Calgary & Southern Alberta

The dominance of the oil and gas industry in Calgary produced a political and social atmosphere conducive to the rise of Peter Lougheed’s Progressive Conservative Party. In 1985, after fourteen years of leadership, Premier Loughheed retired from political life. Don Getty assumed the leadership of the PC party from 1985 to 1992 when Ralph Klein took over and became Alberta's Premier.

Progressive Conservatives Logo
Courtesy of the Progressive Conservatives of Alberta

Post-war immigration promoted economic growth and urbanisation. It also enhanced the right-wing vote. While the economic boom of the 1960s and 1970s created opportunities for skilled and semi-skilled labour in Calgary, the American domination of the Calgary oil scene produced an atmosphere of social conservatism.

The senior management of the major oil companies headquartered in Calgary came from California, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana. Between 1955 and 1970, nine of the fifteen presidents of Calgary’s Petroleum Club had been American. The city’s economic and social élite believed in free enterprise and the pursuit of fame and fortune. Lougheed promised an economic environment conducive to corporate activity that would provide its citizens with adequate social, health, and welfare programmes. The Progressive Conservative Party road on the success of the oil industry. Other factors, however, fuelled the party’s success. When Pierre Elliot Trudeau became Prime Minister in 1968, he presented himself as "new" and "modern." Lougheed sensed change and promised a Harvard business school style of government. Among the ranks of Social Credit, members literally died off. Ernest Manning retired in 1968 and his replacement, Harry Strom, epitomised the rural, pre-war roots of Social Credit.