On the occasion of Alberta’s one-hundred and twentieth anniversary as a province, it’s worth remembering what sets this province apart from the others.Consider these questions: Which Canadian province had radio-evangelist premiers for 33 years? Alberta. Which Canadian province was home to the largest Bible college in North America in the late 1940s? Alberta. Which Canadian province’s airwaves were flooded by evangelical preachers on Sundays in the mid-twentieth century? Alberta.Is this a pattern? Yes..EDITORIAL: The 'Wild West' had more justice than Liberal Canada.From the 1930s until the 1960s, Alberta was dominated by political leaders who would, in today’s terms, be labelled as “Christian nationalists.”This distinctive characteristic was set in motion by William “Bible Bill” Aberhart. Aberhart moved to Calgary from Ontario in 1910 to be the principal of a public school. Although he was very well-respected in this role, he soon became best-known as a Bible study leader. By 1923, his Bible studies were so popular that they had to be held in the Palace Theatre because it could hold 2200 people.In 1925, he began broadcasting on radio. Within a few years, he had a radio audience of approximately 500,000 people at a time when Alberta’s population was around 765,000. By the 1930s, Aberhart was widely popular and respected as an evangelist, Bible teacher, and dean of the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute..When the Great Depression began to affect his school students, he felt he needed to help find a political solution. Another teacher asked him to read a book by Maurice Colbourne called Unemployment or War, a simple introduction to Social Credit economics — a pro-free enterprise philosophy that nevertheless considered privately-issued credit to be the root cause of most economic problems. Aberhart read it and was completely sold on the idea.From that point on, Aberhart began introducing Social Credit ideas to his radio audience. With so many people suffering from the economic hardships brought on by the Depression, the idea caught on like wildfire. In the 1935 provincial election, the new Social Credit Party under Aberhart’s leadership won a landslide victory. The party remained in power continuously until 1971.Historian James H. Gray noted: “When William Aberhart married evangelical Christianity to Social Credit economics, he created a union that was perfect for Alberta. It was as essential for any new Alberta leader to be a ‘man of God’ as it was for him to be able to speak English.”.BERNARDO: Wasting resources on lawful gun owners while criminals walk free.Although unable to enact Social Credit economic reform legislation (because money and banking are under federal jurisdiction), Aberhart was reelected in 1940. Throughout his time as premier, he continued his evangelistic radio broadcasts on Sundays.Unsurprisingly, Aberhart encouraged Christians to be involved in politics. In 1942, he wrote, “Every Christian should know that having hope for the next world only is not enough. He needs for himself and his loved ones in this life freedom of speech and of worship, proper marriage, education, and Sunday laws, and economic security to enable him and his family to live and bear their testimony as God would have them do. To obtain this, they must give attention to the governors and magistrates, and to the proper enactment of good Christian laws.”When Aberhart died in 1943, he was replaced as premier and radio evangelist by his protégé, Ernest Manning..Manning never lost an election and retired as premier in 1968. Early on, he extended the radio broadcast across Canada so that by the 1950s, people from coast to coast could hear Alberta’s premier preaching the gospel on the radio each week.Everyone in Alberta knew their premier was a “Christian fundamentalist” and radio evangelist, but that did not hurt his political career at all. Even those who disagreed with his views believed he was honest, reliable, and incorruptible in the governing of the province. People trusted him..PINDER: The unfortunate values of Mark Carney.Under Manning, a central emphasis of Social Credit was opposition to socialism. He highlighted the importance of individual freedom and free enterprise, and noted that socialism was the antithesis of both.Most of all, though, Manning believed in the centrality of the gospel message. On October 28, 1947, he said, “Above all else, I desire for the people of this great province a genuine revival of the faith of our fathers and a renewal of their trust in God — a deepening of their reverence for things spiritual, and a strengthening of their allegiance to that divine truth and righteousness which exalteth a nation.”.Even as a political leader, then, Manning was not shy about his faith and his desire for Albertans to turn to God. When Manning retired as premier in 1968, he was replaced by Harry Strom. Strom was not a radio evangelist, but like his Social Credit predecessors, he was an evangelical Christian..ALBERS: A pivot away from national media.Of course, Alberta is very different today than it was during the Social Credit years. But in an age when public worship events in Canada can be cancelled for representing the wrong “values,” it’s important to remember the province’s strong heritage of godly leaders and Christian participation in public affairs. Bible Bill’s words of admonition from 1942 should still resonate in Alberta today, namely, that Christians “must give attention to the governors and magistrates, and to the proper enactment of good Christian laws.”
