Editing Preston Manning (section)

== Early life and career ==
Manning was born in [[Edmonton]], Alberta. He is the son of Muriel Aileen (née Preston) and [[Ernest Manning]], [[Social Credit Party of Alberta|Social Credit Party]] Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 and a Canadian Senator from 1970 to 1983. Preston's grandparents were English immigrants.

Manning grew up in the Garneau district of [[Edmonton]], but moved at age twelve with his parents to the family dairy farm east of Edmonton from which he attended a rural school – Horse Hill High School. He enrolled in the honours physics program at the [[University of Alberta]] in 1960, but switched after three years to economics and graduated in 1964 with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in economics. He sought election to the Canadian House of Commons in the [[1965 Canadian federal election|1965 federal election]] as a candidate of the federal [[Social Credit Party of Canada|Social Credit Party]] in [[Edmonton East]], but was defeated.

When the Prairies began to prosper because of its status as an international wheat basket and the discovery of oil, the Social Credit Party changed course from its 1930s share-the-wealth roots to embrace [[rugged individualism]] and [[free enterprise]].<ref name="NYT_19660409">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/07/31/archives/canada-rightists-form-new-group-body-is-dedicated-to-fight-on.html|title=Canada Rightists Form New Group; Body Is Dedicated to Fight on 'Creeping Socialism'|first=Jay|last=Walz|date=July 31, 1966|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 9, 2018|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Upon graduation from university in 1966, Manning briefly worked as a salaried researcher for the National Public Affairs Research Foundation—a small, independent think tank led by David R. Wilson, who had been formerly with the Social Credit as executive director. ''[[The New York Times]]'' described the focus of the Foundation as fighting "creeping socialism" in Canada. This research enabled Manning to work on quasi political projects of interest to himself and his father.<ref name="NYT_19660409"/> One such project included the preparation of a proposal for re-aligning Alberta provincial politics through a proposed merger of the governing Social Credit Party with the up-and-coming Progressive Conservative Party led by [[Peter Lougheed]]. The proposal was ultimately rejected by the leadership of both parties but the statement of conservative principles it contained resurfaced time and time again in Manning's subsequent political ventures – in the statement of principles contained in a book researched by him for Ernest Manning entitled in ''Political Realignment: A Challenge for Thoughtful Canadians''<ref>{{Cite book|title=Political Realignment: A Challenge to Thoughtful Canadians|last=Manning|first=Ernest|publisher=McClelland and Stewart|year=1967|location=Toronto}}</ref> and in the statements of principles of the Reform Party of Canada, the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance, and the Conservative Party of Canada.

In 1967, Manning married Sandra ([[given name|née]] Beavis). Together they have five children.<ref>{{cite web |last1= |first1= |title=Ernest Preston Manning |url=https://www.alberta.ca/aoe-preston-manning.aspx |website=Alberta.ca |access-date=2 January 2022}}</ref>

Preston Manning has described himself as "a great fan and imperfect follower of Jesus of Nazareth" and has studied and lectured extensively on managing the interface between faith and politics.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Faith, leadership and public life: leadership lessons from Moses to Jesus|last=Manning|first=Preston|isbn=9781927355916|location=Pickering, ON|oclc=1021179805|date = August 2017}}</ref>

Manning and a colleague, Dr. Erick Schmidt, a PhD sociologist and Executive Secretary to the Alberta cabinet in the 1960s, became interested in the [[Systems theory|General Systems Theory]] of biologist [[Ludwig von Bertalanffy]] and its possible application to governmental and business organizations. Together, Manning and Schmidt authored a ''White Paper on Human Resources Development'' for the Alberta government applying systems concepts to the reorganization of Alberta's social services. It was presented to the Alberta legislature in 1968 and later formed the basis of Alberta's Human Resources Development Authority and related programs under Premier [[Harry Strom]], Ernest Manning's successor. Manning also contributed to the development of a "socio-economic development model" for [[TRW Inc.|TRW Systems]] of [[Redondo Beach, California]], as the firm was endeavouring to shift its focus from the systems management of military projects to the management of "civil systems".

Over the next twenty years Manning continued to work as a management consultant using his firms – M and M Systems Research Ltd. and Manning Consultants Ltd. – to pursue projects of political relevance. These included the development of strategies to prevent investor owned utilities from being nationalized by their provincial governments, developing a model of federal provincial negotiations which enabled his firm to predict the outcomes of federal provincial conferences, and assisting energy companies to increase their hiring of Indigenous workers and purchases from Indigenous-owned and operated companies. In an effort to stimulate economic growth in the depressed region of north central Alberta, Manning served for almost twenty years as the President and CEO of a duel objective – social and economic – enterprise named Slave Lake Developments Ltd (later renamed Spruceland Properties Ltd).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sprucelandproperties.com|title=SpruceLand Properties – Home|website=sprucelandproperties.com|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref> When the company was finally sold in 2016 it distributed over $55&nbsp;million in dividends to some 300 local shareholders<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/spruceland-announces-dividends-the-sale-of-its-edmonton-office-and-provides-update-on-dissolution-661250693.html|title=SpruceLand Announces Dividends, the Sale of Its Edmonton Office and Provides Update on Dissolution|website=newswire.ca|access-date=April 9, 2018}}</ref> – illustrating Manning's belief that economic development could be more effectively stimulated in a depressed region by "a better distribution of the Tools of Wealth Creation" than by income redistribution schemes.