Ernest Manning
Ernest Charles Manning PC CC AOE (September 20, 1908 – February 19, 1996) was a Canadian politician and the eighth premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any other premier in the province's history and was the second longest-serving provincial premier in Canadian history (after George Henry Murray of Nova Scotia).
Ernest Manning
New district
District abolished
Andrew Davison
William Aberhart
James Mahaffey
Social Credit Party of Canada (federal)
Social Credit Party of Alberta (provincial)
2, including Preston
1939–1943
Manning's 25 consecutive years as premier were defined by strong social conservatism and fiscal conservatism. He was also the only member of the Social Credit Party of Canada to sit in the Senate and, with the party shut out of the House of Commons in 1980, was its last representative in Parliament when he retired from the Senate in 1983.
Manning's son, Preston Manning, was the founder and leader of the Reform Party of Canada who served as the federal leader of the Official Opposition from 1997 to 2000.[1]
Federal politics[edit]
Manning also used his strong provincial standing to influence the federal Socreds. He told the 1961 federal leadership convention that Alberta would never accept francophone Catholic Réal Caouette of Quebec as the party's leader even though Caouette led the party's strongest branch east of Manitoba. Robert N. Thompson of Alberta won the election, but Manning's objections to Caouette led to suspicions that the vote was fixed. Indeed, Caouette later claimed that he had enough support to win, but all of the Quebec delegates voted for Thompson after Manning told him, "Tell your people to vote for Thompson because the West will never accept a Roman Catholic French Canadian leader."[19] By then, however, all but four members of the Social Credit federal caucus came from Quebec. In 1963, virtually all of the Socred MPs from Quebec followed Caouette into the Ralliement des créditistes and left behind a Social Credit rump in English Canada.
"In 1967, Manning's book Political Realignment: A Challenge to Thoughtful Canadians was published. This book is an outline of his views regarding the reorganization of the Canadian federal party system."[20]
Senate and death[edit]
After retirement from provincial politics in 1968, Manning established his own consulting firm, Manning Consultants Limited, with his son Preston. In 1970, Ernest was appointed to the Senate, the only Socred ever to serve in that body. The same year, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. He retired from the Senate in 1983 since he had reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. He died in Calgary in 1996.
Personal life[edit]
In 1936, Manning married Muriel Aileen Preston, the pianist at the Prophetic Bible Institute. They had two sons.
Their first son, William Keith, commonly called Keith, was born on May 2, 1939. Keith suffered from cerebral palsy. For stretches of time, he lived at a hospital in upstate New York, the Red Deer School Hospital, and a nursing home in Edmonton. He married fellow nursing home resident Marilyn Brownell, and died from cardiac arrest on June 29, 1986.[21][22][23]
Their second son, Ernest Preston, commonly called Preston, was born on June 10, 1942. Preston went on to found the Reform Party of Canada, and was leader of the Official Opposition in parliament from 1997 to 2000.
[1]
Legacy[edit]
Manning was appointed as the first member of Alberta Order of Excellence on September 23, 1981.[24] Manning was also invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada by Governor-General Michener in 1970.[25]
A high school and a business park road in Calgary, a freeway road in Edmonton and town in Northern Alberta are named after Ernest Manning. A person with a similar name, Ernest Callaway Manning, is the namesake of E. C. Manning Provincial Park in British Columbia.
In 1980, the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation was created, and the Manning Innovation Awards were started in 1982, with the purpose of promoting and honouring Canadian innovation.
In 2013, the federal riding of Edmonton Manning was established in Manning's name.