Ernest Manning
Encyclopedia
Ernest Charles Manning, (September 20, 1908 – February 19, 1996), a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta
between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta
. He served longer than any premier in the province's history, and was the second longest serving provincial premier in Canadian history
(only after George H. Murray of Nova Scotia
). For a period of time, Manning was the longest continually serving democratically elected official
in the world. He was also the only member of the Social Credit Party of Canada
to ever sit in the Senate
.
, Saskatchewan
in 1908 to English
immigrants George Henry Manning (1872–1956) and Elizabeth Mara Dixon (1870–1949) and was raised on a farm. A devoted listener of the evangelistic radio broadcasts of future Premier William Aberhart
, Manning enrolled in Aberhart's Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute in 1927, becoming the first graduate of that institution.
In 1930, Manning himself began speaking on the Prophetic Bible Institute Sunday radio hours, which were broadcast to a large audience across Canada, a practice he kept up throughout his life even while in politics.
In 1936, Manning married Muriel Aileen Preston, the pianist at the Prophetic Bible Institute, with William Aberhart giving the bride away. They had two sons, Keith who died in 1986, and Ernest Preston
(commonly called Preston) who founded the Reform Party of Canada
, a Canadian federal political party later known as the Canadian Alliance
, and one of the forebears of today's Conservative Party of Canada
which currently forms the government. Ernest and Preston have both been honoured as Companions of the Order of Canada.
, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta
as a Social Credit MLA from Calgary
. That same year he became Alberta's Provincial Secretary
and Minister of Trade and Industry. In 1940, he switched seats and was elected from Edmonton
. In 1943, he became premier of Alberta after Aberhart died.
. Manning had been a loyal supporter of Aberhart from the beginning, so it is not clear why he was so willing to abandon his party's traditional ideology. One likely explanation may have been pragmatic; many of Social Credit's policy goals infringed on responsibilities reserved to the federal government under the British North America Act. However, Manning twice honoured Aberhart's 1935 promise to issue a Prosperity Certificate
to Albertans. In 1957, his government announced a $20 Alberta Oil Royalty Dividend and issued a $17 dividend the next year. The policy was widely criticized and, the next year, Manning agreed to use oil royalties on public works and social programs instead.
Manning also sought to purge anti-Semitic
influences from the party. Anti-Semitism had long been a staple of Socred rhetoric, but became less fashionable after World War II. Manning, however, continued Social Credit's conservative social policies. For many years, airplanes could not serve alcohol
while flying over the province.
Under Manning, Alberta became a virtual one-party state. He led Social Credit to seven consecutive election victories between 1944
and 1967
, usually with more than 50% of the popular vote. Social Credit's electoral success was based in part on what was viewed as its good government
of the province. Another factor was that until the mid-1960s there was no credible alternative.
However, an ominous sign came during Manning's last victory, when the once-moribund Progressive Conservatives
led by Peter Lougheed
won six seats, mostly in Calgary and Edmonton. More seriously, the PCs did well enough across the rest of the province to hold Social Credit under 50% of the vote. Despite its longstanding popularity, Social Credit was, at bottom, a rural-based party. It never really adapted to the changes in Alberta as its two largest cities gained increasing influence. Manning retired in 1968, and Social Credit was knocked out of office three years later, never to hold power again.
. He told the 1961 federal leadership convention
that Alberta would never accept francophone Catholic Real Caouette
of Quebec
as the party's leader, even though Caouette led the party's strongest branch east of Manitoba
. Robert Thompson
of Alberta won the election, although Manning's objections to Caouette led to suspicions that the vote was fixed. The majority of the federal caucus was from Quebec, however. It followed Caouette into the Ralliement des créditistes, leaving behind a Social Credit rump in English Canada
.
Afterwards, Manning did not provide much support to Thompson's tiny caucus, being concerned with the leftward trajectory of both the federal Liberals
and the Progressive Conservatives
, and encouraged Thompson to try to bring about a merger of the federal Socred and PC parties. Negotiations failed but in 1967, with the support of both Manning and PC leader Robert Stanfield
, Thompson ran in the next election with the PCs.
, Manning Consultants Limited, with his son Preston. In 1970, he was appointed to the Senate as the first (and as it turned out, only) Socred to serve in that body. In the same year, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada
. He retired in 1983, having reached the mandatory retirement age
of 75. Ernest Manning died in Calgary in 1996.
, are named after Ernest Manning.
In 1980, the Ernest C Manning Awards Foundation was created and the Manning Innovation Awards were started in 1982. The program promotes and celebrates Canadian innovation and has awarded over $3.6 million in its first 25 years (see www.manningawards.ca).
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...
between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta
Social Credit Party of Alberta
The Alberta Social Credit Party is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on the social credit monetary policy and conservative Christian social values....
. He served longer than any premier in the province's history, and was the second longest serving provincial premier in Canadian history
History of Canada
The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Canada has been inhabited for millennia by distinctive groups of Aboriginal peoples, among whom evolved trade networks, spiritual beliefs, and social hierarchies...
(only after George H. Murray of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
). For a period of time, Manning was the longest continually serving democratically elected official
Official
An official is someone who holds an office in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority .A government official or functionary is an official who is involved in public...
in the world. He was also the only member of the Social Credit Party of Canada
Social Credit Party of Canada
The Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...
to ever sit in the Senate
Canadian Senate
The Senate of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the House of Commons, and the monarch . The Senate consists of 105 members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister...
.
Family
Manning was born in CarnduffCarnduff, Saskatchewan
-External links:*...
, Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
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....
in 1908 to English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
immigrants George Henry Manning (1872–1956) and Elizabeth Mara Dixon (1870–1949) and was raised on a farm. A devoted listener of the evangelistic radio broadcasts of future Premier William Aberhart
William Aberhart
William Aberhart , also known as Bible Bill for his outspoken Baptist views, was a Canadian politician and the seventh Premier of Alberta between 1935 and 1943. The Social Credit party believed the reason for the depression was that people did not have enough money to spend, so the government...
, Manning enrolled in Aberhart's Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute in 1927, becoming the first graduate of that institution.
In 1930, Manning himself began speaking on the Prophetic Bible Institute Sunday radio hours, which were broadcast to a large audience across Canada, a practice he kept up throughout his life even while in politics.
In 1936, Manning married Muriel Aileen Preston, the pianist at the Prophetic Bible Institute, with William Aberhart giving the bride away. They had two sons, Keith who died in 1986, and Ernest Preston
Preston Manning
Ernest Preston Manning, CC is a Canadian politician. He was the only leader of the Reform Party of Canada, a Canadian federal political party that evolved into the Canadian Alliance...
(commonly called Preston) who founded the Reform Party of Canada
Reform Party of Canada
The Reform Party of Canada was a Canadian federal political party that existed from 1987 to 2000. It was originally founded as a Western Canada-based protest party, but attempted to expand eastward in the 1990s. It viewed itself as a populist party....
, a Canadian federal political party later known as the Canadian Alliance
Canadian Alliance
The Canadian Alliance , formally the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance , was a Canadian conservative political party that existed from 2000 to 2003. The party was the successor to the Reform Party of Canada and inherited its position as the Official Opposition in the House of Commons and held...
, and one of the forebears of today's Conservative Party of Canada
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
which currently forms the government. Ernest and Preston have both been honoured as Companions of the Order of Canada.
Provincial Politics
In the 1935 provincial electionAlberta general election, 1935
The Alberta general election of 1935 was the eighth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on August 22, 1935 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta....
, he was elected to 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...
as a Social Credit MLA from 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...
. That same year he became Alberta's Provincial Secretary
Provincial Secretary
The Provincial Secretary was a senior position in the executive councils of British North America's colonial governments, and was retained by the Canadian provincial governments for at least a century after Canadian Confederation was proclaimed in 1867...
and Minister of Trade and Industry. In 1940, he switched seats and was elected from Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
. In 1943, he became premier of Alberta after Aberhart died.
Premier
Under Manning, the party largely abandoned social credit theoriesSocial Credit
Social Credit is an economic philosophy developed by C. H. Douglas , a British engineer, who wrote a book by that name in 1924. Social Credit is described by Douglas as "the policy of a philosophy"; he called his philosophy "practical Christianity"...
. Manning had been a loyal supporter of Aberhart from the beginning, so it is not clear why he was so willing to abandon his party's traditional ideology. One likely explanation may have been pragmatic; many of Social Credit's policy goals infringed on responsibilities reserved to the federal government under the British North America Act. However, Manning twice honoured Aberhart's 1935 promise to issue a Prosperity Certificate
Prosperity certificate
In 1936, the Alberta Social Credit Party-led government of the Province of Alberta, Canada, introduced prosperity certificates in an attempt to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression...
to Albertans. In 1957, his government announced a $20 Alberta Oil Royalty Dividend and issued a $17 dividend the next year. The policy was widely criticized and, the next year, Manning agreed to use oil royalties on public works and social programs instead.
Manning also sought to purge anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
influences from the party. Anti-Semitism had long been a staple of Socred rhetoric, but became less fashionable after World War II. Manning, however, continued Social Credit's conservative social policies. For many years, airplanes could not serve alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
while flying over the province.
Under Manning, Alberta became a virtual one-party state. He led Social Credit to seven consecutive election victories between 1944
Alberta general election, 1944
The Alberta general election of 1944 was the tenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. The Assembly was dissolved on July 8, 1944 and the vote for was held on August 8, 1944 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta....
and 1967
Alberta general election, 1967
The Alberta general election of 1967 was the sixteenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on May 23, 1967 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta....
, usually with more than 50% of the popular vote. Social Credit's electoral success was based in part on what was viewed as its good government
Peace, order and good government
In many Commonwealth jurisdictions, the phrase "peace, order and good government" is an expression used in law to express the legitimate objects of legislative powers conferred by statute...
of the province. Another factor was that until the mid-1960s there was no credible alternative.
However, an ominous sign came during Manning's last victory, when the once-moribund Progressive Conservatives
Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta
The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta is a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta...
led by Peter Lougheed
Peter Lougheed
Edgar Peter Lougheed, PC, CC, AOE, QC, is a Canadian lawyer, and a former politician and Canadian Football League player. He served as the tenth Premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985....
won six seats, mostly in Calgary and Edmonton. More seriously, the PCs did well enough across the rest of the province to hold Social Credit under 50% of the vote. Despite its longstanding popularity, Social Credit was, at bottom, a rural-based party. It never really adapted to the changes in Alberta as its two largest cities gained increasing influence. Manning retired in 1968, and Social Credit was knocked out of office three years later, never to hold power again.
Federal Politics
Manning also used his strong provincial standing to influence the federal SocredsSocial Credit Party of Canada
The Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...
. He told the 1961 federal leadership convention
Leadership convention
In Canadian politics, a leadership convention is held by a political party when the party needs to choose a leader due to a vacancy or a challenge to the incumbent leader.- Overview :...
that Alberta would never accept francophone Catholic Real Caouette
Réal Caouette
David Réal Caouette was a Canadian politician from Quebec. He was a Member of Parliament and leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada and founder of the Ralliement des créditistes...
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 the party's leader, even though Caouette led the party's strongest branch east of 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...
. Robert Thompson
Robert N. Thompson
Robert Norman Thompson was a Canadian politician, chiropractor, and educator. He was born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Canadian parents and moved to Canada in 1918 with his family...
of Alberta won the election, although Manning's objections to Caouette led to suspicions that the vote was fixed. The majority of the federal caucus was from Quebec, however. It followed Caouette into the Ralliement des créditistes, leaving behind a Social Credit rump in English Canada
English Canada
English Canada is a term used to describe one of the following:# English-speaking Canadians, as opposed to French-speaking Canadians. It is employed when comparing English- and French-language literature, media, or art...
.
Afterwards, Manning did not provide much support to Thompson's tiny caucus, being concerned with the leftward trajectory of both the federal Liberals
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...
and the Progressive Conservatives
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
, and encouraged Thompson to try to bring about a merger of the federal Socred and PC parties. Negotiations failed but in 1967, with the support of both Manning and PC leader Robert Stanfield
Robert Stanfield
Robert Lorne Stanfield, PC, QC was the 17th Premier of Nova Scotia and leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He is sometimes referred to as "the greatest prime minister Canada never had", and earned the nickname "Honest Bob"...
, Thompson ran in the next election with the PCs.
Senate
Upon retirement in 1968, Manning established his own consulting firmManagement consulting
Management consulting indicates both the industry and practice of helping organizations improve their performance primarily through the analysis of existing organizational problems and development of plans for improvement....
, Manning Consultants Limited, with his son Preston. In 1970, he was appointed to the Senate as the first (and as it turned out, only) Socred to serve in that body. In the same year, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
. He retired in 1983, having reached the mandatory retirement age
Mandatory retirement age
Mandatory retirement is the age at which persons who hold certain jobs or offices are required by industry custom or by law to leave their employment, or retire. Typically, mandatory retirement is justified by the argument that certain occupations are either too dangerous or require high levels of...
of 75. Ernest Manning died in Calgary in 1996.
Legacy
A high school and a business-park road in Calgary, a freeway road in Edmonton, and a town in Northern AlbertaManning, Alberta
Manning is a town in northern Alberta, Canada. It is known as the "Land of the Mighty Moose". It is located on Highway 35 north of Peace River on the Notikewin River.Manning is a service centre for the local agriculture, forestry and gas industries...
, are named after Ernest Manning.
In 1980, the Ernest C Manning Awards Foundation was created and the Manning Innovation Awards were started in 1982. The program promotes and celebrates Canadian innovation and has awarded over $3.6 million in its first 25 years (see www.manningawards.ca).