ABSTRACT
In August 1935 the first social credit government was elected to office in the Canadian province of Alberta. Out of sixty-three seats in the provincial legislature, fifty-six were taken by members of a party less than a year old. None of the candidates had previously been elected to office, and few had any experience in politics. Douglas,
already appointed economic adviser to the Alberta administration, was invited by the incoming social credit Premier, William Aberhart, to travel to the province and advise on the introduction of social credit legislation. Despite lengthy correspondence between Douglas and Aberhart, Douglas resigned as adviser and the visit was never paid. Successive ‘social credit’ governments were voted into power in the province, the apparent break with orthodox politics being reviewed from the discourse of
orthodoxy as a symptom of adverse socio-economic conditions. A discourse is ‘a domain of language-use that is unified by common assumptions’
(Abercrombie et al. 1984: 71). In the mainstream press the documentation of the social credit phenomenon in Alberta has been limited to the discourses of neoclassical economic orthodoxy and the sociological analysis of minority politics (Mallory 1954; Irving 1959; Macpherson 1962; Finlay 1972; Sinclair 1972; Finkel 1989). In terms of
orthodox discourse a desperate electorate turned to the monetary crank Douglas and the religious fundamentalist Aberhart. Unable to agree among themselves, the wouldbe reformers had to be restrained from bringing the state to the verge of bankruptcy. A deluded electorate persisted in voting-in successive social credit governments committed to a series of illegal reforms. Following World War II, economic prosperity
rendered institutional change ‘unnecessary’. The post-war social credit government was able ‘to provide “good government” and avoid any act likely to antagonise business interests. . . . [This has] secured the reputation of the Social Credit party as a sane, conservative political force in the community’ (Mallory 1954: vii). By way of contrast with earlier texts, this chapter presents the events in Alberta from the standpoint of the social credit press.
