Charles Edward Johnston (February 12, 1899 – December 1, 1971) was a teacher and a long serving Canadian politician. He served as a member of the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

for the opposition federal Social Credit party from 1935 to 1958. He moved to provincial politics and served as a member of the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from singl ...

from 1959 to 1967 for the governing Alberta Social Credit party.

Political career

Federal career

Johnston first ran for the

as a

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

candidate in the

1935 Canadian federal election The 1935 Canadian federal election was held on October 14, 1935, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 18th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of William Lyon Mackenzie King won a majority government, defeating Prime Min ...

. He defeated incumbent Member of Parliament

Edward Joseph Garland Edward Joseph Garland (March 16, 1887 – December 19, 1974) was a farmer, diplomat and a Canadian federal politician. He was born in Dublin, Ireland and attended Belvedere College and Trinity College Dublin. Political career Garland, an act ...

to win his first term in office. Johnston ran for re-election in the

1940 Canadian federal election The 1940 Canadian federal election was held March 26, 1940, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 19th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal Party was re-elected to their second consecutiv ...

. The election was hotly contested, he defeated four other candidates including former

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

provincial Member of the Legislative Assembly

Aylmer Liesemer Aylmer John Eggert Liesemer (November 27, 1905 – January 4, 1995) was a Canadian politician and teacher. Early life Liesemer was born in Didsbury, Alberta in 1905. He received all of his early public grade school in Didsbury with the excepti ...

. Johnston would increase his margin of victory winning his third term in office defeating four other candidates in the

1945 Canadian federal election The 1945 Canadian federal election was held on June 11, 1945, to elect members of the House of Commons of the 20th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King's Liberal government was re-elected to its third consecutive term, ...

. The

1949 Canadian federal election The 1949 Canadian federal election was held June 27, 1949 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 21st Parliament of Canada. The Liberal Party of Canada was re-elected with its fourth consecutive government, winning 191 seats ( ...

would bring Johnston his largest vote total as he defeated five other candidates to win his fourth consecutive term in office. He would be re-elected to a fifth term in office with another comfortable plurality in the

1953 Canadian federal election The 1953 Canadian federal election was held on August 10, 1953 to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 22nd Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent led his Liberal Party of Canada to its second consecutive major ...

. Johnston would suffer near defeat in the

1957 Canadian federal election The 1957 Canadian federal election was held June 10, 1957, to select the 265 members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 23rd Parliament of Canada. In one of the greatest upsets in Canadian political history, the Progressive Conservative P ...

winning by just 300 votes over Progressive Conservative candidate

Eldon Woolliams Eldon Mattison Woolliams, (12 April 1916 – 24 September 2001) was a Canadian politician and lawyer. Wooliams served as a Progressive Conservative Party member of the House of Commons of Canada. He was born in Rosetown, Saskatchewan, ...

. Parliament would be dissolved a year later, and this time Johnston would be defeated in a landslide, after facing Woolliams once again in the

1958 Canadian federal election The 1958 Canadian federal election was held to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 24th Parliament of Canada on March 31, 1958, just nine months after the 23rd election. It transformed Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's mino ...

Provincial career

After being defeated from federal politics he would run for a seat to the Alberta Legislature as the governing Alberta Social Credit candidate in the new provincial electoral district of

Calgary Bowness Calgary Bowness was a provinces and territories of Canada, provincial electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single Member of the Legislative Assembly, member to the Legislative Assembly of Albert ...

. He would win his first term in office with a landslide taking almost 60% of the popular vote. He was re-elected to a second term in office in the 1963 Alberta general election. His popular vote would decline but he still won his district with more than 50%. Johnston ran for a third term in office in the 1967 general election. He was defeated in a closely contested race by Progressive Conservative candidate

Len Werry Leonard Frank Werry (May 30, 1927 – February 25, 1973) was a provincial level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1967 until his death in 1973 and was a Cabinet Minister in the Gove ...

. Johnston died on December 1, 1971.

References

External links

*
Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, Charles 1899 births 1971 deaths Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Alberta Social Credit Party of Canada MPs Alberta Social Credit Party MLAs People from Chippewa County, Michigan American emigrants to Canada