The 1905 Albertageneral election was the first general election held in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It was held on 9 November 1905, to elect members of the Alberta legislature to the 1st Alberta Legislative Assembly, shortly after the province was created out of the Northwest Territories on 1 September 1905. The Alberta Liberal Party of Alexander C. Rutherford won twenty three of the twenty five seats in the new legislature, defeating the Conservative Party, which was led by a young lawyer, Richard Bennett, who later served as Prime Minister of Canada. Prior to the 1905 election the two political parties saw numerous changes and defections, In Alberta a host of former Liberal-Conservative MLA's jumped ship to the Liberals, when Sir Wilfrid Laurier appointed the Liberal provisional government prior to the election. The Conservatives had no strong leader to rally around at the time as Frederick Haultain had moved to Saskatchewan. The election in 1905 was a bitter one, especially in Calgary and Southern Alberta where the Liberals were accused of vote tampering and interfering with Conservative voters. Recounts especially in Calgary took almost a month and saw the result swing back and forth. The scandal led to the arrest of some key Liberal organizers, including William Henry Cushing's campaign manager, who had been a returning officer at a Calgary polling station. The boundaries of the electoral districts for the first Alberta general election were prescribed in the Alberta Act . In 1905 Albertans would vote by marking an "X" on a blank sheet of paper using a coloured pencil which corresponded to candidate whom they wished to vote for.
Results
Notes:
1 Two Liberals candidates contested the Peace River district after the result of the first election was voided.
2 The Conservatives did not nominate candidates in three ridings. They did nominate a candidate originally for Peace River, but the result was set aside and no Conservative stood for the second election in Peace River.
For complete electoral history, see individual districts
Peace River
was declared elected to the Peace River district on election night 1905 for the Liberal Party. The election results were overturned by significant irregularities leaving the seat vacant. A new election was held on 15 February 1906. Thomas Brick declared his candidacy in the new election for the Liberals after being asked to run by a large group of people who appeared at his homestead. He faced James Cornwall who attempted to re-win his seat and he also ran under the Liberal banner. The runner up candidate from the original 1905 election Conservative candidate Lucien Dubuc did not run again leaving a rare two-way race under the same party banner. Thomas Brick would go on to defeat James Cornwall in a landslide.
