Dr. Joseph Donovan Ross (March 13, 1911 – May 22, 1984) was a medical doctor and 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. He served 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 sin ...

from 1952 to 1971. He also served as Minister of Health in the Alberta provincial government. He was known by the name Dr. J. Donovan Ross.

Political career

Ross first ran for public office 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 1952 Alberta general election in the multi-member district of

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 ...

. He finished fifth out of twenty-nine candidates in the first round of the

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...

. In the second round he finished in a four-way tie for first place to take one of the seven seats. In the 1955 general election, he finished eleventh out of thirty candidates in the first round. In the second round he finished fifth out of seventh place to win his second term. The

Single Transferable Vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...

system was abolished and the Edmonton electoral district was broken up into nine single-member districts prior to the 1959 general election. Ross ran in Strathcona Centre and won with more than half of the popular vote over three other candidates. In the 1963 general election, he won the highest percentage of popular vote during his political career, defeating two other candidates and winning the district with almost 60 percent of the district vote. In the 1967 general election, he won a four-way race with just over 40% of the popular vote; the other three candidates all finished with strong showings in the race. Strathcona Centre was abolished due to redistribution before the 1971 general election, and Ross ran in the new electoral district of Edmonton-Strathcona. He was defeated by Progressive Conservative candidate Julian Koziak. Ross served as Minister of Health for ten years in the

Ernest Manning Ernest Charles Manning, (September 20, 1908 – February 19, 1996), a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any other premier in Alberta's histor ...

government. He was the father of

Val Meredith Valerie Meredith (née Ross; born 22 April 1949) is a Canadian politician and realtor. Meredith served as a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2004. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Meredith was a town councillor in Slave Lake, A ...

, a former Member of Parliament from British Columbia from 1993-2004.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Joseph Donovan 1911 births 1984 deaths Alberta Social Credit Party MLAs Physicians from Alberta Members of the Executive Council of Alberta People from Parkland County University of Alberta alumni