Alberta's "Survivor":
Who's the best Premier?

By Erin Carpenter

You could call it “Survivor” of sorts for Alberta’s premiers: over the course of three months, who would outlast his competitors to win the title of Best Premier?

Admittedly, the popular reality-television show Survivor wasn’t what Donald Smith had in mind when he devised his 500-level political science seminar on Alberta’s premiers. Rather, he was thinking of a more distinguished reason.

“It’s the 100th birthday of Alberta, and history has very few moments. This is a moment when we’re in the sun,” Smith says.

This special occasion, along with Brad Rennie’s book, Alberta Premiers of the Twentieth Century, inspired Smith to challenge his students in a unique way.

“Every week we would gather, 14 of us, and discuss various aspects from Alberta’s past,” he says. “Every week we’d use the book, which has the 12 premiers: three Liberals, three United Farmers
of Alberta, three Social Credit and three Conservative.”

What generally followed was some robust discussion of the premiers, beginning with Alexander Rutherford.

“ Rutherford, the first premier, was not great,” Smith says. “He turned out to actually be a very good chancellor of the University of Alberta afterward.”

Other premiers didn’t make the cut with students along the way, such as Herbert Greenfield, the first premier to represent the United Farmers of Alberta.

“ He didn’t even run for the legislature,” Smith says. “But the UFA won the election, which was a total surprise to them and everyone else. So Greenfield became premier.”

The first real contender in the “contest” was John Brownlee, UFA premier from 1925 to 1934.
Dan Arnold was one student who backed the controversial premier, despite Brownlee’s involvement in an alleged sex scandal.

“I think Brownlee was a great premier. He signed the Natural Resources Transfer Act, which meant Alberta got complete control of its natural resources,” says Arnold.

Ernest Manning and Peter Lougheed were Brownlee’s final competitors at the “tribal council” of sorts, convened at the end of the term over nachos and beer at the University Club, with author Brad Rennie moderating.

Student Gareth MacKay went to bat for Manning.

“ He was the complete package, he was an honest politician,” MacKay says. “For programs, it was pay as we go and he never put the province in debt.”

In the end, Manning emerged as Best Premier — the result of a close vote.

“ Many of the students liked his free enterprise approach to policy-making and his social conscience,” Rennie says.

“ Lougheed came in second, primarily because of the tough stand he took against Ottawa in regard to oil and gas.”

Brownlee finished third, while Ralph Klein did not make the top three despite getting some support for making cuts to the deficit and eliminating a pension plan for MLAs.

So what do the students think of the “contest”?

“ I thought it was a ton of fun and a great way to learn about Alberta history,” Arnold says.

While Smith is pleased with his “contest,” he jokes that students shouldn’t expect another installment of it— at least not for another 100 years.