify confiscation ... I did not think the new road would pay. But it is a new doctrine that because a bargain did not pay it should be repudiated and one should become a repudiator of bargains and a confiscator of private rights.
In speaking of A&GW President William Clarke (an American), Bennett went on to say "Clarke I despise but Clarke I am bound to respect, because this province gave him a right by charter and if I know the United States I do not think it will allow this province to take his property without due process of the law." The Conservatives, however, had not been expected to support the legislation; the real question was whether Sifton could command enough support among Liberals to pass it. After all, during the Alberta and Great Waterways crisis only nine months earlier, a legislature of very similar makeup had endorsed the Rutherford government's handling of railway policy by a vote of twenty-three votes to fifteen; would Sifton's bill, effectively a repudiation of the Rutherford policy, convince enough Liberals to change sides? The answer came in December, when the bill passed third reading by a vote of twenty-five votes to fourteen. Nine Liberals had reversed themselves and saved Sifton's government, though both Cross and Rutherford were among those to vote against it.
Despite calls from Clarke for the federal government to use its power of reservation
Disallowance and reservation
Disallowance and reservation are constitutional powers that theoretically exist in certain Commonwealth realms to delay or overrule legislation. Originally created to retain the Crown's authority over colonial authorities across the British Empire, these powers are now generally obsolete, or have...
to stop the legislation, Bulyea granted royal assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
December 16. Sifton, in his capacity as provincial treasurer, immediately tried to access the money; the Royal
Royal Bank of Canada
The Royal Bank of Canada or RBC Financial Group is the largest financial institution in Canada, as measured by deposits, revenues, and market capitalization. The bank serves seventeen million clients and has 80,100 employees worldwide. The company corporate headquarters are located in Toronto,...
, Dominion
Toronto-Dominion Bank
The Toronto-Dominion Bank , is the second-largest bank in Canada by market capitalization and based on assets. It is also the sixth largest bank in North America. Commonly known as TD and operating as TD Bank Group, the bank was created in 1955 through the merger of the Bank of Toronto and the...
, and Union
Union Bank of Halifax
The Union Bank of Halifax was granted a charter by the government of Canada in 1856 and established its head office at the corner of Hollis and Prince Streets in the port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia....
banks, where the funds were deposited, refused payment. Attorney-General Mitchell sued the banks; on November 4, 1911, Justice Charles Allen Stuart
Charles Stuart (politician)
Charles Allan Stuart was a Canadian politician and jurist in the province of Alberta. Born and educated in Ontario, he came west in 1897 and set up a law practice in Calgary. After a failed election bid to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories, he was elected to the Calgary City...
of the Supreme Court of Alberta found in the government's favour. The Royal Bank appealed this ruling and unsuccessfully petitioned the federal government to use its powers of disallowance to strike down the provincial act. In the meantime, Sifton announced a new railway policy that would see eight new lines constructed by private companies with the assistance of provincial loan guarantees, including several pioneer lines; this policy, in its resemblance to the Rutherford policy, met with the approval of the Cross faction, and the Liberals were once more united.
In 1912, Justice Stuart's ruling was upheld by the Supreme Court of Alberta en banc
En banc
En banc, in banc, in banco or in bank is a French term used to refer to the hearing of a legal case where all judges of a court will hear the case , rather than a panel of them. It is often used for unusually complex cases or cases considered to be of greater importance...
. Again the Royal Bank appealed, and on January 31, 1913, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is one of the highest courts in the United Kingdom. Established by the Judicial Committee Act 1833 to hear appeals formerly heard by the King in Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is one of the highest courts in the United...
, which was at the time Canada's highest judicial authority, found for the Royal Bank, ruling that the provincial government did not have the right to confiscate money raised outside of the province. On September 22 Sifton announced new management of the AG&W agreeable to the bondholders, the government, and the banks. The Conservatives protested that other companies were prepared to construct the railroad for less than the sum agreed on with the A&GW, to which Sifton replied that the Privy Council's ruling meant that the government could not use the money raised to deal with any other company. The Conservatives filibuster
Filibuster
A filibuster is a type of parliamentary procedure. Specifically, it is the right of an individual to extend debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal...
ed the legislation and moved a series of amendments (including one calling for the scheme to be put to referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
), but the Liberals voted unanimously in its favour. The Alberta and Great Waterways saga had reached its end, and Sifton's caucus was never more united.
Natural resources
When Alberta and SaskatchewanSaskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
had been made provinces in 1905, the federal government had retained control over their lands and natural resources, which made the new provinces unique in Canada. The Rutherford government had acquiesced to this state of affairs: because the terms of confederation had been drawn up by the Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, it was natural for the provincial Liberal Party to cast itself as their defender. In this capacity, Rutherford pointed to the $375,000 per year that the provincial government received from the federal government as compensation. In 1910, however, Liberal MLA Alwyn Bramley-Moore (who was a staunch provincial rights advocate and who many years later would be called "Alberta's first separatist
Alberta separatism
Alberta separatism is a movement that advocates the secession of the province of Alberta from Canada either by forming an independent nation, or by creating a new federation with one or more of Canada's other three westernmost provinces.-Foundations:...
" by the Edmonton Journal
Edmonton Journal
The Edmonton Journal is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network.-History:The Journal was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as a rival to Alberta's first newspaper, the 23-year-old...
) moved a resolution calling on the Sifton government to "take such steps as may be deemed necessary to acquire the control of all such natural resources as are of purely local concern". Sifton responded that it was already the intention of his government to begin negotiations with the federal government to this end. He asserted "I have always believed ... that we should administer our mines and timber. The question is not now whether we would like to control our natural resources, but what is the best way to get them."
Canadian Club of Toronto
The Canadian Club of Toronto is a club in Toronto which meets several times a month to hear lunchtime speeches given by invited guests from the fields of politics, law, business, the arts, the media, and other prominent fields....
, where his points were well-received. In May 1910, Sifton and Saskatchewan Premier Walter Scott
Thomas Walter Scott
Thomas Walter Scott – known less formally as Walter Scott – was the first Premier of the province of Saskatchewan in Canada .-Background:...
met with Laurier in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, where he was able to secure the Prime Minister's agreement that if the Liberals were re-elected in the 1911 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1911
The Canadian federal election of 1911 was held on September 21 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 12th Parliament of Canada.-Summary:...
they would transfer to Alberta control over its resources. This election was fought primarily on the issue of reciprocity
Reciprocity (Canadian politics)
In nineteenth and early twentieth century Canadian politics, the term reciprocity was used to describe the concept of free trade with the United States of America...
, which was popular in Alberta, and Sifton campaigned actively for Laurier (distinguishing himself from his brother, who broke with Laurier on reciprocity). Despite winning six of Alberta's seven seats, the Liberals were defeated by Robert Borden
Robert Borden
Sir Robert Laird Borden, PC, GCMG, KC was a Canadian lawyer and politician. He served as the eighth Prime Minister of Canada from October 10, 1911 to July 10, 1920, and was the third Nova Scotian to hold this office...
's Conservatives
Conservative Party of Canada (historical)
The Conservative Party of Canada has gone by a variety of names over the years since Canadian Confederation. Initially known as the "Liberal-Conservative Party", it dropped "Liberal" from its name in 1873, although many of its candidates continued to use this name.As a result of World War I and the...
.
Initially, this did not appear to be a problem: Borden had long called for the transfer of resource control to the prairie provinces, but when Sifton and Scott raised the issue with the new Prime Minister, little action resulted. Borden stalled for some time, and it emerged that he did not wish to buoy the fortunes of the provincial Liberal parties by giving them the political victory that would result from the transfer of resource control. Upon the outbreak of the First World War, the issue fell out of public prominence, and it was not until 1930 that Alberta would achieve this long-time objective.
Agricultural policy
Sifton's time as Premier corresponded with the rise of the United Farmers of AlbertaUnited Farmers of Alberta
The United Farmers of Alberta is an association of Alberta farmers that has served many different roles throughout its history as a lobby group, a political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. Since 1934 it has primarily been an agricultural supply cooperative headquartered in Calgary...
(UFA) as a political force. Formed in 1909 by the merger of the Society of Equity and the Alberta Farmers' Association, the UFA would later become a political party and govern Alberta from 1921 until 1935. During Sifton's tenure, however, its entry into direct politics was still several years away, and it confined itself to advocating for farmers' interests. In a province in which 50,004 people voted in the 1909 provincial election
Alberta general election, 1909
The Alberta general election was 1909 was the second general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on 22 March 1909 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta....
, the UFA claimed an initial membership of 2,100, which climbed to 9,400 in 1913. Moreover, these figures did not include the many farmers who were active in the organization without paying dues; the UFA was a force to be reckoned with, and Sifton took notice.
The UFA's first provincial victory took place in 1910, and involved the construction of agricultural colleges. While Premier, Alexander Rutherford, always a stalwart ally of the University of Alberta
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta and Henry Marshall Tory, its first president, it is widely recognized as one of the best universities in Canada...
, approved a plan to locate Alberta's first agricultural college on the university's campus, in Rutherford's home town of Strathcona
Strathcona, Alberta
Strathcona was a city in Alberta, Canada, located on the south of the North Saskatchewan River opposite of the City of Edmonton. It amalgamated with Edmonton on February 1, 1912....
. At the 1910 UFA convention, a resolution proposed putting the college in southern Alberta, though it was supplanted by an Edward Michener
Edward Michener
Edward Michener was a politician from Alberta, Canada. He was born in Tintern, Ontario.Edward was acclaimed as Mayor of Red Deer, Alberta. In the 1904 Mayoral race, he held that position for 2 terms until 1906....
motion calling for the UFA's leadership to consult with the province on a mutually amenable location. After consultation with the UFA, Sifton agreed that, in addition to the college, agricultural schools would be built around the province, and that farmers would be guaranteed representation on the college's board. In fact, Sifton held off on the establishment of the college all together in favour of the creation of seven demonstration farms in different regions of the province. In 1912, the government announced the creation of agricultural colleges in connection with three of these farms (all of them in the ridings
Electoral district
An electoral district is a distinct territorial subdivision for holding a separate election for one or more seats in a legislative body...
of provincial cabinet ministers: Duncan Marshall's Olds, Claresholm
Claresholm, Alberta
Claresholm is a town located within southern Alberta, Canada. It is located on Highway 2, approximately northwest of the City of Lethbridge and south of the City of Calgary. The town is the seat of the Municipal District of Willow Creek No...
in Archibald McLean's Lethbridge District, and Sifton's Vermilion
Vermilion, Alberta
Vermilion is a town in Vermilion River County, central Alberta, Canada. It is located along Highway 41 and Highway 16 .The economy is largely service industry to agriculture....
).
Another of the UFA's policies called for a single tax on land to replace most other forms of taxation. The farmers hoped that this tax would help replace tariff
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
s, which made it harder for them to export their produce, and shift the tax burden towards cities, where land values were higher. They also called for a surtax on undeveloped land to curb land speculation and encourage the sale of land to farmers. On this demand too, Sifton acted: in 1911–1912 he allowed municipalities to levy property tax
Property tax
A property tax is an ad valorem levy on the value of property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state or a municipality...
es and required that rural municipalities tax only land, and in 1914 he imposed a provincial tax on undeveloped land to discourage land speculation. Other UFA-motivated acts by Sifton's government included abandonment of a 1912 plan to privatize hail
Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation. It consists of balls or irregular lumps of ice, each of which is referred to as a hail stone. Hail stones on Earth consist mostly of water ice and measure between and in diameter, with the larger stones coming from severe thunderstorms...
insurance (it instead enacted a municipal insurance scheme) and the prohibition of contract clauses that allowed farm machinery companies to avoid responsibility for their products. Perhaps the most important piece of farm legislation passed by Sifton's government was the incorporation of the Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company, Limited (AFCEC). Though the UFA's first preference was for government ownership and operation of grain elevators, which Sifton refused, it gladly accepted the AFCEC, in which only farmers could hold shares and which was supported by provincial startup loans.
Hall writes that "the Sifton government in effect responded wholly or in part to practically every resolution from the 1913 UFA convention related to provincial powers." This rate could not sustain itself, however, especially once the First World War began to occupy an increasing share of the province's attention and resources. During the 1916 legislative session, the government acted on only two of the UFA's twenty-three demands of that year — one to allow the sale of gopher
Gopher (animal)
The term gopher as it is commonly used does not relate to any one species, but is a generic term used to describe any of several small burrowing rodents endemic to North America, including the pocket gopher , also called true gophers, and the ground squirrel , including Richardson's ground squirrel...
poison by UFA locals, and one dealing with brand
Livestock branding
Livestock branding is a technique for marking livestock so as to identify the owner. Originally, livestock branding only referred to a hot brand for large stock, though the term is now also used to refer to other alternative techniques such as freeze branding...
inspection.
Democratic and moral reform
It was not only in agricultural policy that the UFA spread its influence. The organization had a strong progressiveProgressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
bent, and advocated direct democracy
Direct democracy
Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
, women's suffrage
Women's suffrage
Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...
, and prohibition
Prohibition in Canada
The temperance movement reached its height in Canada in the 1920s, when outside imports were cut off by provincial referendums. As legislation prohibiting consumption of alcohol was repealed, it was typically replaced with regulation restricting the sale of alcohol to minors and imposing excise...
. In response to the first of these, Sifton in 1913 introduced the Direct Democracy Act. Though it went somewhat less far than the UFA would have liked—for example, it made no provision for recall
Recall election
A recall election is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before his or her term has ended...
of elected officials—it did allow for Albertans to call a referendum directly by submitting a petition
Petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....
including the names of eligible voters totalling ten percent of the votes cast in the previous provincial election, including at least eight percent in each of eighty-five percent of the province's ridings. The Conservatives were on record as supporting direct democracy, and could therefore criticize the bill only in detail.
The large number of signatures required (beginning with the 1913 election
Alberta general election, 1913
The Alberta general election of 1913 was the third general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The writ was dropped on 25 March 1913 and election day was held 17 April 1913 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Elections in two northern districts took place on 30 July...
, 9,399 signatures were required) meant that only an issue capable of galvanizing much of the province could lead to a referendum. Prohibition was such an issue. The Conservatives were advocates of such a referendum (during the 1st Alberta Legislative Assembly
1st Alberta Legislative Assembly
1st Legislative Assembly of Alberta lasted from November 9, 1905 to Monday, March 22, 1909.The government was led by Alexander Rutherford of the Alberta Liberal Party, they held an overwhelming majority of seats during the first legislature....
, Conservative Cornelius Hiebert
Cornelius Hiebert
Cornelius "Don" Hiebert was a politician from Alberta, Canada.-Early life:Hiebert was born in Sea of Azov, Russia and lived in Russia and attended school until he was 13 years old, when his family moved to Manitoba, Canada. He worked in a little general store until he decided to move to Didsbury,...
had advocated prohibition or, failing that, a government monopoly on alcohol sales), but Sifton and his Liberals were less enthusiastic. They knew the boon to government coffers that liquor sales represented, and were not eager to alienate either the UFA's moral reformers or the province's hoteliers and saloonkeepers. Once the referendum legislation was in place, however, its advocates wasted no time: in 1914 the legislature accepted a petition bearing 23,656 names, and duly called a referendum on the subject. The Alberta prohibition referendum passed resoundingly, and the legislature passed the Prohibition Act in the spring of 1916. Initially the new Act appeared successful: in 1917 there were 5,151 convictions for all crimes across Alberta, as compared to an annual average of 12,706 over the preceding four years. By the time the province's enforcement of the act was exposed as being either deliberately lax or merely futile, depending on the observer, Sifton had left office.
Alberta's women, especially those of the UFA-affiliated United Farm Women of Alberta, were active in the province's moral reform movement. They were also active in seeking the vote: in 1913 a delegation of them arrived at the legislature demanding the vote; Sifton asked them "did you ladies wash up your luncheon dishes before you came down here to ask me for the vote? If you haven't you'd better go home because you're not going to get any votes from me." In October 1914 another delegation arrived, bearing the signatures of 40,000 people. At that time, the Premier agreed that most traditional objections to extension of the franchise were "played out", but expressed concern at the increases that would result to the cost of elections and uncertainty at whether most of the province's women actually wanted suffrage. In February 1915 a larger delegation arrived at the legislature and occupied the MLAs' seats, demanding that the franchise be extended quickly enough to allow women to vote in the upcoming prohibition referendum; an angry Sifton refused and suggested to the women that if they wanted the vote, they should contact their MLAs and promise that they would use their votes to re-elect them, "which is after all one of the strongest way in which you can appeal to male human nature, as represented in the legislature." Even so, he committed to raising the issue in the legislature after the referendum. On September 17, 1915, he told UFA President James Speakman that he had given instructions for the preparation of a statute "placing men and women in Alberta on the basis of absolute equality so far as Provincial matters are concerned." True to his word, he introduced legislation in the spring of 1916 giving women the vote in all provincial and municipal elections. The Conservatives supported it enthusiastically, and only St. Albert
St. Albert (provincial electoral district)
St. Albert formally styled Saint Albert is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district is one of 83 current districts mandate to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta of Alberta, Canada....
MLA Lucien Boudreau
Lucien Boudreau
Lucien Boudreau was a politician, mayor of St. Albert, Alberta, and member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta .-Early life:...
voted against it (though Ribstone Liberal James Gray Turgeon
James Gray Turgeon
James Gray Turgeon was a broker, soldier and a provincial and federal level politician from Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1913 to 1921 sitting with the Alberta Liberal caucus in government. During that time he also served in World War I.Turgeon had a...
admitted that he was supporting his leader's legislation against his own convictions).
Style and political success
Arthur Sifton's political style was to remain aloof and detached, and to say no more than necessary; this cemented his reputation as "the Sphinx". He was authoritarian and, while he inspired respect, he was not loved; historian L. G. Thomas credits him with holding the Liberal Party together through his strength, but blames him for failing to heal its underlying divisions. Sifton was originally selected as Premier in the hopes that he would lead the Liberal Party to continued dominance of provincial politics in Alberta. His success in this regard was mixed: although he led the party to victory in the 1913Alberta general election, 1913
The Alberta general election of 1913 was the third general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The writ was dropped on 25 March 1913 and election day was held 17 April 1913 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Elections in two northern districts took place on 30 July...
and 1917
Alberta general election, 1917
The Alberta general election of 1917 was the fourth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada, held on 7 June 1917 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta....
elections, its majorities declined each time. Moreover, his victories were marred by accusations of unethical electoral tactics.
In advance of the 1913 election, government-sponsored redistribution
Redistribution (election)
Redistribution , called redistricting in the United States, is the process of changing of political borders. This is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral district boundaries, usually in response to periodic census results that cause malportionment of representation...
legislation increased the number of ridings from 41 to 56 and left them of unequal size; only 103 votes were cast in Clearwater
Clearwater (provincial electoral district)
-District history:The district was controversial because it had only 74 enumerated people when it was created under the 1913 redistribution. It was the smallest district in terms of population in Alberta history. After Joseph State died in 1924, the United Farmers government was facing a possible...
in its first election. The Liberals argued that a model of straight representation by population was inappropriate in a province in which some districts were growing far more quickly than others. David Hall has called the bill a "flagrant gerrymander" and the ensuing election the "crookedest election in Alberta history". There being few policy differences separating the Liberals from the Conservatives, the electoral battle was instead an organizational one, with the two sides accusing one another of bribing ethnic minorities with alcohol and importing elections workers from outside of the province to bribe, intimidate, and mislead rural voters. The Conservatives also accused the Liberals of using government-paid civil servants to campaign for their re-election. Sifton, not confident of victory in his own riding, sought election both there and in Macleod
Macleod (provincial electoral district)
Macleod is a former provincial electoral district that existed from 1905 to 2004 in the province of Alberta.-1905 general election:-1957 liquor plebiscite:...
. In the event, he was defeated there but retained his Vermilion riding.
Since the 1917 election was held in the throes of the First World War, it was unlikely to be an election as usual—indeed, the Conservatives favoured prolonging the legislature until the end of the war. Sifton was not willing to go that far, but did introduce legislation to re-elect, by act of the legislature, the twelve MLAs who had enlisted in the armed forces—of these, seven were Liberals and five Conservatives; one of the Liberals, Joseph Stauffer
Joseph Stauffer
Lieutenant Joseph Emmett Stauffer was a teacher politician and soldier from Alberta, Canada.-Political career:Stauffer was elected to the Alberta Legislature in the 1909 Alberta legislature...
of Disbury
Didsbury (provincial electoral district)
Didsbury is a former provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The electoral district returned a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1909 to 1963.- Members of the Legislative Assembly :-1944 general election:...
, was killed in action before the legislation took effect. The Conservatives supported this legislation, though they later cast aspersions on it by suggesting that of the Liberals re-elected, two had never left Canada. A second piece of election legislation provided for two special MLAs to be elected by the 38,000 Albertans serving overseas; the Conservatives protested that two MLAs was not sufficient for such a large number of voters, especially since Clearwater by this time had only 116 eligible voters.
After a sedate election that the Liberals won by a slightly reduced majority, Sifton announced his resignation as Premier to enter federal politics. Sifton's 1917 victory would be the Liberals' last: his successor, Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart (Canadian politician)
Charles Stewart, PC was a Canadian politician who served as the third Premier of Alberta from 1917 until 1921. Born in Strabane, Ontario, in Wentworth County, Stewart was a farmer who moved west to Alberta after his farm was destroyed by a storm...
, would lose the 1921 election
Alberta general election, 1921
The Alberta general election of 1921 was the fifth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on July 18, 1921 to elect members to the 5th Alberta Legislative Assembly....
to the newly-political UFA. In Thomas's estimation, Sifton would have faced a similar fate in 1917 if the UFA had run candidates then.
Federal politics and death
The Conscription crisis of 1917Conscription Crisis of 1917
The Conscription Crisis of 1917 was a political and military crisis in Canada during World War I.-Background:...
divided the Liberal Party of Canada, and this division extended into the provincial camp. Liberal leader Laurier opposed Prime Minister Borden's proposal to implement wartime conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
, a stand which was denounced by many Liberals, especially those from outside of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, as unpatriotic. Borden reached out to these Liberals to propose a coalition government
Coalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
, to be led by him and to include Conservatives and pro-conscription Liberals. Clifford Sifton was a major broker of the resulting deal and, when the question of a suitable Alberta representative in the cabinet came up, Arthur Sifton was a natural choice. In 1914, he had announced Alberta's willingness to sacrifice "its last dollar and its last man", and was a staunch supporter of conscription. He had agreed by August 1917 to join the Unionist
Unionist Party (Canada)
The Unionist Party was formed in 1917 by Members of Parliament in Canada who supported the "Union government" formed by Sir Robert Borden during the First World War....
government, and resigned as Premier in October.
Although he was only 58 at the time of joining government, his health was suffering. He was short of energy, and required a car to transport him even the several hundred meters from his Ottawa residence to the Canadian House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
. Because of this, he was given relatively undemanding portfolios: Minister of Customs and Inland Revenue, Minister of Public Works, and Secretary of State. Hall has called him among the least visible of Borden's ministers. Because of his health and his short tenure in each position, he made very little impact. Despite this, he was highly-regarded by his colleagues, including Borden, who later stated "there was no one in whose judgment I placed firmer reliance". He was appointed to the Imperial Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
in the 1920 New Year Honours, entitling him to the style "The Right Honourable".
Sifton was one of four Canadian delegates to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
, along with Borden, Charles Doherty
Charles Doherty
Charles Joseph Doherty, PC, KC was a Canadian politician and jurist.Born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Marcus Doherty, a judge of the Supreme Court for the Province of Quebec and Elizabeth Doherty, Doherty was educated at St...
, and George Eulas Foster
George Eulas Foster
Sir George Eulas Foster, PC, PC, GCMG was a Canadian politician and academic. He coined the phrase "splendid isolation" to describe British foreign policy in the late 19th century....
. There, he acted as vice chair of the Commission on Ports, Waterways, and Railways, and served on the Commission on Aerial Navigation. In these capacities he argued for Canada to be treated as an independent state at a time when its foreign policy was still managed by the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. On June 28, 1919, Arthur Sifton was one of two Canadians to sign the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
.
In January 1921, Sifton became ill and took leave from his duties for a few days. After recovery seemed imminent, his condition suddenly worsened and he died January 21 at the age of 62. Borden mourned the loss of "a public servant of the highest ability and of the most conspicuous patriotism".
As party leader
| 1917 Alberta provincial election Alberta general election, 1917 The Alberta general election of 1917 was the fourth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada, held on 7 June 1917 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.... |
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| Party | Party leader | # of candidates |
Seats | Popular vote | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1913 Alberta general election, 1913 The Alberta general election of 1913 was the third general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The writ was dropped on 25 March 1913 and election day was held 17 April 1913 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Elections in two northern districts took place on 30 July... |
1917 Alberta general election, 1917 The Alberta general election of 1917 was the fourth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada, held on 7 June 1917 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.... |
% Change | # | % | % Change |
Liberal Alberta Liberal Party The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Originally founded in 1905, when the province was created, it was the dominant political party until 1921 when it was defeated. It has never been in government since that time... |
|
49 | 38/39 | 34 | -12.8% | 54,212 | 48.14% | -1.09% |
Conservative | Edward Michener Edward Michener was a politician from Alberta, Canada. He was born in Tintern, Ontario.Edward was acclaimed as Mayor of Red Deer, Alberta. In the 1904 Mayoral race, he held that position for 2 terms until 1906.... |
48 | 17 | 19 | +11.8% | 47,055 | 41.79% | -3.31% |
Independent | 11 | - | 2 | 6,569 | 5.83% | +2.08% |
Labour | |
2 | 1 | 3,576 | 3.17% | |
Socialist Socialist Party of Canada There have been two different but related political parties in Canada that called themselves the Socialist Party of Canada . The current Socialist Party is an electorally inactive and unregistered federal political party in Canada... |
|
3 | - | - | - | 784 | 0.70% | -1.17% |
Non-Partisan League Alberta Non-Partisan League The Alberta Non-Partisan League was a minor provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. The league changed its name to the Non-Partisan Political League of Canada: Alberta Branch in 1917 as it prepared to move into federal politics... |
|
1 | - | 416 | 0.37% | |||||||
| Sub-total | 114 | 55/56 | 56 | - | 112,612 | 100% | |
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| |
Soldiers' vote (Province at large) | 21 | 2 | 13,286 | 21.00% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 135 | 55/56 | 58 | +3.6% | 125,898 | 100% | |
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| 1913 Alberta provincial election Alberta general election, 1913 The Alberta general election of 1913 was the third general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The writ was dropped on 25 March 1913 and election day was held 17 April 1913 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Elections in two northern districts took place on 30 July... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Party leader | # of candidates |
Seats | Popular vote | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1909 Alberta general election, 1909 The Alberta general election was 1909 was the second general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on 22 March 1909 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.... |
1913 Alberta general election, 1913 The Alberta general election of 1913 was the third general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The writ was dropped on 25 March 1913 and election day was held 17 April 1913 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Elections in two northern districts took place on 30 July... |
% Change | # | % | % Change | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Liberal Alberta Liberal Party The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Originally founded in 1905, when the province was created, it was the dominant political party until 1921 when it was defeated. It has never been in government since that time... |
|
55/56 | 36 | 38/39 | +8.3% | 47,748 | 49.23% | -10.03% |
Conservative Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta is a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta... |
Edward Michener Edward Michener was a politician from Alberta, Canada. He was born in Tintern, Ontario.Edward was acclaimed as Mayor of Red Deer, Alberta. In the 1904 Mayoral race, he held that position for 2 terms until 1906.... |
56 | 2 | 17 | +750% | 43,737 | 45.10% | +13.4% |
Independent | 14 | 1 | - | -100% | 3,639 | 3.75% | +0.36% |
Socialist Socialist Party of Canada There have been two different but related political parties in Canada that called themselves the Socialist Party of Canada . The current Socialist Party is an electorally inactive and unregistered federal political party in Canada... |
|
5 | 1 | - | -100% | 1,814 | 1.87% | -0.73% |
Independent Liberal | 1 | 1 | - | -100% | 47 | 0.05% | -2.57% | |||||||||||||||||
| Total | 132 | 41 | 55/56 | +36.6% | 96,985 | 100% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As MLA
| 1917 Alberta general election Alberta general election, 1917 The Alberta general election of 1917 was the fourth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada, held on 7 June 1917 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.... results (Vermilion) |
font style="font-size: 90%;">Turnout N.A. | |||
| Liberal Alberta Liberal Party The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Originally founded in 1905, when the province was created, it was the dominant political party until 1921 when it was defeated. It has never been in government since that time... |
Arthur Sifton | 2,063 | 63.0% |
Conservative | John Baker Burch | 1,210 | 37.0% |
| 1913 Alberta general election Alberta general election, 1913 The Alberta general election of 1913 was the third general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The writ was dropped on 25 March 1913 and election day was held 17 April 1913 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Elections in two northern districts took place on 30 July... results (Vermilion) |
font style="font-size: 90%;">Turnout N.A. | |||
| Liberal Alberta Liberal Party The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Originally founded in 1905, when the province was created, it was the dominant political party until 1921 when it was defeated. It has never been in government since that time... |
Arthur Sifton | 772 | 47.7% |
Conservative | J. George Clark | 571 | 35.3% |
Independent Independent (politician) In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do... |
Gregory Krikevsky | 276 | 17.0% |
| 1913 Alberta general election Alberta general election, 1913 The Alberta general election of 1913 was the third general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The writ was dropped on 25 March 1913 and election day was held 17 April 1913 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Elections in two northern districts took place on 30 July... results (Macleod Macleod (provincial electoral district) Macleod is a former provincial electoral district that existed from 1905 to 2004 in the province of Alberta.-1905 general election:-1957 liquor plebiscite:... ) |
font style="font-size: 90%;">Turnout N.A. | |||
| Conservative | Robert Patterson Robert Patterson (politician) Robert Patterson was a politician from Alberta, Canada.Patterson was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in a by-election on October 3, 1910. He won election as a Farmers Choice candidate with a decisive victory defeating Liberal Edward Maunsell. He ran unopposed from the other major... |
579 | 50.8% |
Liberal Alberta Liberal Party The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Originally founded in 1905, when the province was created, it was the dominant political party until 1921 when it was defeated. It has never been in government since that time... |
Arthur Sifton | 560 | 49.2% |
| 1910 by-election results (Vermilion) | font style="font-size: 90%;">Turnout N.A. | |||
| Liberal Alberta Liberal Party The Alberta Liberal Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. Originally founded in 1905, when the province was created, it was the dominant political party until 1921 when it was defeated. It has never been in government since that time... |
Arthur Sifton | 1,018 | 58.9% |
Conservative | J. George Clark | 710 | 41.1% |
| 1902 Northwest Territories general election Northwest Territories general election, 1902 The Northwest Territories general election of 1902, occurred on 21 May 1902 and was the fifth general election in the history of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It was held to elect Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories. This was the last election held until 1951,... results (Banff) |
font style="font-size: 90%;">Turnout N.A. | |||
| Arthur Sifton | 296 | 81.3% | ||
| Robert Smith | 68 | 18.7% | ||
| 1901 by-election results (Banff) | font style="font-size: 90%;">Turnout N.A. | |||
| Arthur Sifton | Acclaimed | |||
| 1899 by-election results (Banff) | font style="font-size: 90%;">Turnout N.A. | |||
| Arthur Sifton | 193 | 54.8% | ||
| Robert Brett Robert Brett Robert George Brett was a politician and physician in the North-West Territories and later Alberta, Canada.... |
159 | 45.2% | ||
| 1898 Northwest Territories general election Northwest Territories general election, 1898 The Northwest Territories general election of 1898 took place on 4 November 1898. This was the fourth general election in the history of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It was held to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories.... results (Banff) |
font style="font-size: 90%;">Turnout N.A. | |||
| Robert Brett Robert Brett Robert George Brett was a politician and physician in the North-West Territories and later Alberta, Canada.... |
181 | 50.3% | ||
| Arthur Sifton | 179 | 49.7% | ||
As MP
| 1917 Canadian federal election Canadian federal election, 1917 The 1917 Canadian federal election was held on December 17, 1917, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 13th Parliament of Canada. Described by historian Michael Bliss as the "most bitter election in Canadian history", it was fought mainly over the issue of conscription... results (Medicine Hat) |
| Unionist | Arthur Sifton | 6,869 | 63.0% |
Opposition Laurier Liberals Prior to the 1917 federal election in Canada, the Liberal Party of Canada split into two factions:* the Laurier Liberals, who opposed conscription of soldiers to support Canada's involvement in World War I and who were led by former Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier; and* the Liberal Unionists who... |
Clifford Bernardo Reilly | 3,568 | 32.7% |
Non-Partisan League Non-Partisan League The Nonpartisan League was a political organization founded in 1915 in the United States by former Socialist Party organizer A. C. Townley. The Nonpartisan League advocated state control of mills, grain elevators, banks and other farm-related industries in order to reduce the power of corporate... |
George Paton | 460 | 4.2% |