William George Farquharson was a 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
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 1922 to 1935 sitting with the United Farmers caucus in government.
Political career
Farquharson ran for nomination to stand as the United Farmers candidate in a by-election held in the electoral district of Ribstone. He won the nomination race which proved to be controversial because delegates at the time felt that the nomination should go to the deceased Member Charles Wright's wife who was sister to former Premier
Charles Stewart.
The delegates who disagreed with the outcome of the race were dismayed because they felt that the nomination of Mrs. Wright had been railroaded to prevent her from contesting the nomination. Pundits predicted Wright might run against Farquharson as an Independent, but this never materialized.
Farquharson ran in the July 10, 1922 by-election against Liberal candidate J.J. McKenna in a straight fight. He held the district for the United Farmers with a significantly reduced popular vote, but still winning a landslide majority.
Farquharson ran for a second term 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 faced two other candidates and was re-elected easily despite losing some of his popular vote from the by-election.
Farquharson ran for a third term 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 ...
. He won the largest popular vote of his career winning the three way race easily.
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 ...
would see Farquharson go down to defeat. He finished a distant third place in the three way race losing to Social Credit candidate
Albert Blue.
References
External links
Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farquharson, William
United Farmers of Alberta MLAs
1888 births
1950 deaths