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In the initial years of the Social Credit government,
William Aberhart had a mandate to enact sweeping change, but he encountered
a number of obstacles.
 First, the province simply could not afford to pay Albertans
the dividends of $25 per month, a promise Aberhart had made late in the
1935 campaign. The government also tried to reform Alberta’s banks by passing
the Credit of Alberta Regulation Act, the Bank Taxation Act and other legislation,
reforms disallowed either by the Lieutenant Governor or the federal government.
Under fire from his own party for not carrying out the government’s mandate
and a flurry of newspaper criticism for his stance, Aberhart passed the
Accurate News and Information Act, designed to censor these newspapers.
However, as The Premier vs. the Constitution shows, the attempt was declared
unconstitutional.
 When Aberhart died of liver disease while still in office
in 1943, he was succeeded by his former disciple Ernest C. Manning. The
press was more favourable to Manning, who gradually transformed the Social
Credit into a right-wing party opposed to socialism, not banks. He abandoned
further ambitions of instituting Social Credit and committed his government
to restoring the province’s credit rating. By 1947, with the dismantling
of the Social Credit Board, the last vestige of the party’s former self
had disappeared.
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“No government in the history of this or any other
province has been accorded so much free space as the newspapers of Alberta,
daily and weekly, have given the ‘social credit’ administration. But on
the other hand no government in this country has won so little editorial
commendation and the reason is plain. Its policies and objectives when not
chaotic are destructive.”
—Calgary Herald, October 12, 19371
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Heritage Community Foundation Presents
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