Hans Enoch Wight was a provincial politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1935 to 1937 sitting with the Social Credit caucus in government.

Political career

Wight ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature as a Social Credit candidate in the electoral district of Lethbridge in the

1935 Alberta general election The 1935 Alberta general election was held on August 22, 1935, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The newly founded Social Credit Party of Alberta won a sweeping victory, unseating the 14-year government of the United Farmer ...

. He defeated incumbent

Andrew Smeaton Andrew Smeaton was a provincial politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1926 to 1935 sitting with the Dominion Labor caucus in opposition. Political career Smeaton ran for a seat to the ...

and two other candidates with a landslide majority to pick up the seat for his party. The ''Lethbridge Herald'' broke a story on August 25, 1937, saying that Wight was imminently to resign his seat. On the same front page, the paper also broke the news that

William Chant William Neelands Chant (July 13, 1895 – September 25, 1976) was a farmer and political figure in Alberta and British Columbia. He represented Camrose in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1935 to 1940 as a Social Credit and then Inde ...

was to leave the Social Credit caucus. The newspaper had come under attack by Social Credit supporters, forcing the paper to issue a news story standing by its claims the next day. Wight had denied that he had given information about any plan to resign. Seven days later, Wight made his formal announcement of resignation to the media on September 2, 1937, giving as his reason acceptance of a job as an engineer at a department store in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

. He sent his resignation letter to speaker Peter Dawson by mail. Wight's resignation caused a controversy as more than a week after Wight announced his resignation the government was claiming that he hadn't resigned. After weeks of turmoil and charges of grandstanding and claims that the government was afraid of losing a by-election, the government finally announced that it had accepted Wight's resignation on September 14, 1937.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wight, Hans Alberta Social Credit Party MLAs 1889 births 1965 deaths People from Hyrum, Utah American emigrants to Canada