William Aberhart

William Aberhart

William Aberhart (born December 30, 1878 in Kippen , Perth County , Ontario , † May 23, 1943 in Vancouver ) was a Canadian politician , teacher and preacher . From September 3, 1935 until his death, he was Prime Minister of the Province of Alberta and chairman of the Social Credit Party of Alberta, which he founded . He led the world's first government to pursue the social credit theories developed by Clifford Hugh Douglas . Because of his work as a Baptist preacher, his nickname was Bible Bill .

Study and job

The descendant of German immigrants named Eberhart was born on a farm in southern Ontario. He attended Chatham public schools and his deeply religious parents sent him to a Presbyterian- run Sunday school . Aberhart trained as a teacher in Hamilton and in 1911 earned a Bachelor of Arts from Queen's University in Kingston .

From 1899, Aberhart taught in various rural communities in Ontario. In 1902 he married Jessie Flatt, the couple had two daughters. In 1905 he was appointed principal of the Central Public School at Brantford . During his spare time, Aberhart preached in various churches and gave regular Bible lessons. He originally intended to train to be a priest, but the Brantford Congregation refused to support him and his family financially for four years. He developed a keen interest in the teachings of the American evangelical Cyrus I Scofield .

Sermons and politics

In 1910, Aberhart moved to Calgary to take up a position as school principal. He continued to preach, but with his theological views he met with increasing opposition from liberal-minded Presbyterians. He had to stop working as a lay preacher and converted to the Baptist denomination in 1915 . From 1925 he spread his sermons every Sunday on the radio station CFCN in large parts of western Canada and neighboring regions of the USA . In 1927, Aberhart was appointed dean of the newly formed Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute . Two years later he founded his own congregation, which distinguished itself from the other Baptist congregations through its Christian fundamentalist views.

During the Great Depression to Aberhart became interested in politics. The farmers in particular, who at that time made up a large part of the population of the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan , suffered from the serious social consequences and the consequences of the dust bowl . Aberhart was drawn to the social credit theories developed by British engineer Clifford Hugh Douglas . Douglas took the view that there was a discrepancy between production costs and the purchasing power of the population, which the state had to compensate by paying compensation in order to cover basic needs. Aberhart tried from 1932 to convince the ruling United Farmers of Alberta to include Social Credit in their party program. When these efforts failed, he founded the Social Credit Party of Alberta in 1935 .

prime minister

Aberhart gives a speech (1937)

In the Alberta Legislative Assembly elections in August 1935, the Socreds won a completely unexpected landslide victory. They immediately received 54% of the vote and won 56 out of 63 constituencies. Although Aberhart was considered the undisputed leader of the party, he had not run himself, so that the party initially had no suitable candidate for the office of prime minister. Finally, Aberhart let himself be persuaded and was appointed the new head of government on September 3, 1935 by Lieutenant Governor William Walsh . He also took up the post of Minister of Education and Attorney General . Two months later he was elected MP by acclamation in a by-election in the constituency of Okotoks-High River.

His government was unable to implement the party program. The concept of social credit was based on the state controlling the supply of money and the banks. However, under the British North America Act of 1867, these areas are a federal government responsibility. Lieutenant Governor John Bowen refused to ratify two bills in 1937 that would have allowed the provincial government to take control of the banks and issue certificates of wealth to Alberta's residents (ridiculed by political opponents as "weird money").

A third law that was rejected would have forced newspapers to give the government unlimited counter-replies to articles they did not like. The three laws were later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada and the Privy Council Judiciary Committee . The government then set up its own financial institution called Alberta Treasury Branches , which continues to exist today as ATB Financial .

In 1938, relations between the lieutenant governor and the government were so bad that Bowen even threatened to dismiss the government (a right that is rarely exercised). However, the Social Credit Party and Aberhart's government enjoyed great popular support, so Bowen did not follow up on his threat. In the March 1940 elections, Aberhart's party’s share of the vote fell to 43%, but it remained the strongest force. Aberhart was re-elected in the Calgary constituency. He died unexpectedly on May 23, 1943 during a visit to Vancouver , succeeded by Ernest Manning .

literature

• JA Irving: Social Credit Movement in Alberta. University of Toronto Press, 1959. ISBN 0-8020-6084-6 .
• Lewis Thomas: William Aberhart and Social Credit in Alberta. Copp Clark, 1977. ISBN 0-7730-3128-6 .

Web links

Commons : William Aberhart  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Biography in the Canadian Encyclopedia
• Biography on the Alberta Legislative Assembly website
• William Aberhart Historical Foundation