George Wilbert Smith (April 24, 1855 – August 1, 1931) was a teacher, businessman and politician in

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 ...

, Canada. He served on the

Red Deer City Council The Red Deer City Council is the governing body for the city of Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. The council consists of the mayor and eight councillors. Current Red Deer City Council *Ken Johnston, mayor *Michael Dawe, councillor *Cindy Jefferies, cou ...

and in 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 1921 until his death in 1931 sitting with the United Farmers caucus in government.

Early life

George Wilbert Smith was born in 1855 in the town of

Maitland Maitland is an English and Scottish surname. It arrived in Britain after the Norman conquest of 1066. There are two theories about its source. It is either a nickname reference to "bad temper/disposition" (Old French, ''Maltalent''; Anglo Norm ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. He moved to the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

and settled in the Red Deer area in 1883. Smith became the first school teacher in central Alberta. Smith was also a business man. He founded and served as a director on the Smith Lead Company Ltd. and also served on the board of directors for the Western General Electric Company.

Political career

Smith ran for the nomination to be Liberal candidate in the 1906 Strathcona federal by-election. At the nomination meeting, Smith led in the first counts but in later rounds of voting, his vote tally was surpassed by that of Wilbert McIntyre who in the end received a majority of the vote, to take the nomination. (McIntyre went on to win the House of Commons seat in the April 5, 1906 by-election.)Edmonton Bulletin, March 22, 1906, p. 1

Municipal

Smith served as an alderman on

for several years and as mayor from 1916 to 1918.

Provincial

Smith ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature in the

1921 Alberta general election The 1921 Alberta general election was held on July 18, 1921, to elect members to the 5th Alberta Legislative Assembly. It was one of only five times that Alberta has changed governments. The Liberal Party, which had governed the province since it ...

under the United Farmers banner. He defeated incumbent

John Gaetz John Jost Gaetz (June 6, 1859 – December 24, 1937) was a provincial politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1918 to 1921 sitting with the Liberal caucus in government. Early life Gaetz ...

in a two-way race in a landslide to pick up the Red Deer seat for his party. Smith faced Gaetz again in the

1926 Alberta general election The 1926 Alberta general election was held on June 28, 1926, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The United Farmers of Alberta government that had first been elected in 1921 was re-elected, taking a majority of the seats in t ...

as well as Conservative candidate William Payne. The election was held using

Instant-runoff voting Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method. It uses a majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referred to as ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the Un ...

and no candidate took a majority of the votes in the first count. On the second vote count, Gaetz was eliminated and his votes were transferred. Smith took a majority of the votes cast, to defeat Payne and hold his seat. In the

1930 Alberta general election Year 193 ( CXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sosius and Ericius (or, less frequently, year 946 ''Ab urbe condit ...

Smith faced Payne again in a two-way race and defeated him by 88 votes. Smith was hospitalized in

Red Deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or hart, and a female is called a hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of wes ...

in July 1931 for ailing kidneys. He died on August 1, 1931 of a heart seizure shortly before he was to have surgery.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, George United Farmers of Alberta MLAs 1855 births Mayors of Red Deer, Alberta 1931 deaths 20th-century Canadian politicians