Willard Moody "Mood" Washburn (September 12, 1875 – August 16, 1961) was a provincial level 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 Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. He served as a 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 singl ...

from 1921 to 1930 sitting with the governing

United Farmers United Farmers may refer to: *The United Farmers' MPs in the Canadian House of Commons who founded the Progressive Party of Canada in 1920 *United Farmers of Alberta, a political party which governed Alberta from 1921 to 1935 and also elected membe ...

caucus.

Political career

Washburn 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 ...

. He stood as the United Farmers candidate in the electoral district of Stony Plain and defeated Conservative incumbent

Frederick Lundy Frederick William Lundy (November 10, 1878 – November 17, 1928) was a lawyer and provincial level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1917 to 1921 sitting with the opposition Cons ...

and three other candidates winning just over half the popular vote to pick up the seat for his party. Washburn stood for a second term in office 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 ...

. He would face three other opponents including Lundy for the second time. On election night Washburn despite being at the head of the polls had lost almost 10% of his popular vote from the 1921 election and lacked a clear majority. Under the new

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 p ...

rules put in place a second count was needed. He won on the ballot transfers from Independent Liberal candidate M. McKinley to hold the district. The United Farmers held primaries for 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 ...

on May 26, 1930, in the Stony Plain electoral district. The election was hotly contested with three other candidates running for the seat. Washburn would be defeated for the nomination by Donald Macleod. Washburn would retire at dissolution of the legislature in 1930. He died in 1961 and is interred at the Inga Cemetery.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washburn, Willard United Farmers of Alberta MLAs 1961 deaths 1875 births American emigrants to Canada