Editing Ernest Manning (section)

==Premier of Alberta==
"Manning's take-over of the premiership at Aberhart's sudden death in May 1943 was a foregone conclusion. He had been Aberhart's religious protege and his closest associate in cabinet. He was regarded by Aberhart, who had two daughters, almost as a son."<ref name="archive.org"/> Manning twice honoured Aberhart's 1935 promise to issue a [[Prosperity Certificate]] to Albertans. In 1957, his government announced a $20 Alberta Oil Royalty Dividend and issued a $17 dividend the next year. The policy was widely criticized, and the next year, Manning agreed to use oil royalties on public works and social programs instead.<ref name="ReferenceA">Donn Downey, "OBITUARY / Ernest Charles Manning History of former Alberta premier also history of Socreds," ''Globe and Mail'', February 20, 1996</ref>

In 1935, Manning had famously entered the [[Aberhart Ministry|Alberta Cabinet]] as [[Provincial Secretary]] at only 26 years old. He was the youngest [[cabinet minister]] in all of British parliamentary history since [[William Pitt the Younger]], who had served as the prime minister of [[Great Britain]] 152 years earlier. When he became premier at the age of 35, he was the youngest [[first minister]] since Pitt. Besides serving as premier, he also held numerous other positions including Provincial Treasurer from 1944 to 1954, Minister of Mines and Minerals from 1952 to 1962, minister of trade and industry, [[attorney general]] from 1955 to 1968, and president of the executive council.<ref>{{cite web |title=Senator The Honourable Ernest Charles Manning |url=https://www.alberta.ca/aoe-ernest-manning.aspx |website=www.alberta.ca |publisher=Government of Alberta |access-date=20 December 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Honourable Ernest Manning, 1943 - 1968 |url=http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/people/prem_manning.html |website=AB heritage |publisher=Alberta Online Encyclopedia |access-date=8 Dec 2010 |archive-date=8 December 2010 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/2217/20101208163038/http://www.abheritage.ca/abpolitics/people/prem_manning.html |url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref>

Under Manning, Alberta became a virtual one-party province. He led Social Credit to seven consecutive election victories between [[1944 Alberta general election|1944]] and [[1967 Alberta general election|1967]], usually with more than 50% of the popular vote, and only once had to face more than 10 opposition MLAs. The height of his popularity came in [[1963 Alberta general election|1963]], when the Socreds campaigned under the slogan "63 in '63," a clean sweep of the then 63-seat legislature. They fell short of that goal, but still reduced the opposition to only three MLAs (two [[Alberta Liberal Party|Liberals]] and one running with the support of both the Liberals and [[Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta|Progressive Conservatives]]) in total. It is still the biggest majority government, in terms of percentage of seats won, in Alberta's history. Social Credit's electoral success was based in part on what was viewed as its [[peace, order and good government|good government]] of the province. Manning himself always held the view that "both God and the people had some say in how long he would be premier — and he was not about to argue with either."<ref name="auto1">{{cite web |title=Ernest Manning |url=https://www.canadianchristianleaders.org/leader/ernest-manning/ |website=Online Encyclopedia of Canadian Christian Leaders |access-date=21 December 2021}}</ref>

However, an ominous sign came during Manning's last victory, when the once-moribund Progressive Conservatives, led by [[Peter Lougheed]] won six seats, mostly in Calgary and Edmonton. More seriously, the PCs did well enough across the rest of the province to hold Social Credit to 45 percent of the vote, its lowest vote share since 1940. Manning retired in 1968, and Social Credit was knocked out of office three years later. It has never come within sight of power again. By the time Manning left the legislature, only he, [[Alfred Hooke]], and [[William Tomyn]] were left from the original 1935 caucus. Of that trio, Hooke was the only one who served in the legislature without interruption for Social Credit's entire run in government from 1935 to 1971 (Tomyn left the Legislative Assembly from 1952 to 1959).

===Social Credit policy===
Under Manning, the party largely abandoned [[social credit|social credit theories]]. He had been a devoutly loyal supporter of Aberhart from the very beginning and so it is not clear why he was so willing to abandon his party's traditional ideology. One likely explanation may have been pragmatic; many of Social Credit's policy goals infringed on responsibilities reserved to the federal government under the [[British North America Act, 1867|British North America Act]]. Manning, however, honoured Aberhart's 1935 promise to issue a [[Prosperity Certificate]] to Albertans twice. In 1957, his government announced a $20 Alberta Oil Royalty Dividend and issued a $17 dividend the next year. The policy was widely criticized, and the next year, Manning agreed to use oil royalties on public works and social programs instead.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

===Development of oil sands===
[[File:Athabasca Oil Sands map.png|thumb|right|Athabasca Oil Sands.]]
In 1945 the Abasand plant again burned down; this time, it was not rebuilt. The huge discoveries of conventional oil at Leduc and [[Redwater, Alberta|Redwater]] cast even more doubt upon the development of the oil sands because of the difficulty in accessing and processing the bitumen and the numerous technical problems. Manning, however, was not dissuaded since he was convinced that the oil sands would grant the province incredible wealth. He even went so far as to convince the entire Alberta Legislature to visit the Bitumount plant in 1949 since he believed that they would agree to continue development after it had witnessed the success in separating the oil sands. Manning also commissioned a [[petroleum engineer]] by the name of [[S. Robert Blair|Sidney Robert Blair]] to prepare a report on the economic feasibility of the separation process. With Pew's support, Sun Oil's majority-owned subsidiary, [[Great Canadian Oil Sands]] (GCOS), filed an application for a commercial oil sands project in Canada in 1962, the first-ever constructed.<ref name="Great_Oil_Age_1993">{{citation |first1=Peter |last1=McKenzie-Brown |first2=Gordon |last2=Jaremko |first3=David |last3=Finch |title=The Great Oil Age |publisher=Detselig Enterprises Ltd. |location=Calgary |year=1993}}</ref>

At the opening ceremonies for the Great Canadian Oil Sands plant, Pew repeated Manning's belief of the need for the [[oil sands]]. Telling his audience, "No nation can long be secure in this atomic age unless it be amply supplied with petroleum.... It is the considered opinion of our group that if the North American continent is to produce the oil to meet its requirements in the years ahead, oil from the Athabasca area must of necessity play an important role."<ref name="Great_Oil_Age_1993"/>

===Adopton of Albertan flag===
[[File:Flag of Alberta.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.3|The [[Flag of Alberta]] adopted on June 1, 1968]]
Around the time of the upcoming centennial celebration of [[Canadian Confederation]], petitions were submitted in November 1966 to Manning by the Social Credit Women's Auxiliaries of the [[Alberta Social Credit League]] to give Alberta its own unique flag. The flag was designed and approved as the official provincial flag by the Alberta legislature on June 1, 1968.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/flag-of-Alberta|title=Flag of Alberta - Canadian provincial flag|access-date=20 February 2018}}</ref>

===Social conservatism and faith===
Manning's deep Christian faith gave him a sense of charity to the poor and needy, but unlike the longtime premier of neighbouring Saskatchewan, [[Tommy Douglas]], Manning was an outspoken critic of government involvement in society. Manning remained a staunch anti-communist, and encouraged strong religious, individual, and corporate initiatives in addressing and solving social issues. Manning believed that the "government was there to motivate and give direction, not to intervene and carry the load."<ref name="auto1"/>

His views on health care and social issues were heavily shaped by his elder son, Keith, who suffered from [[cerebral palsy]]. "He and his wife Muriel lovingly raised. Keith had suffered [[oxygen deprivation]] at birth."<ref name="auto1"/> Manning improved health services in his province but opposed universal public health insurance. Alberta only signed on to the national medicare system after Manning's retirement as premier.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ernest Manning |url=https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/medicare/medic-4k05e.html |website=Making Medicare: The History of Health Care in Canada |publisher=Canadian Museum of History |access-date=19 May 2023}}</ref>

Mannings's faith also heavily influenced his approach to politics. He was always prudent and careful in practicing politics by "always practicing Christian-based reconciliation and conflict resolution."<ref name="auto1"/>

===Anticommunism===
For the [[1944 Alberta general election|1944 election]], Manning campaigned on the labour protections that the party had implemented and used support from the [[Alberta Federation of Labour]] to fend off left-wing challenges from the [[socialist]] [[Co-operative Commonwealth Federation]] and the [[communist]] [[Labour-Progressive Party]].<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|128–129}} Though other unions, particularly those affiliated with the [[Canadian Congress of Labour]], took issue with the Social Credit Party's workers' protections, divisions within the unions and their leadership prevented any effective endorsement of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|130}} 
During the campaign, Manning likened the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation to "the socialism of [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]."<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|131}} 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. 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.'"<ref name="The Social Credit phenomenon in Alb">{{cite book |last1=Finkel |first1=Alvin |title=The Social Credit phenomenon in Alberta |date=1989 |publisher=Toronto, Ont. : University of Toronto Press |isbn=9781442682382 |page=86 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialcreditphen0000fink/page/84/mode/2up |access-date=18 April 2022}}</ref> He also said that socialists were trying to "enslave the ordinary people of the world, whose only real salvation lay in the issuance of Social Credit."<ref name="The Social Credit phenomenon in Alb"/>

Manning argued the media and education system was sympathetic to the communist cause. He stated that it is "evident, in my view, in 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."<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite book |last1=Finkel |first1=Alvin |title=The Social Credit phenomenon in Alberta |date=1989 |publisher=Toronto, Ont. : University of Toronto Press |isbn=9781442682382 |page=107 |url=https://archive.org/details/socialcreditphen0000fink/page/84/mode/2up |access-date=18 April 2022}}</ref>

The Manning administration, now re-elected with a resounding majority of seats as a result of the 1944 election, devoted itself to an antisocialist crusade.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|131}} 
In 1946, Manning's government extended censorship to included 16mm films in the hopes of "eliminating communist thought from Alberta-shown movies."<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Finkel|first=Alvin|date=1988|title=The Cold War, Alberta Labour, and the Social Credit Regime|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25142941|journal=Labour / Le Travail | volume=21|pages=123–152|doi=10.2307/25142941|jstor=25142941|issn=0700-3862|url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{Rp|131}}

In January 1948, a [[coal miners]]' strike broke out, with thousands of miners threatening the provincial [[electrical grid]] since most electricity was generated from [[coal]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Contraction and Expansion: 1930–1950 |url=http://history.alberta.ca/energyheritage/coal/contraction-and-expansion-1930-1950/default.aspx |website=history.alberta.ca |publisher=Alberta Culture and Tourism}}</ref> That strike alone accounted for 30% of all of the time that was lost to strikes in Canada in 1948. In Alberta, the time lost was even worse since it was responsible for well over 99% of all of the time lost by strikes for the entire year.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|133}}
Manning acted swiftly to avert the crisis by rewriting the province's labour laws in March to allow the government to shut down the strike. Labour was greatly weakened by the charges of communism, and Manning's stalwart defiance of union threats caused the unions to attempt to persuade legislators, instead of protesting using strikes or violence, and halted the rise of militant unionism in Alberta.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|134–135}}