The 1937 Social Credit backbenchers’ revolt took place from March to June 1937 in the Canadian province of Alberta. It was a rebellion against Premier William Aberhart by a group of backbench members of the Legislative Assembly from his Social Credit League. The dissidents were unhappy with Aberhart’s failure to provide Albertans with C$25 monthly dividends through social credit as he had promised before his 1935 election.
About 1937 Social Credit backbenchers’ revolt in brief
The 1937 Social Credit backbenchers’ revolt took place from March to June 1937 in the Canadian province of Alberta. It was a rebellion against Premier William Aberhart by a group of backbench members of the Legislative Assembly from his Social Credit League. The dissidents were unhappy with Aberhart’s failure to provide Albertans with C$25 monthly dividends through social credit as he had promised before his 1935 election. When the government’s 1937 budget made no move to implement the dividends, many MLAs revolted openly and threatened to defeat the government in a confidence vote. After a stormy debate in which the survival of the government was called into question, a compromise was reached and the committee recruited two British social credit experts to come to Alberta and advise on the implementation of social credit. Almost all signed, thus ending the crisis, though most of the legislation the experts proposed was ultimately disallowed or struck down as unconstitutional. The revolt was a period of turmoil for Aberhart and his government: half of the cabinet resigned or was fired over a period of less than a year. Aberhart also faced criticism for planning to attend the coronation of George VI at the province’s expense and for stifling a recall attempt against him by the voters of his constituency. In the midst of the Great Depression, Aberhart became a convert to a British economic theory called social credit and began to promote it around Alberta. In December 1936, John Hargrave, the leader of the Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, visited Alberta.
He presented a plan for implementing social credit in Alberta. While he acknowledged that it was unconstitutional, he believed that the federal government would not dare enforce its jurisdiction in the face of broad popular support for the plan. After he presented his plan to the group of Social Credit MLAs, the news media began to report that Aberhart intended to implement a radical set of laws. Two weeks later, the Attorney-General pointed out that he was not interested in legal arguments, which he later explained to the media. Despite this statement, neither Aberhart nor his cabinet announced that neither he nor his caucus supported it. By the end of 1936, the government had made no progress towards the promised dividends, leaving many Albertans disillusioned and frustrated. Many MLAs wanted Douglas or somebody from his British organization to deliver on Aberhart’s campaign promises. One such MLA, Samuel Barnes, had been expelled from the Social credit caucus and from the social Credit League for voicing these views. He later became a member of the Alberta House of Commons and served as an MP until he was forced to resign from the party in 1951. In 1953, he was elected to the House of Assembly as a Social Credit member. He died in a car crash in the town of Grande Prairie, Alberta, in 1953. He was one of the few Social Credit members to survive the crash and was remembered as a hero of the social credit movement. He is buried in a plot to save the city of Calgary, Alberta.
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