Alberta general election, 1979

Alberta general election, 1979

March 14, 1979

79 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 40 seats were needed for a majority   Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Peter Lougheed Robert C. Clark Grant Notley Party Progressive Conservative Social Credit New Democratic Leader since 1965 1975 1968 Leader's seat Calgary-West Olds-Didsbury Spirit River-Fairview Last election 69 seats, 62.7% 4 seats, 18.2% 1 seat, 12.9% Seats before 69 4 1 Seats won 74 4 1 Seat change 5 ±0 ±0 Popular vote 408,097 141,284 111,984 Percentage 57.4% 19.9% 15.8% Swing 5.3% 1.7% 2.9%

Premier before election Peter Lougheed Progressive Conservative Premier-designate Peter Lougheed Progressive Conservative

The Alberta general election of 1979 was the nineteenth general election for the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on March 14, 1979 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, which had been expanded to 79 seats.

The Progressive Conservative Party of Peter Lougheed won its third consecutive term in government. During the campaign, some Progressive Conservatives spoke of winning "79 in '79", i.e., all 79 seats in the legislature. This harkened back to Social Credit's unofficial slogan from the 1963 election, "63 in '63". The Tories came up short of this goal, and actually lost over five percentage points of the popular vote. Nonetheless, they still won an overwhelming majority, with 74 seats.

Social Credit held on to the four seats they had won in the 1975 election, and formed the official opposition in the legislature. Grant Notley, leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party, was the only other opposition member.

Results

Party		Party leader	# of candidates	Seats			Popular vVote
				1975	Elected	% Change	#	%	% Change
	Progressive Conservative	Peter Lougheed	79	69	74	+7.2%	408,097	57.40%	-5.25%
	Social Credit	Robert Curtis Clark	79	4	4	-	141,284	19.87%	+1.70%
	New Democrats	Grant Notley	79	1	1	-	111,984	15.75%	+2.81%
	Liberal	Nicholas Taylor	78	-	-	-	43,792	6.16%	+1.18%
	Independent		8	-	-	-	3,430	0.48%	+0.37%
	Independent Conservative		3	-	-	-	1,613	0.23%	+0.05%^1
	Independent Christian		1	*	-	*	403	0.06%	*
	Communist		7	-	-	-	357	0.05%	-0.08%
Total			334	75	79	+5.3%	710,963	100%
Source: Elections Alberta

Notes:
¹ Percent compared to Independent Progressive Conservative during the 1975 Election.
^* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.

Members elected

For complete electoral history, see individual districts

	District	Member	Party
	Athabasca	Frank Appleby	Progressive Conservative
	Banff-Cochrane	Greg Stevens	Progressive Conservative
	Barrhead	Hugh Horner	Progressive Conservative
	Bonnyville	Ernie Isley	Progressive Conservative
	Bow Valley	Fred Mandeville	Social Credit
	Calgary-Bow	Neil Webber	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Buffalo	Tom Sindlinger	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Currie	Dennis Anderson	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Egmont	Merv Leitch	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Elbow	David John Russell	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Fish Creek	William Edward Payne	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Foothills	Stewart McCrae	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Forest Lawn	John Zaozirny	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Glenmore	Hugh Planche	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-McCall	Andrew Little	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-McKnight	Eric Musgreave	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Millican	David Carter	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-Mountain View	Stan Kushner	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-North Hill	Ed Oman	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-North West	Sheila Embury	Progressive Conservative
	Calgary-West	Peter Lougheed	Progressive Conservative
	Camrose	Gordon Stromberg	Progressive Conservative
	Cardston	John Thompson	Progressive Conservative
	Chinook	Henry Kroeger	Progressive Conservative
	Clover Bar	Walt Buck	Social Credit
	Cypress	Alan Hyland	Progressive Conservative
	Drayton Valley	Shirley Cripps	Progressive Conservative
	Drumheller	Lewis Clark	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Avonmore	Horst Schmid	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Belmont	William Mack	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Beverly	Bill Diachuk	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Calder	Tom Chambers	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton Centre	Mary LeMessurier	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Glenora	Lou Hyndman	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Glengarry	Rollie Cook	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Gold Bar	Al Hiebert	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Highlands	David Thomas King	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton Jasper Place	Leslie Young	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Kingsway	Kenneth Paproski	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton Meadowlark	Gerard Amerongen	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Mill Woods	Milt Pahl	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Norwood	Catherine Chichak	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Parkallen	Neil Stanley Crawford	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Sherwood Park	Henry Woo	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Strathcona	Julian Koziak	Progressive Conservative
	Edmonton-Whitemud	Peter Knaak	Progressive Conservative
	Edson	Ian Reid	Progressive Conservative
	Grande Prairie	Elmer Borstad	Progressive Conservative
	Highwood	George Wolstenholme	Progressive Conservative
	Innisfail	Nigel Pengelly	Progressive Conservative
	Lac La Biche-McMurray	Norm Weiss	Progressive Conservative
	Lacombe	Jack Cookson	Progressive Conservative
	Lesser Slave Lake	Larry Shaben	Progressive Conservative
	Lethbridge-East	Archibald D. Johnston	Progressive Conservative
	Lethbridge-West	John Gogo	Progressive Conservative
	Little Bow	Raymond Speaker	Social Credit
	Lloydminster	Bud Miller	Progressive Conservative
	Macleod	LeRoy Fjordbotten	Progressive Conservative
	Medicine Hat	Jim Horsman	Progressive Conservative
	Olds-Didsbury	Robert Curtis Clark	Social Credit
	Peace River	Al Adair	Progressive Conservative
	Pincher Creek-Crowsnest	Frederick Bradley	Progressive Conservative
	Ponoka	Don McCrimmon	Progressive Conservative
	Red Deer	Norman Magee	Progressive Conservative
	Redwater-Andrew	George Topolnisky	Progressive Conservative
	Rocky Mountain House	John Murray Campbell	Progressive Conservative
	Smoky River	Marvin Moore	Progressive Conservative
	Spirit River-Fairview	Grant Notley	NDP
	St. Albert	Myrna Fyfe	Progressive Conservative
	St. Paul	Charles Anderson	Progressive Conservative
	Stettler	Graham Harle	Progressive Conservative
	Stony Plain	William Purdy	Progressive Conservative
	Taber-Warner	Robert Bogle	Progressive Conservative
	Three Hills	Connie Osterman	Progressive Conservative
	Vegreville	John Batiuk	Progressive Conservative
	Vermilion-Viking	Tom Lysons	Progressive Conservative
	Wainwright	Charles Stewart	Progressive Conservative
	Wetaskiwin-Leduc	Dallas Schmidt	Progressive Conservative
	Whitecourt	Peter Trynchy	Progressive Conservative

See also

• List of Alberta political parties