1929 Edmonton municipal election

The 1929 municipal election was held December 9, 1929 to elect a mayor and five aldermen to sit on Edmonton City Council and four trustees to sit on the public school board, while four trustees were acclaimed to the separate school board). In the election's only plebiscite, voters didn't endorse the extension of the half day Wednesday shopping holiday by the required two-thirds majority.

There were ten aldermen on city council, but five of the positions were already filled: James Collisson, Alfred Farmilo, James Findlay, Charles Gibbs, and Frederick Keillor (SS) were all elected to two-year terms in 1928 and were still in office.

There were seven trustees on the public school board, but four of the positions were already filled: Samuel Barnes, Thyrza Bishop, and Frederick Casselman had all been elected to two-year terms in 1928 and were still in office. The same was true on the separate board, where Robert Adrien Crowe (SS), J O Pilon, and W B Trainor were continuing.

Electoral system

The mayor was elected through First-past-the-post voting. First past the post does not require that the successful candidate takes a majority of the votes, as the Instant-runoff voting system previously used had, but in this election the successful candidate did in fact receive a majority of the votes cast.

The aldermanic race, where five seats were being filled, was conducted using Plurality block voting and each voter could cast up to five votes. The successful candidates received a total of approximately 39,000 votes of the 76,000 voters cast by the 41,000 voters. The vote tally received by the successful candidates might have been cast by less than 8,000 of the 41,000 voters who cast a ballot in this election.[1]

Voter turnout

There were 18,549 ballots cast out of 40,993 eligible voters, for a voter turnout of 45.2%.

A total of about 76,000 votes were cast in the aldermanic race due to the use of Plurality block voting.

Results

Mayor
Party Candidate Votes  %
Civic Government AssociationJames McCrie Douglas9,75453.06%
LabourJames East6,89837.52%
IndependentGerald Pelton1,6028.71%
IndependentWilliam Gunn1300.71%

Aldermen
Party Candidate Votes Elected
Civic Government AssociationRalph Bellamy8,542Green tickY
Civic Government AssociationArthur Gainer7,979Green tickY
Civic Government AssociationHerbert Baker7,681Green tickY
LabourDan Knott7,419Green tickY
LabourRice Sheppard7,032SSGreen tickY
Civic Government AssociationThomas Shaftoe Thompson6,643
LabourEdward James Thompson5,612
LabourGeorge Latham5,482
IndependentHugh MacDonald5,287
LabourJames Herlihy4,834SS
IndependentJoseph Clarke4,139
IndependentJoseph Adair3,670
CommunistJan Lakeman1,283
CommunistHerbert John Pallot590
IndependentWilfred Rose418

Public school trustees
Party Candidate Votes Elected
Civic Government AssociationAlbert Ottewell9,779SSGreen tickY
Civic Government AssociationArthur Cushing8,742Green tickY
LabourFrank Crang8,321SSGreen tickY
Civic Government AssociationShurburne Tupper Bigelow7,900Green tickY
Civic Government AssociationRobert Muir7,860
LabourThomas John Johnston7,124
LabourSophie N. Bell6,788
LabourSidney Bowcott4,744

Separate (Catholic) school trustees

Charles Gariepy, Thomas Magee, A J Ryan and J Tansey (SS) were acclaimed to the separate school board.

Wednesday Holiday Plebiscite
  • Plebiscite items required a minimum two-thirds "Yes" majority to bring about action

In favour of having Wednesday half-holiday extended to cover all the year except the month of December?

  • Yes - 1,097
  • No - 654

References
  1. Rek, Municipal Elections in Edmonton
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