United Farmers of Alberta
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The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) was founded in 1909 as a lobby organization representing the interests of farmers in Alberta, Canada. In 1913, it was able to pressure Alberta's Liberal government to organize the "Alberta Farmers' Co-operative Elevator Company" which eventually became the "United Grain Growers".
The UFA was a believer in the cooperative movement, and supported women's suffrage. Under pressure from the Non-Partisan League and out of frustration with the lack of responsiveness of government to political issues, the UFA entered electoral politics as part of a national United Farmers movement that became politically active after World War I. The group was led by Henry Wise Wood, who provided the theoretical and motivational backing to the movement, but who refused to enter politics himself.
The party formed the government in Alberta from the 1921 election to 1935 election, and provided three Premiers of Alberta: Herbert Greenfield, John E. Brownlee, and Richard G. Reid.
As in other provinces, a split developed between the United Farmers organization and the United Farmers government with the former supporting "group government" (or Non-partisan democracy) as well as radical economic measures. Although the UFA government initially included Labour Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs), the party soon became pragmatic, cautious and relatively conservative, and was unable to deal with the economic torment caused by the Great Depression. While the UFA organizationally supported the Progressive Party of Canada (while running UFA candidates federally) in the 1920s ,and then the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation after it was founded in 1932, the UFA government rejected socialist measures.
As was the case with other United Farmer governments in Manitoba and Ontario, the UFA won its first election unexpectedly and without a leader. Forced to form a government, it, like the other United Farmer governments, went outside the legislature to recruit a Premier.
The UFA ran candidates in the federal elections of 1921, 1925, 1926 and 1930. Members of Parliament (MPs) elected in the 1920s sat with the Progressive Party of Canada. Of the nine UFA MPs elected in 1930, eight joined the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation after it was formed in 1932.
Herbert Greenfield was considered ineffective, and the real leader of the government was Brownlee, who soon displaced Greenfield to become Premier in 1925. Brownlee was a lawyer rather than a farmer, and led the UFA government in a conservative direction of fiscal restraint, political conservatism, and lack of initiative which frustrated Albertans after the onset of the Great Depression. Brownlee was further hurt by personal scandal when he was sued and found guilty of the seduction of a young clerk working in the Attorney-General's office. The scandal forced Brownlee's resignation on July 10, 1934 and hurt the UFA's reputation among socially conservative Albertans.
The UFA's fiscal conservatism and the taint of moral turpitude led to the government's defeat in the 1935 election at the hands of Social Credit and its leader evangelist William Aberhart. Aberhart's combination of economic populism and Christian social conservatism highlighted the UFA's weaknesses. The UFA was routed by Social Credit in the 1935 provincial elections -- all of its candidates being defeated.
After the Alberta United Farmers government was defeated, the group withdrew from electoral politics. Many of its supporters joined the Social Credit party, while much of the leadership of the UFA organization joined the CCF.
See also
External links
- The Prairie Roots of Canada's Political 'Third Parties' (http://www.mta.ca/faculty/arts/canadian_studies/english/about/study_guide/roots/index.html)