A backbench revolt within Alberta's Social Credit government forced Premier Aberhart to cede power to a dissident committee over undelivered monetary dividend promises.
Key Facts
- Duration
- March to June 1937
- Promised monthly dividend
- CA$25 per Albertan
- Trigger election
- Aberhart's 1935 provincial election
- Experts recruited
- Two British social credit advisers
- Resolution mechanism
- Loyalty pledge signed by nearly all MLAs
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Premier William Aberhart had promised Albertans monthly CA$25 social credit dividends before his 1935 election victory. When the 1937 provincial budget contained no steps toward implementing these dividends, backbench Social Credit MLAs grew openly dissatisfied. Simultaneously, cabinet instability, a recall attempt in Aberhart's constituency, and controversy over his coronation travel plans deepened tensions within the government.
From March to June 1937, a group of Social Credit backbenchers in Alberta's Legislative Assembly threatened to bring down the government in a confidence vote. After a contentious parliamentary debate, a compromise was negotiated in which Aberhart ceded significant authority to a backbench committee. That committee, led by insurgents, brought two British social credit experts to Alberta to advise on implementing the promised monetary reforms.
The British experts required all Social Credit MLAs to sign a loyalty pledge, which nearly all complied with, effectively ending the open revolt. However, most legislation the experts subsequently proposed was either disallowed by the federal government or struck down by courts as unconstitutional, leaving the social credit dividend policy largely unimplemented despite the political upheaval.