William Ernest "Ernie" Jamison (February 27, 1924 – April 11, 2003) was a publisher and 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 sin ...

. Jamison grew up in

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

. Early in his career, he worked as an ad setter for the

Edmonton Bulletin The ''Edmonton Bulletin'' was a newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta, published from 1880 until January 20, 1951. It was founded by Edmonton pioneer Frank Oliver, a future Liberal politician and cabinet minister in the Canadian Government. Oliver co-f ...

. He went on to acquire the

Western Weekly Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

, a magazine that circulated with weekly newspapers around

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 ...

. In an effort to increase circulation of the magazine, he purchased the

St. Albert Gazette The ''St. Albert Gazette'' is a weekly newspaper distributed throughout St. Albert, Alberta St. Albert is a city in Alberta on the Sturgeon River northwest of the City of Edmonton. It was originally settled as a Métis community, and is now t ...

from Ronald Harvey in 1966. He continued to publish the paper until his retirement, whereupon he passed it on to his children. In the 1971 Alberta election, Jamison was one of more than forty new Progressive Conservative MLAs elected as

Peter Lougheed Edgar Peter Lougheed ( ; July 26, 1928 – September 13, 2012) was a Canadian lawyer and Progressive Conservative politician who served as the tenth premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, presiding over a period of reform and economic growth. Bo ...

swept to power. Jamison was re-elected in the 1975 election, but his performance in office had begun to alienate many members of his party. Former St. Albert mayor

Ray Gibbon Ray M. Gibbon ( – October 16, 1999), "Ald. Ray Gibbon, a 66-year-old life insurance agent"... is a former mayor of St. Albert, Alberta, having served in this capacity from 1968 to 1974, and briefly again in 1989. By profession, Gibbon was a cont ...

announced his intention to challenge him party's nomination in 1975, and another former mayor,

Richard Plain Richard Plain (born 1939 or 1940) is a Canadian politician. Plain is the former mayor of St. Albert, Alberta, having served from 1974 to 1977 and again from 2001 to 2004. In February 2007, he announced that he would seek a third term as mayor in ...

, blamed Jamison for his defeat in 1977, accusing him of using his control of what was then St. Albert's only newspaper to orchestrate a victory for Ronald Harvey, from whom Jamison had bought the paper eleven years previous.

Myrna Fyfe Myrna Catherine Fyfe (born August 20, 1941) is a retired provincial level politician and hospital administrator from Alberta, Canada. She served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1979 to 1986. Political career Fyfe ran for ...

defeated Jamison for the nomination in the 1979 election, as Jamison left the Legislature. Jamison would run unsuccessfully for provincial office twice more in his career: in the 1982 election he ran as an independent, finishing third as Fyfe was re-elected, while in the 1986 election he finished third while running under the banner of the short-lived

Representative Party of Alberta The Representative Party of Alberta (first registered as the Political Alternative Association, and known as the Alternative Government Movement prior to registration in 1984) was a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada formed by former Al ...

. He also ran federally in the riding of Pembina as an independent in a 1986 by-election, finishing fifth of seven candidate with 2.7% of the vote. In 2001, Jamison was hospitalized with prostate cancer, which later metastasized to his spine. He died in 2003 from a stroke.Life & Times: Ernie Jamison had a passion for politics, marketing, newspapers and people: inal EditionSinnema, Jodie. Edmonton Journal dmonton, Alta20 Apr 2003: A12.

References

External links

Alberta Legislature Hansard, Ernie Jamison Death Notice April 14, 2004St. Albert Gazette backgrounder
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jamison, Ernie 1924 births 2003 deaths Deaths from cancer in Alberta Independent candidates for the Canadian House of Commons Politicians from Edmonton Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs