1923 Edmonton municipal election

The 1923 municipal election was held December 10, 1923 to elect a mayor and six aldermen to sit on Edmonton City Council and four trustees to sit on the public school board. Robert Crossland, Paul Jenvrin, Thomas Magee, and Joseph Henri Picard were acclaimed to two-year terms on the separate school board.

There were ten aldermen on city council, but four of the positions were already filled: Joseph Adair, James Collisson, Daniel Knott, and Rice Sheppard (SS) were all elected to two-year terms in 1922 and were still in office. Kenneth Alexander Blatchford had also been elected to a two-year term in 1922, but had resigned in order to run for mayor. Accordingly, William Rea was elected to a one-year term.

There were seven trustees on the public school board, but three of the positions were already filled: W H Alexander, L T Barclay, and E T Bishop had all been elected to two-year terms in 1922 and were still in office. The same was true on the separate board, where P M Dunne, J J Murray (SS), and Joseph Gariépy were continuing.

Pursuant to a plebiscite conducted during the 1922 election, the 1923 election was the first to make use of the single transferable vote style of voting.

Voter turnout

There were 13016 ballots cast out of 22077 eligible voters, for a voter turnout of 58.9%.

Results

• bold or Y indicates elected
• italics indicate incumbent
• "SS", where data is available, indicates representative for Edmonton's South Side, with a minimum South Side representation instituted after the city of Strathcona, south of the North Saskatchewan River, amalgamated into Edmonton on February 1, 1912.

Mayor

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Elected
	Independent	Kenneth Alexander Blatchford	8,314	65.28%	Y
	Independent	James Ramsey	4,421	34.72%

Aldermen

Six seats open. Quota of votes received to be elected was 1693 [1] Two southside candidates had to be elected.[2]

Party		Candidate	Initial Votes		Elected
	Labour	James East	3,004		Y
	Independent	Ambrose Bury	1,993		Y
	Independent	William Rea	1,150		Y
	Independent	James McCrie Douglas	928	SS	Y
	Independent	Thomas Ducey	789
	Labour	James Findlay	707		Y
	Independent	Archie Rendall	703
	Independent	Joseph Duggan	563	SS	Y
	Independent	J. J. McKenzie	420	SS
	Independent	Esther Saunders	380
	Independent	J. Boyd McBride	317
	Independent	A. K. Putland	312	SS
	Labour	H. J. Pallot	308
	Labour	Jan Lakeman	265	SS

10 counts were required to see all the seats filled under the STV/PR system in use. East and Bury elected on first count.

Ducey and Rendall received many initial votes but did not get quota and did not get enough votes in later counts to get a seat.

The second count was the distribution of the surplus votes of East and Bury. Findlay probably inherited many surplus votes from East and achieved the required quota on the second count.

Rea achieved quota on the 10th count to take a seat. This left only two seats empty (and only six candidates still up).

The two southside candidates with the highest totals (Douglas and Duggan) were allocated seats to fill the two vacancies for guaranteed southside representation, as was announced the next day.[3]

There was no business slate per se.

East and Findlay were newly elected Labour candidates. Rice Sheppard and Dan Knott were sitting labour councillors and had one more year in their terms so Labour had good representation in the 1924 city council.

Public school trustees

Four seats needed to be filled in this election.

Party		Candidate	Initial Votes		Elected
	Labour	Samuel Barnes	3,239		Y
	Independent	F. S. McPherson	1,769		Y
	Labour	Frank Crang	1,740	SS	Y
	Independent	Ralph Bellamy	1,643		Y
	Independent	George Steer	1,054
	Labour	Robert McCreath	1,015
	Independent	George Massey	442

The necessary quota to win a seat was 2183 (the total of votes divided by five, plus one).

Barnes achieved this in first count to get a seat.

Enough of his surplus went to Frank Crang who thus got a seat in the second count.

Bellamy and McPherson were elected in the fifth count, held after Massey and Steer had been eliminated, their second choices being distributed.

McCreath, who had picked up many votes in the second and third counts (thus moving up from the bottom of the pack where candidates were being eliminated), was dropped off in the fifth count, leaving only two candidates left to fill the two remaining slots, thus Bellamy and McPherson were elected.[4]

Separate (Catholic) school trustees

Robert Crossland (SS), Paul Jenvrin, Thomas Magee, and Joseph Henri Picard were acclaimed.

References

1. Edmonton Bulletin, December 11, 1923
2. Edmonton Bulletin, December 11, 1923
3. Edmonton Bulletin, December 12, 1923
4. Edmonton Bulletin, December 12, 1923

City of Edmonton: Edmonton Elections