1929 Edmonton municipal election
Municipal election in Alberta, Canada
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The 1929 municipal election was held December 9, 1929 to elect a mayor and five aldermen to sit on Edmonton City Council and four trustees to sit on the public school board, while four trustees were acclaimed to the separate school board). In the election's only plebiscite, voters didn't endorse the extension of the half day Wednesday shopping holiday by the required two-thirds majority.
City council consisted of the mayor and ten aldermen, but five of the aldermanic positions were already filled: James Collisson, Alfred Farmilo, James Findlay, Charles Gibbs, and Frederick Keillor (SS) were all elected to two-year terms in 1928 and were still in office.
The public school board consisted of seven seven trustees, but four of the positions were already filled: Samuel Barnes, Thyrza Bishop, and Frederick Casselman had all been elected to two-year terms in 1928 and were still in office. The same was true on the separate board, where Robert Adrien Crowe (SS), J O Pilon, and W B Trainor were continuing.
Electoral system
The mayor was elected through First-past-the-post voting. First past the post does not require that the successful candidate takes a majority of the votes, as the Instant-runoff voting system previously used had, but in this election the successful candidate did in fact receive a majority of the votes cast.
The aldermanic race, where five seats were being filled, was conducted using Plurality block voting and each voter could cast up to five votes. The successful candidates received a total of approximately 39,000 votes of the 76,000 voters cast by the 41,000 voters. The vote tally received by the successful candidates might have been cast by less than 9,000 of the 41,000 eligible voters.[1]
Voter turnout
There were 18,549 ballots cast out of 40,993 eligible voters, for a voter turnout of 45.2%.
A total of about 76,000 votes were cast in the aldermanic race due to the use of Plurality block voting.
Results
- bold or
indicates elected - italics indicate incumbent
- "SS", where data is available, indicates representative for Edmonton's South Side, with a minimum South Side representation instituted after the city of Strathcona, south of the North Saskatchewan River, amalgamated into Edmonton on February 1, 1912.
Mayor
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Civic Government Association | James McCrie Douglas | 9,754 | 53.06% | |
| Labour | James East | 6,898 | 37.52% | |
| Independent | Gerald Pelton | 1,602 | 8.71% | |
| Independent | William Gunn | 130 | 0.71% | |
Aldermen
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Elected | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Civic Government Association | Ralph Bellamy | 8,542 |  | ||
| Civic Government Association | Arthur Gainer | 7,979 | | ||
| Civic Government Association | Herbert Baker | 7,681 | | ||
| Labour | Dan Knott | 7,419 | | ||
| Labour | Rice Sheppard | 7,032 | SS | | |
| Civic Government Association | Thomas Shaftoe Thompson | 6,643 | |||
| Labour | Edward James Thompson | 5,612 | |||
| Labour | George Latham | 5,482 | |||
| Independent | Hugh MacDonald | 5,287 | |||
| Labour | James Herlihy | 4,834 | SS | ||
| Independent | Joseph Clarke | 4,139 | |||
| Independent | Joseph Adair | 3,670 | |||
| Communist | Jan Lakeman | 1,283 | |||
| Communist | Herbert John Pallot | 590 | |||
| Independent | Wilfred Rose | 418 | |||
Public school trustees
| Party | Candidate | Votes | Elected | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Civic Government Association | Albert Ottewell | 9,779 | SS | | |
| Civic Government Association | Arthur Cushing | 8,742 | | ||
| Labour | Frank Crang | 8,321 | SS | | |
| Civic Government Association | Shurburne Tupper Bigelow | 7,900 | | ||
| Civic Government Association | Robert Muir | 7,860 | |||
| Labour | Thomas John Johnston | 7,124 | |||
| Labour | Sophie N. Bell | 6,788 | |||
| Labour | Sidney Bowcott | 4,744 | |||
Separate (Catholic) school trustees
Charles Gariepy, Thomas Magee, A J Ryan and J Tansey (SS) were acclaimed to the separate school board.
Wednesday Holiday Plebiscite
This plebiscite items required a minimum two-thirds "Yes" majority to bring about action, and in the vote the Yes side did not reach that mark.
In favour of having Wednesday half-holiday extended to cover all the year except the month of December?
- Yes - 1,097
- No - 654