Ernest Shilston Watkins (June 18, 1902 – 1982) was a provincial politician and author 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 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 sin ...

from 1957 to 1963.

Political career

Watkins was elected in a by-election held in the Calgary provincial electoral district October 2, 1957. He won nearly half the popular vote, defeating four other candidates. This was the first election held using the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

method of voting, after the end of Alberta's use of STV (It had used STV in Alberta's largest cities since 1924.)Alberta Centennial Series, A Century of Democracy, p. 507 Under the new rules, Watkins was declared elected although he had not received a majority of the votes cast. Watkins was re-elected in the 1959 Alberta general election for the new electoral district of

Calgary Glenmore Calgary-Glenmore, formally styled Calgary Glenmore from 1957 to 1971, is a provinces and territories of Canada, provincial electoral district (Canada), electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The district is mandated to return a single m ...

. The election results showed Watkins (with 43 percent of the vote) just ahead of the next candidate (a Social Credit) only by about 200 votes, with a Liberal candidate getting 1900 votes (16 percent) of the vote. Again, although Watkins did not have majority of the votes cast, he was declared elected. Watkins was the only Progressive Conservative candidate elected in 1959. He became interim leader of his party replacing

Cam Kirby William J. Cameron "Cam" Kirby (January 12, 1909 – June 27, 2003) was an Alberta politician, leader of the Conservative Party, barrister, Queen's Counsel, and a Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench. Born in Calgary. Kirby's great grandf ...

. Watkins held the leadership until 1962 when he was replaced by

Milt Harradence Asa Milton "Milt" Harradence (1922 – February 28, 2008)Komarnicki, Jamie, March 2, 2008 ''Edmonton Journal'' was a Canadian criminal lawyer, pilot, politician and judge of the Court of Appeal of Alberta. Early life Harradence was born in Bl ...

Author

His books include: The Golden Province. A Political History of Alberta R.B. Bennett: A Biography.

References

External links

Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
1902 births 1982 deaths Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs {{Alberta-politician-stub