James Albers is a former provincial politician from

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.

Political career

Albers ran for the Progressive Conservatives in the

1989 Alberta general election The 1989 Alberta general election was held on March 20, 1989, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Many political observers were surprised by the early election call as less than three years had passed since the previous ele ...

. He ran in the electoral district of

Edmonton-Avonmore Edmonton-Avonmore was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first-past-the-post method of voting from 1971 to 1997. History The Edmonton-Avonmore ...

but was defeated finishing second out of three candidates to

New Democrat New Democrats, also known as centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, or moderate Democrats, are a centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party in the United States. As the Third Way faction of the party, they are seen as culturall ...

Marie Laing. He finished about 300 votes ahead of future

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

MLA

Don Massey Donald Lee Massey is a former municipal and provincial level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1993 until 2004. In that period he also served as Leader of the Official Opposition ...

. Albers ran for the leadership of

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 ...

in 1999. He defeated three other candidates to win a hotly contested leadership race. Just prior to the

2001 Alberta general election The 2001 Alberta general election was held on March 12, 2001 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The incumbent Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, led by Ralph Klein, won a strong majority for its tenth consecutive term i ...

he negotiated a coalition with the

Alberta Party The Alberta Party, formally the Alberta Party Political Association, is a political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. The party describes itself as a centrist and pragmatic in that is not dogmatically ideological in its approach to politi ...

to jointly run candidates under the Social Credit banner. Despite the coalition with the Alberta Party, the Social Credit party fielded only 12 candidates in the 2001 election. Support for the party was decimated after a large portion of its members bled off to the

Alberta First Party The Alberta First Party french: Alberta d'abord) was an Albertan separatist political party in Alberta, Canada. It went through several iterations before becoming its current incarnation as the Freedom Conservative Party. History (1999–2018) ...

and unprecedented popularity of Premier

Ralph Klein Ralph Philip Klein (November 1, 1942 – March 29, 2013) was a Canadian politician and journalist who served as the 12th premier of Alberta and leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta from 1992 until his retirement in 20 ...

. Albers resigned shortly before the election and was replaced by

Lavern Ahlstrom Lavern Ahlstrom is a retired provincial level politician and former leader of the Alberta Social Credit Party. Political career Ahlstrom first became involved with Social Credit in the 1970s. He has been a perennial candidate for the party with s ...

as leader. Albers later joined the

Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta The Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta (french: Parti de la liberté conservatrice de l'Alberta) was an Albertan autonomist, libertarian and conservative political party in Alberta, Canada. The party was named the Alberta First Party (french: ...

, and advocated a Western separatist stance. In 2020, the

merged with Wexit Alberta to form the

Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta is a provincial political party in Alberta, Canada, which was formed through the merger of Wexit Alberta and the Freedom Conservative Party of Alberta in 2020. Views According to its constitution, We ...

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Alberta Social Credit Party leaders Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta candidates in Alberta provincial elections Alberta Social Credit Party candidates in Alberta provincial elections Canadian people of Dutch descent {{Alberta-politician-stub Western Canadian separatists Maverick Party politicians