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119-586: Alberta Social Credit was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, that was founded on social credit monetary policy put forward by Clifford Hugh Douglas and on conservative Christian social values. The Canadian social credit movement was largely an out-growth of Alberta Social Credit. The Social Credit Party of Canada was strongest in Alberta, before developing a base in Quebec when Réal Caouette agreed to merge his Ralliement créditiste movement into

238-511: A "Compensated Price" and a "National (or Consumer) Dividend", a National Credit Office would be charged with the task of calculating the size of the rebate and dividend by determining a national balance sheet , and calculating aggregate production and consumption statistics. The price rebate is based upon the observation that the real cost of production is the mean rate of consumption over the mean rate of production for an equivalent period of time. where The physical cost of producing something

357-551: A foothold in the province's financial sector by creating the Alberta Treasury Branches (ATB) in 1938. ATB has become a lasting legacy of Social Credit Party policies in Alberta, operating as of 2017 as an orthodox financial institution and crown corporation . It is today the only government-owned financial institution in Canada that provides commercial banking to the public. Bowen also refused Royal Assent to

476-505: A formal leader who would become the province's new premier. Aberhart was the obvious choice, having been the party's driving force from the beginning. He didn't want the office, but was persuaded to take power. He was elected as leader and premier-designate at the party's first caucus meeting, and was sworn in on 3 September. He became a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) a year later in a by-election. The first year and

595-498: A good is $ 100, and the ratio of consumption to production is 3/4, then the real cost of the good is $ 100(3/4) = $ 75. As a result, if a consumer spent $ 100 for a good, the National Credit Authority would rebate the consumer $ 25. The good costs the consumer $ 75, the retailer receives $ 100, and the consumer receives the difference of $ 25 via new credits created by the National Credit Authority. The National Dividend

714-579: A half in power was a period of adjustment for the newly elected Socred MLAs and their premier. Certain historians believe that much of the Social Credit Party's leadership, and many of its members, didn't understand Douglas' teachings. Negotiations between Aberhart and Douglas, who had been hired by the UFA as a financial advisor, were colourful but unproductive. Aberhart, consumed with details of governance and administration, made little progress along

833-529: A heavy dose of fundamentalist Christianity to the Social Credit theories of C.H. Douglas . The basic premise of social credit is that all citizens should be paid a dividend as capital and technology replace labour in production; this was especially attractive to farmers sinking under the weight of the Depression. Many study groups devoted to the theory sprang up across the province, which united into

952-399: A law that intensified production means a progressively higher ratio of overhead charges to direct labour cost, and, apart from artificial reasons, this is simply an indication of the extent to which machinery replaces manual labour, as it should. If overhead charges are constantly increasing relative to income, any attempt to stabilize or increase income results in increasing prices. If income

1071-494: A modest campaign alleging corruption within Manning's administration. However, historians suggest that a number of other problems were brewing during Manning's later years, such as the province's poor mental health system, the poor conditions of the native Albertan peoples, high housing and land prices, and relatively low royalty prices on oil. Despite winning 55 of the 65 seats in the legislature, it received less than 45% of

1190-541: A month to Albertan adults. In the 22 August 1935 election, much to its own surprise, Social Credit won a landslide victory , taking 54% of the vote and winning 56 of the 63 seats in the Legislative Assembly . The only elected opposition was five Liberals and two Conservatives . The UFA lost all of its seats in the worst defeat for a sitting provincial government in Canadian history. Alberta thus elected

1309-532: A new election, and the Socreds were so popular that they would have almost certainly been re-elected. Though Aberhart's government initially enjoyed widespread support from Alberta's working class, labour unions viewed his government with suspicion, and believed that Aberhart was authoritarian. A number of labour leaders took issue with the party's campaign to control prices, fearing that this would also lead to strict wage controls. Aberhart's administration legislated

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1428-509: A number of instances, likening the CCF to "the socialism of Germany ". Saying in one "letter to a CCFer, who... had naively written to suggest CCF-Social Credit electoral co-operation: "it's an insult to suggest to the Canadian people who are sacrificing their sons to remove the curse which the socialism of Germany has brought in the world that their own social and economical security can be attained only by introducing some form of socialism in Canada.

1547-411: A number of ridings by a small margin. However, due to the first past the post system, which awards seats to the candidate with the most votes in a district, even if they do not get a majority of votes (and awards power based on seats won), Social Credit's caucus was cut almost in half. It was cut down to 25 seats, and was consigned to the opposition benches for the first time in party history. Strom led

1666-417: A period to time of articles produced by factories making consumable goods divided up into A1 costs which refer to money paid to individuals by means of salaries, wages, dividends, etc., and B1 costs which refer to money paid to other institutions. Let A2, B2 be the corresponding costs of factories producing capital equipment. The money distributed to individuals is A1+A2 and the cost of the final consumable goods

1785-431: A precarious position. Not only was it without a full-time leader or incumbents, but it had been unable to get its leader elected to the legislature at any point during the parliamentary term. The party ran only 23 candidates and garnered only 0.8 percent of the vote. It was shut out of the Legislative Assembly altogether for the first time, and has never elected another MLA. In 1986, Social Credit, Western Canada Concept and

1904-429: A railway which was constructed a year, two years, three years, five or ten years ago, where charges are still extant), cannot be liquidated by a stream of purchasing power which does not increase in volume and which has a period of three weeks. The consequence is, you have a piling up of debt, you have in many cases a diminution of purchasing power being equivalent to the price of the goods for sale. According to Douglas,

2023-528: A resounding majority of seats as a result of the 1944 election, devoted itself to an anti-socialist crusade. In 1946, Manning's government began a Red Scare , censoring communist propaganda films in the hopes of "eliminating communist thought from Alberta-shown movies". Manning's administration also sought to disrupt labour strikes , denouncing them as communist , totalitarian , and anti-Christian. Labour unions subsequently defended themselves as non-communist, or simply refused to respond to these charges in

2142-407: A serious attempt to implement social credit policies. It passed several pieces of radical populist legislation, such as the issuance of prosperity certificates to Alberta residents (dubbed "funny money" by detractors) in accordance with the theories of Silvio Gesell . Douglas, the main leader of the Social Credit movement, did not like the idea of prosperity certificates, which depreciated in value

2261-436: A standard, or measure, of value. Douglas believed that money should act as a medium of communication by which consumers direct the distribution of production. Closely associated with the concept of cultural inheritance as a factor of production is the social credit theory of economic sabotage. While Douglas believed the cultural heritage factor of production is primary in increasing wealth, he also believed that economic sabotage

2380-435: A superfluous accumulation of them. Douglas believed that excessive capital production is only a temporary correction, because the cost of the capital appears in the cost of consumer goods, or taxes, which will further exacerbate future gaps between income and prices. In the first place, these capital goods have to be sold to someone. They form a reservoir of forced exports. They must, as intermediate products, enter somehow into

2499-573: A welcoming environment for oil investors. The former social credit board chairman Alfred Hooke who became provincial secretary in 1943 "came even closer than Manning in negating the differences among democratic socialism , communism , and the socialism of national socialism . Durning the Throne debate in February 1944, Hooke said: "I wonder if this is what our boys are fighting for? They are being told today by many spokesmen in Canada that socialism

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2618-535: Is A1+B1. If money in the hands of the public is to be equal to the costs of consumable articles produced then A1+A2 = A1+B1 and therefore A2=B1. Now modern science has brought us to the stage where machines are more and more taking the place of human labour in producing goods, i.e. A1 is becoming less important relatively to B1 and A2 less important relatively to B2. In symbols if B1/A1 = k1 and B2/A2 = k2 both k1 and k2 are increasing. Since A2=B1 this means that (A2+B2)/(A1+B1)= (1+k2)*A2/(1+1/k1)*B1 = (1+k2)/(1+1/k1) which

2737-643: Is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed in the 1920s and 1930s by C. H. Douglas . Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he saw as a chronic deficiency of purchasing power in the economy, Douglas prescribed government intervention in the form of the issuance of debt-free money directly to consumers or producers (if they sold their product below cost to consumers) in order to combat such discrepancy. In defence of his ideas, Douglas wrote that "Systems were made for men, and not men for systems, and

2856-506: Is any charge in respect of which the actual distributed purchasing power does not still exist, and that practically this means any charge created at a further distance in the past than the period of cyclic rate of circulation of money. There is no fundamental difference between tools and intermediate products, and the latter may therefore be included. In 1932, Douglas estimated the cyclic rate of circulation of money to be approximately three weeks. The cyclic rate of circulation of money measures

2975-502: Is constant or increasing, and overhead charges are continuously increasing due to technological advancement, then prices, which equal income plus overhead charges, must also increase. Further, any attempt to stabilize or decrease prices must be met by decreasing incomes according to this analysis. As the Phillips Curve demonstrates, inflation and unemployment are trade-offs, unless prices are reduced from monies derived from outside

3094-465: Is increasing. Legislative Assembly of Alberta The maximum period between general elections of the assembly, as set by Section 4 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is five years, which is further reinforced in Alberta's Legislative Assembly Act . Convention dictates the premier controls the date of election and usually selects a date in the fourth or fifth year after

3213-487: Is justified by the displacement of labour in the productive process due to technological increases in productivity. As human labour is increasingly replaced by machines in the productive process, Douglas believed people should be free to consume while enjoying increasing amounts of leisure, and that the Dividend would provide this freedom . Critics of the theorem, such as J. M. Pullen, Hawtrey and J. M. Keynes argue there

3332-426: Is no difference between A and B payments. Other critics, such as Gary North, argue that social credit policies are inflationary. "The A + B theorem has met with almost universal rejection from academic economists on the grounds that, although B payments may be made initially to "other organizations," they will not necessarily be lost to the flow of available purchasing power. A and B payments overlap through time. Even if

3451-555: Is not that we shall be put into somebody else's Utopia , but we shall be put in a position to construct a Utopia of our own." The idea of social credit attracted considerable interest in the interwar period , with the Alberta Social Credit Party briefly distributing "prosperity certificates" to the Albertan populace. However, Douglas opposed the distribution of prosperity certificates which were based upon

3570-470: Is not the only cause of inflation, and inflation is systemic according to the rules of cost accountancy given overhead charges are constantly increasing relative to income. In other words, inflation can exist even if consumers have insufficient purchasing power to buy back all of production. Douglas claimed that there were two limits which governed prices, a lower limit governed by the cost of production, and an upper limit governed by what an article will fetch on

3689-493: Is provided by loan credit (bank overdrafts) or export credit. Beyond empirical evidence, Douglas claims this deductive theorem demonstrates that total prices increase faster than total incomes when regarded as a flow . In his pamphlet entitled "The New and the Old Economics", Douglas describes the cause of "B" payments: I think that a little consideration will make it clear that in this sense an overhead charge

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3808-450: Is something we call a price opposite to it." Money is effective demand, and the means of reclaiming that money are prices and taxes. As real capital replaces labour in the process of modernization, money should become increasingly an instrument of distribution. The idea that money is a medium of exchange is related to the belief that all wealth is created by the current labour of the world, and Douglas clearly rejected this belief, stating that

3927-525: Is that a man shall believe that he can get what he wants by the aid of it." According to economists, money is a medium of exchange . Douglas argued that this may have once been the case when the majority of wealth was produced by individuals who subsequently exchanged it with each other. But in modern economies, division of labour splits production into multiple processes, and wealth is produced by people working in association with each other. For instance, an automobile worker does not produce any wealth (i.e.,

4046-406: Is the answer to their problems. If this is true, Mr Speaker, why send them to Europe to fight against it? Why don't we tell them that international finance, their worst enemy, is backing the philosophy of socialism."" Manning also fought against the media and education system, believing that they were full of Marxists and sympathetic to the communist cause. Stating that it is "evident, in my view, in

4165-414: Is the explanation of the increasing necessity of what has come to be called economic sabotage; the colossal waste of effort which goes on in every walk of life quite unobserved by the majority of people because they are so familiar with it; a waste which yet so over-taxed the ingenuity of society to extend it that the climax of war only occurred in the moment when a culminating exhibition of organised sabotage

4284-415: Is the materials and capital that were consumed in its production, plus that amount of consumer goods labour consumed during its production. This total consumption represents the physical, or real, cost of production. where Since fewer inputs are consumed to produce a unit of output with every improvement in process, the real cost of production falls over time. As a result, prices should also decrease with

4403-501: Is the primary factor decreasing it. The word wealth derives from the Old English word wela , or "well-being", and Douglas believed that all production should increase personal well-being. Therefore, production that does not directly increase personal well-being is waste, or economic sabotage. The economic effect of charging all the waste in industry to the consumer so curtails his purchasing power that an increasing percentage of

4522-473: The 31st Alberta Legislature were elected in the 31st Alberta general election held on May 29, 2023. Bold indicates cabinet members , and party leaders are italicized . The 31st Alberta Legislative Assembly was constituted after the general election on May 29, 2023 . The United Conservative Party , led by incumbent Premier Danielle Smith , formed the government with a reduced majority. The New Democrats , led by former Premier Rachel Notley , won

4641-760: The Thistle Rink , Edmonton, north of Jasper Avenue . After the speech from the throne, the assembly held its sessions in the McKay Avenue School . In this school Alberta MLAs chose the provincial capital, Edmonton, and the future site for the Alberta Legislature Building: the bank of the North Saskatchewan River . Allan Merrick Jeffers , a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design was

4760-476: The architect who was chosen to build the assembly building. In September 1912 Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn , Governor General of Canada , declared the building officially open. Louise McKinney and Roberta MacAdams were the first women elected to the assembly, in the 1917 election . They were also the first women in any legislature of the British Empire. The members-elect of

4879-497: The 1960s, commercial airlines could not serve alcohol while flying over Alberta. As well, the government passed stronger labour legislation, such as a minimum wage law for male workers (female workers already coming under legislation passed by the UFA government), and centralized the province's school system. The latter years of Aberhart's government saw a decline in popularity, with party membership falling from 41,000 in 1938 to just 3,500 in 1942. The Albertan public recognized that

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4998-548: The 1960s. Censoring films sympathetic to international cooperation due to allegations of communism, greatly weakening workers' protections, and seeking to create a welcoming environment for oil investors. Ernest Manning's government was starkly right-wing, attacking a number of unions with charges of communism , censoring films sympathetic to the New Left , and international cooperation due to allegations, and its connection to communism. Manning engaged in red-baiting on

5117-425: The A + B theorem in his book, Credit-Power and Democracy , in critique of accounting methodology pertinent to income and prices. In the fourth, Australian Edition of 1933, Douglas states: A factory or other productive organization has, besides its economic function as a producer of goods, a financial aspect – it may be regarded on the one hand as a device for the distribution of purchasing-power to individuals through

5236-555: The Alberta Agricultural Committee of the Alberta Legislature in 1934, Douglas said: Now we know there are an increasing number of charges which originated from a period much anterior to three weeks, and included in those charges, as a matter of fact, are most of the charges made in, respect of purchases from one organization to another, but all such charges as capital charges (for instance, on

5355-652: The Alberta Socreds. In 1946, Manning's government began a Red Scare , censoring "communist propaganda films" in the hopes of "eliminating communist thought from Alberta-shown movies". Alberta's government quickly began banning films, including films produced by the British government which supported the United Nations, as well as Hollywood films such as The Wild One and Blackboard Jungle . The government's attempts at film censorship continued through

5474-483: The B payments are received and spent before the finished product is available for purchase, current purchasing power will be boosted by B payments received in the current production of goods that will be available for purchase in the future." A. W. Joseph replied to this specific criticism in a paper given to the Birmingham Actuarial Society, "Banking and Industry": Let A1+B1 be the costs in

5593-642: The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation attempted to use against him in the 1948 election. Beginning in 1947, Alberta experienced a major oil boom, aiding Manning in fending off political challenges. In campaigning for the 1948 election , the Alberta Social Credit Party purported that the development of the province's petroleum industry was the main issue at stake, and touted the newfound prosperity resulting from this oil to win another strong majority in

5712-558: The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. During the campaign, Manning engaged in red-baiting on a number of instances, likening the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation to "the socialism of Germany ". In the election, Manning led the Alberta Social Credit Party to retain a solid majority in the Legislative Assembly . As a result of an oil boom in the late 1940s, Alberta received high amounts of oil royalties during much of Manning's term as premier, enabling large amounts of spending on education and healthcare. Under Manning's leadership,

5831-762: The Heritage Party of Alberta joined to form the Alberta Alliance Political Association. The Alliance fell apart when the WCC left, followed by Social Credit. The AAPA became the present-day Alberta Party . Social Credit sat out the 1986 election. Most of its remaining supporters joined and ran for the Representative Party , which had been formed by Speaker after he and Buck were denied funding normally reserved to opposition parties. Social credit Social credit

5950-431: The Legislative Assembly by petition of constituents. However, he repealed the legislation when he himself became the target of a recall drive. Continuing the UFA government's conservatism (which verged on prohibition ) on the matter of drinking, Aberhart's government enacted several socially conservative laws, notably one restricting the sale and serving of alcohol. It was one of the strictest such laws in Canada. Well into

6069-413: The Legislative Assembly. During the campaign, the party used such prosperity to fervently denounce the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation's calls for public ownership of the oil industry. By the mid-1950s, oil royalties provided the Albertan government with the majority of its total revenue, and the province enjoyed significantly higher per capita revenue than its Canadian counterparts. This enabled

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6188-493: The Social Credit League of Alberta. From 1932 to 1935, Aberhart tried to get the governing United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) to adopt social credit. However, the 1935 UFA convention voted against adopting social credit and UFA Premier Richard Reid rejected the proposals as being outside the province's constitutional powers, so Aberhart entered Social Credit candidates in that year's provincial election . There

6307-570: The Socreds into opposition, but resigned as party leader in 1973. Former Health Minister James Douglas Henderson became interim leader, and hence Leader of the Opposition. In the 1973 leadership election, Werner Schmidt , vice-president of Lethbridge Community College, who didn't hold a seat in the Legislative Assembly, ran against former Highways Minister Gordon Taylor , former Education Minister Robert Curtis Clark , and John Ludwig , dean of business education at Alberta College. Clark, who had

6426-608: The administration's Workmen's Compensation Board, although many unions affiliated with the Canadian Congress of Labour , including the province's largest union, the 18th District of the United Mine Workers of America , took issue with the Workmen's Compensation Board's leadership. To uphold its election promise of democratizing Alberta's government, Aberhart passed a law allowing for the recall of members of

6545-409: The amount of time required for a loan to pass through the productive system and return to the bank. This can be calculated by determining the amount of clearings through the bank in a year divided by the average amount of deposits held at the banks (which varies very little). The result is the number of times money must turnover in order to produce these clearing house figures. In a testimony before

6664-471: The attending delegates and a new president was elected. As soon as the writs were dropped in October, Speaker and Walt Buck left the party to become independent candidates for the legislature. The party's third MLA, Fred Mandeville announced his retirement. For the first time since 1935, the party had no incumbents. George Richardson was named acting leader. Social Credit went into the 1982 election in

6783-436: The automobile) by himself, but only in conjunction with other auto workers, the producers of roads, gasoline, insurance, etc. In this opinion, wealth is a pool upon which people can draw, and money becomes a ticketing system . The efficiency gained by individuals cooperating in the productive process was named by Douglas as the " unearned increment of association" – historic accumulations of which constitute what Douglas called

6902-416: The ban on airlines serving alcohol over provincial airspace. Manning led Social Credit to seven consecutive election victories. He governed with very large majorities for virtually his entire tenure, winning well over 50 percent of the popular vote and rarely facing more than ten opposition MLAs. For most of the next two decades, Alberta was virtually a one-party state. He wielded considerable influence over

7021-702: The change in direction from the comprehensive political platform of Social Credit with aims of forming government, to the Party's new, and sole, focus of promoting pro-life public policy. William Aberhart , a Baptist lay-preacher and evangelist in Calgary , was attracted to social credit theory while Alberta (and much of the western world) was in the depths of the Great Depression . He soon began promoting it through his radio program on CFCN in Calgary, adding

7140-504: The consumer is forced to pay for all the costs of production, including waste. The economic effect of charging the consumer with all waste in industry is that the consumer is forced to do much more work than is necessary. Douglas believed that wasted effort could be directly linked to confusion in regard to the purpose of the economic system, and the belief that the economic system exists to provide employment in order to distribute goods and services. But it may be advisable to glance at some of

7259-448: The cultural heritage. The means of drawing upon this pool is money distributed by the banking system. Douglas believed that money should not be regarded as a commodity but rather as a ticket, a means of distribution of production. "There are two sides to this question of a ticket representing something that we can call, if we like, a value. There is the ticket itself – the money which forms the thing we call ' effective demand ' – and there

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7378-433: The cultural inheritance is the property of all of us, without exception." Adam Smith , David Ricardo and Karl Marx claimed that labour creates all value . While Douglas did not deny that all costs ultimately relate to labour charges of some sort (past or present), he denied that the present labour of the world creates all wealth. Douglas carefully distinguished between value , costs and prices . He claimed that one of

7497-409: The cultural inheritance of society is the primary factor in the creation of wealth, which makes money a distribution mechanism, not a medium of exchange. Douglas also claimed the problem of production, or scarcity , had long been solved. The new problem was one of distribution. However, so long as orthodox economics makes scarcity a value, banks will continue to believe that they are creating value for

7616-746: The dour Strom. His cause was not helped when the Tories picked up an additional four seats during the term. In the 1971 election , Lougheed's PCs ended Social Credit's 36-year hold on power. The Socred share of the popular vote decreased slightly, but still they finished only five points behind the PCs and won a record number of votes (due in part to Alberta's larger population). While they mostly held their own in their rural heartlands, their support in Edmonton and Calgary plummeted from 1968. The PCs took every seat in Edmonton, and all but five in Calgary. The Socreds lost

7735-491: The economy. It stayed in power until 1971, one of the longest unbroken runs in government at the provincial level in Canada. However, it held no seats after 1982, and finished a distant seventh in the 2012 and 2015 general elections, before the party's name change. In May 2017, the party changed its name to Pro-Life Alberta Political Association (or Prolife Alberta, for short) following the election of anti-abortion activist Jeremy Fraser as leader. The change in name reflected

7854-572: The election and has registered with Elections Alberta under the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act . Senators , senators-in-waiting , members of the House of Commons , and criminal inmates are ineligible. The 30th Alberta Legislature was dissolved on May 1, 2023. The members-elect of the 31st Alberta Legislature were elected on May 29 . The first session of the first Legislature of Alberta opened on March 15, 1906, in

7973-467: The entire year. Manning acted swiftly to avert the crisis. Rewriting the province's labour laws in March to allow the government to shut down the strike. Greatly weakened by charges of communism, and Manning's Stallworth defiance of union threats caused the unions to attempt to persuade legislators instead of protesting using strikes, or violence. Manning's steadfast defiance in the face of union threats halted

8092-406: The factors resulting in a misdirection of thought in terms of the nature and function of money was economists' near-obsession about values and their relation to prices and incomes. While Douglas recognized "value in use" as a legitimate theory of values, he also considered values as subjective and not capable of being measured in an objective manner. Thus he rejected the idea of the role of money as

8211-471: The federal party. The British Columbia Social Credit Party formed the government for many years in neighbouring British Columbia , although this was effectively a coalition of centre-right forces in the province that had no interest in social credit monetary policies. The Alberta Social Credit party won a majority government in 1935, in the first election it contested, barely months after its formation. During its first years, when led by William Aberhart , it

8330-404: The first Social Credit government in the world. The Social Credit Party's success is largely attributed to the charisma of Aberhart, who brought together a broad coalition ranging from social credit supporters to moderate socialists . Not even the Socreds had expected to win the election. Indeed, they hadn't even named a leader during the campaign. The Socreds now found themselves having to choose

8449-483: The first, but is simpler. It assumes that the primary objective of the industrial system is the provision of employment. 3. And the third, which is essentially simpler still, in fact, so simple that it appears entirely unintelligible to the majority, is that the object of the industrial system is merely to provide goods and services. Douglas believed that it was the third policy alternative upon which an economic system should be based, but confusion of thought has allowed

8568-532: The government to spend large amounts on education and healthcare, which some historians view as partially responsible for Manning's high levels of popular support. Manning's last election win in 1967 demonstrated a weaker standing of the Alberta Social Credit Party. While the New Democratic Party emerged as a new challenger to the Social Credit Party, they were wary of the strong anti-communist and anti-union sentiments formed in Alberta, and ran

8687-507: The government's Accurate News and Information Act , which would have forced newspapers to print government rebuttals to stories to which the Executive Council (cabinet) objected. The government's relationship with Bowen became so acrimonious that in 1938, Bowen threatened to use his reserve power to dismiss Aberhart. In the end, Bowen chose not to take this extraordinary action. Had Bowen sacked Aberhart, it would have triggered

8806-456: The hopes of maintaining good relationships with the government. In January 1948 a coal miners ' strike broke out. With thousands of miners, threatening the provincial Electrical grid , as most electricity was generated from coal. With this one strike alone accounting for 30% of all time lost to strikes in Canada in 1948. In Alberta, the time lost was even worse. With it being responsible for well over 99% of all person-lost days due to strikes for

8925-577: The industrial system to be governed by the first two objectives. If the purpose of our economic system is to deliver the maximum amount of goods and services with the least amount of effort, then the ability to deliver goods and services with the least amount of employment is actually desirable. Douglas proposed that unemployment is a logical consequence of machines replacing labour in the productive process, and any attempt to reverse this process through policies designed to attain full employment directly sabotages our cultural inheritance. Douglas also believed that

9044-405: The interest of man which is self-development , is above all systems, whether theological, political or economic." Douglas said that Social Crediters want to build a new civilization based upon " absolute economic security " for the individual, where "they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree ; and none shall make them afraid." In his words, "what we really demand of existence

9163-408: The legislature, the party continued to sag in the polls. The beginning of the end for Social Credit came when Clark retired from politics in 1981. His seat of Olds-Didsbury , a longstanding Social Credit bastion (parts of the riding had been in Social Credit hands for all but one month since 1935), was resoundingly lost to Western Canada Concept . In the process, Social Credit lost official status in

9282-466: The legislature. Unable to resolve the party's internal and financial problems, Sykes quit as leader in March 1982. On 31 March 1982, Social Credit parliamentary leader Raymond Speaker , the leader of the opposition in the Legislative Assembly, announced that Social Credit would sit out that year's election . In his press release, he said it would be useless for Social Credit to fight the next election since there were not enough Social Credit voters left in

9401-496: The long-term consequence of this policy is a trade war , typically resulting in real war – hence, the social credit admonition, "He who calls for Full-Employment calls for War!", expressed by the Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland , led by John Hargrave . The former represents excessive capital production and/or military build-up. Military buildup necessitates either the violent use of weapons or

9520-496: The longer they were held, and openly criticized Gesell's theories. The Socreds also passed bills that would have placed the province's banks under government control. However, Lieutenant-Governor John C. Bowen refused to grant Royal Assent to the bills. The Supreme Court of Canada sided with Bowen and struck down the bills because only the federal government can legislate on banking. Thwarted in its attempt to gain control of Alberta's private banks, Aberhart's government gained

9639-517: The major consequence of the problem he identified in his A+B theorem is exponentially increasing debt. Further, he believed that society is forced to produce goods that consumers either do not want or cannot afford to purchase. The latter represents a favorable balance of trade , meaning a country exports more than it imports. But not every country can pursue this objective at the same time, as one country must import more than it exports when another country exports more than it imports. Douglas proposed that

9758-414: The media of wages, salaries, and dividends; and on the other hand as a manufactory of prices – financial values. From this standpoint, its payments may be divided into two groups: Now the rate of flow of purchasing-power to individuals is represented by A, but since all payments go into prices, the rate of flow of prices cannot be less than A+B. The product of any factory may be considered as something which

9877-507: The modern economy is a monetary one. Initially, money originated from the productive system, when cattle owners punched leather discs which represented a head of cattle. These discs could then be exchanged for corn, and the corn producers could then exchange the disc for a head of cattle at a later date. The word "pecuniary" comes from the Latin pecunia , originally and literally meaning "cattle" (related to pecus , meaning "beast"). Today,

9996-515: The money they produce by making it scarce. Douglas criticized the banking system on two counts: The former Douglas identified as being anti-social in policy. The latter he claimed was equivalent to claiming ownership of the nation. According to Douglas, money is merely an abstract representation of the real credit of the community, which is the ability of the community to deliver goods and services , when and where they are required. In January 1919, "A Mechanical View of Economics" by C. H. Douglas

10115-571: The news media, which are very heavily slanted, as a general rule favorably slanted, to socialist philosophy. This isn't by chance, it's because communism has been smart enough to see... that there are always a goodly number of men in that field who are sympathetic to the socialistic and even communistic philosophy. You even have the same thing, to varying degrees, in the field of education. It isn't by chance that you find these agitations of Marxism and so forth in many of our universities. It isn't by chance." The Manning administration now re-elected with

10234-423: The open market. Douglas suggested that this is the reason why deflation is regarded as a problem in orthodox economics because bankers and businessmen were very apt to forget the lower limit of prices. Douglas proposed to eliminate the gap between purchasing power and prices by increasing consumer purchasing power with credits which do not appear in prices in the form of a price rebate and a dividend. Formally called

10353-676: The party had implemented, using support from the Alberta Federation of Labour to fend off left-wing challenges from the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation and the Labor-Progressive Party . Though other unions, particularly those affiliated with the Canadian Congress of Labour , took issue with the Social Credit Party's workers' protections, divisions within these unions and their leadership prevented any effective endorsement of

10472-412: The party largely abandoned social credit monetary theories, though it did issue prosperity certificates from oil royalties in 1957 and 1958. Manning moved to purge anti-Semites from the party. While anti-Semitism had been part of the party's Christian populist rhetoric for years, it had become far less fashionable after World War II . Several socially conservative laws remained in place for years, such as

10591-481: The party's federal counterparts as well. For example, he let it be known that his province would never accept francophone Catholic Real Caouette , leader of the party's Quebec wing, as the party's leader—even though Caouette headed the party's third-strongest faction (behind the Alberta and British Columbia Socreds ). This led to rumours that Caouette had defeated Robert N. Thompson for the federal party's leadership in 1961, only to have his win vetoed by Manning and

10710-399: The party's initial campaign promises, such as price controls and social dividends , were failing to materialize. Social Credit was elected with a slightly reduced mandate in 1940 . "Bible Bill" Aberhart died in 1943, and was replaced by his Provincial Secretary and Minister of Trade and Industry, Ernest Manning . For the 1944 election , Manning campaigned on the labour protections that

10829-418: The people displaced from the industrial system through the process of mechanization should still have the ability to consume the fruits of the system, because he suggested that we are all inheritors of the cultural inheritance, and his proposal for a national dividend is directly related to this belief. Douglas criticized classical economics because many of the theories are based upon a barter economy , whereas

10948-499: The popular vote it had received in 1971. Schmidt failed to win a seat and resigned as party leader, leaving Clark to take the leadership unopposed. Under Clark, the party staved off a total collapse in the 1979 election , holding onto its four seats. Clark returned to the backbench a little more than a year after the election. On 29 November 1980, former Calgary mayor Rod Sykes became the party's new leader, defeating Edmonton alderman Julian Kinisky 538–292. Again without its leader in

11067-417: The popular vote—its lowest share of the popular vote since 1940. This was a significant drop from 1963 , when it took all but six seats. More importantly, the once-moribund Progressive Conservatives , led by young lawyer Peter Lougheed , won six seats, mostly in Calgary and Edmonton . Despite having long-standing support in Calgary and Edmonton (Manning himself represented an Edmonton riding), Social Credit

11186-536: The preceding election. Amendments to Alberta's Elections Act introduced in 2021 fixed the date of election to between the last Monday in May in the fourth calendar year following the preceding election. Alberta has never had a minority government and an election as a result of a vote of no confidence has never occurred. To be a candidate for election to the assembly, a person must be a Canadian citizen older than 18 who has lived in Alberta for at least six months before

11305-532: The premise embodied in your proposed resolution, namely, that there is such a thing as democratic socialism , contradicts itself in that it attempts to associate two concepts of life which are diametrically opposed and opposite."" And that socialists were trying to "enslave the ordinary people of the world, whose only real salvation lay in the issuance of Social Credit." Censoring films sympathetic to international cooperation due to allegations of communism, greatly weakening workers' protections, and seeking to create

11424-401: The price of subsequent ultimate products and they produce a position of most unstable equilibrium, since the life of capital goods is in general longer than that of consumable goods, or ultimate products, and yet in order to meet the requirements for money to buy the consumable goods, the rate of production of capital goods must be continuously increased. The replacement of labour by capital in

11543-413: The product of industry must be exported. The effect of this on the worker is that he has to do many times the amount of work which should be necessary to keep him in the highest standard of living, as a result of an artificial inducement to produce things he does not want, which he cannot buy, and which are of no use to the attainment of his internal standard of well-being. By modern methods of accounting,

11662-441: The productive process implies that overhead charges (B) increase in relation to income (A), because "'B' is the financial representation of the lever of capital". As Douglas stated in his first article, "The Delusion of Superproduction": The factory cost – not the selling price – of any article under our present industrial and financial system is made up of three main divisions-direct labor cost, material cost and overhead charges,

11781-486: The productive system and the monetary system are two separate entities. Douglas demonstrated that loans create deposits , and presented mathematical proof in his book Social Credit. Bank credit comprises the vast majority of money, and is created every time a bank makes a loan. Douglas was also one of the first to understand the creditary nature of money. The word credit derives from the Latin credere , meaning "to believe". "The essential quality of money, therefore,

11900-463: The productive system. According to Douglas's A+B theorem, the systemic problem of increasing prices, or inflation, is not "too much money chasing too few goods", but is the increasing rate of overhead charges in production due to the replacement of labour by capital in industry combined with a policy of full employment. Douglas did not suggest that inflation cannot be caused by too much money chasing too few consumer goods, but according to his analysis this

12019-427: The progression of time. "As society's capacity to deliver goods and services is increased by the use of plant and still more by scientific progress, and decreased by the production, maintenance, or depreciation of it, we can issue credit, in costs, at a greater rate than the rate at which we take it back through prices of ultimate products, if capacity to supply individuals exceeds desire." Based on his conclusion that

12138-400: The province. The Social Credit Party council quickly distanced itself from Speaker's statement. There was wide speculation at the time that Speaker would cross the floor to Western Canada Concept. Unable to attract a new leader, the Social Credit membership held an emergency meeting 18 September 1982. A resolution was put forward that would have dissolved the party. This was soundly rejected by

12257-555: The proximate causes operating to reduce the return for effort; and to realise the origin of most of the specific instances, it must be borne in mind that the existing economic system distributes goods and services through the same agency which induces goods and services, i.e., payment for work in progress. In other words, if production stops, distribution stops, and, as a consequence, a clear incentive exists to produce useless or superfluous articles in order that useful commodities already existing may be distributed. This perfectly simple reason

12376-432: The public ought to be able to buy, although in many cases it is an intermediate product of no use to individuals but only to a subsequent manufacture; but since A will not purchase A+B; a proportion of the product at least equivalent to B must be distributed by a form of purchasing-power which is not comprised in the description grouped under A. It will be necessary at a later stage to show that this additional purchasing power

12495-522: The ratio of which varies widely, with the "modernity" of the method of production. For instance, a sculptor producing a work of art with the aid of simple tools and a block of marble has next to no overhead charges, but a very low rate of production, while a modern screw-making plant using automatic machines may have very high overhead charges and very low direct labour cost, or high rates of production. Since increased industrial output per individual depends mainly on tools and method, it may almost be stated as

12614-460: The real cost of production is less than the financial cost of production, the Douglas price rebate (Compensated Price) is determined by the ratio of consumption to production. Since consumption over a period of time is typically less than production over the same period of time in any industrial society, the real cost of goods should be less than the financial cost. For example, if the money cost of

12733-489: The right to organize, although labour leaders viewed these protections as too weak to be meaningful. In 1937, the administration created the Board of Industrial Relations, which was tasked with enforcing maximum working hours, minimum wages , and certifying workers' bargaining agents. The creation of the board, and its enforcement, won the praise of the Alberta Federation of Labour . The Alberta Federation of Labour also praised

12852-647: The rise of militant unionism in Alberta, as it did in other areas like Quebec and the rust belt . In 1945 the Wetaskiwin MP Norman Jaques "spoke for most of the party establishment when he charged... that communists had infiltrated the CBC 'as they have every other organization.'" In 1951, the province's Minister of Municipal Affairs, C.F. Gerhart, claimed that there were hundreds of communist spies among Albertan workers. Manning prided his administration's good relations with oil investors, which

12971-436: The role of these factors in production, he considered the " cultural inheritance of society " as the primary factor. He defined cultural inheritance as the knowledge, techniques and processes that have accrued to us incrementally from the origins of civilization (i.e. progress ). Consequently, mankind does not have to keep " reinventing the wheel ". "We are merely the administrators of that cultural inheritance, and to that extent

13090-402: The social credit monetary reform road. After election he hired an orthodox financial expert named Magor, much to Douglas's displeasure, thus forestalling radical monetary reform. In March 1937 many Socred MLAs revolted against Aberhart's leadership , refusing to pass the provincial budget until Aberhart promised serious reform of the banking system. Following the 1937 revolt, the government made

13209-411: The support of half of the party's MLAs, led Schmidt on the first ballot, 583 votes to 512 votes. But in an upset victory, Schmidt won on the second ballot with 814 votes, defeating Clark by 39 votes. First ballot (Ludwig eliminated, Taylor withdraws) Second ballot Social Credit sank into near-paralysis in opposition. Having spent all but a few months of its history before the 1971 government, it

13328-531: The theories of Silvio Gesell . Douglas' theory of social credit has been disputed and rejected by most economists and bankers. Prominent economist John Maynard Keynes references Douglas's ideas in his book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money , but instead poses the principle of effective demand to explain differences in output and consumption. Douglas disagreed with classical economists who recognised only three factors of production : land , labour and capital . While Douglas did not deny

13447-467: The utter confusion of thought which has undoubtedly arisen from the calm assumption of the book-keeper and the accountant that he and he alone was in a position to assign positive or negative values to the quantities represented by his figures is one of the outstanding curiosities of the industrial system; and the attempt to mould the activities of a great empire on such a basis is surely the final condemnation of an out-worn method. In 1920, Douglas presented

13566-400: Was a radical monetary reform party, at least in theory if not in effect. After Aberhart's death in 1943 and the rise to leadership of Ernest Manning , followed quickly by the discovery of oil in north-central Alberta and its accompanying wealth for many, Social Credit took on a more conservative hue. Its policies were pro-business and anti-union, and largely opposed to government intervention in

13685-424: Was at bottom an agrarian-based party, and never really lost this character. The party didn't react nearly fast enough to the changes in Alberta as Calgary and Edmonton gained more influence. Manning retired in 1968 and was replaced by Agriculture Minister Harry Strom at the party's first leadership election . However, Strom soon was eclipsed by Lougheed, whose modern and urbane image contrasted sharply with that of

13804-406: Was necessary to preserve the system from spontaneous combustion. Douglas claimed there were three possible policy alternatives with respect to the economic system: 1. The first of these is that it is a disguised Government, of which the primary, though admittedly not the only, object is to impose upon the world a system of thought and action. 2. The second alternative has a certain similarity to

13923-413: Was the first article to be published in the magazine New Age , edited by Alfred Richard Orage , critiquing the methods by which economic activity is typically measured: It is not the purpose of this short article to depreciate the services of accountants; in fact, under the existing conditions probably no body of men has done more to crystallise the data on which we carry on the business of the world; but

14042-413: Was unable to get the better of the Tories. It didn't help matters that Schmidt was never able to get into the legislature; he lost a by-election shortly after taking the leadership. Henderson remained parliamentary leader until September when Clark succeeded him. The party's support collapsed in the 1975 election , when it fell to four seats—just barely holding onto official party status —and lost half of

14161-609: Was widespread discontent with the overly cautious behaviour of the UFA government, and in some cases, local UFA chapters openly supported Social Credit candidates. The UFA government was also reeling from a scandal that had forced Reid's predecessor, John Brownlee , to resign a year earlier. This, in particular, caused some socially conservative UFA members to transfer their allegiance to the Christian-based Social Credit movement. The Social Credit Party campaigned on price controls , and social dividends of $ 25

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