1928 Edmonton municipal election

The 1928 municipal election was held on December 10, 1928 to elect a mayor and six aldermen to join Edmonton City Council and three trustees to join the public school board during the year of 1929 and 1930. Three trustees were elected by acclamation to join the separate school board for 1929 and 1930.

There were also six bylaws put to a citywide vote.

10 aldermen sat on city council at any one time. Four of the positions were already filled: Ralph Bellamy, A C Sloane, James East, and L S C Dineen were all elected to two-year terms in 1927 and were still in office. John C. Bowen had also been elected to a two-year term, but had resigned in order to run for mayor. Rice Sheppard (SS) was elected in the 1928 election to finish his term.

Labour did well in this election, electing four new alderman (counting farmer activist Sheppard) to add to East and Dineen who were continue to serve in 1929. These six out of 11 seats would give Labour a majority position in 1929.

There were seven trustees on the public school board, but four of the positions were already filled: Frank Crang (SS), Arthur Cushing, Albert Ottewell (SS), and Elmer Roper had all been elected to two-year terms in 1927 and were still in office. The same was true on the separate board, where Robert Crossland (SS), Charles Gariepy, Thomas Magee, and B J Tansey (SS) were continuing.

This election marked Edmonton's return to the at-large Plurality block voting for election of city councilors and school board trustees and first past the post for the mayoral election, under which each voter had as many votes as there were seats to fill. There were no wards to divide the city voters, same as the situation in the previous five elections when single transferable vote/PR had been used for aldermanic elections and Instant-runoff voting for mayoral contests.

Due to the plurality block voting system used to elect the aldermen, 78,000 votes were cast in the aldermanic contest by the approximately 15,000 voters who voted. This was very many more than had been counted in the previous election when STV had been used for the same purpose.

Voter turnout

14,971 voters cast ballots, out of 37,915 eligible voters, for a voter turnout of 39.4%. (The vote count is much more than the number of ballots cast due to the block-voting system in use for election of councillors and school trustees.)

Results

• bold or Y indicates elected
• italics indicate incumbent
• "SS", where data is available, indicates representative for Edmonton's South Side, with a minimum South Side representation instituted after the city of Strathcona, south of the North Saskatchewan River, amalgamated into Edmonton on February 1, 1912.

Mayor

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Independent	Ambrose Bury	8,970	59.92%
	Independent	John C. Bowen	6,001	40.08%

Aldermen

Party		Candidate	Votes		Elected
	Labour	Charles Gibbs	7,841		Y
	Civic Government Association	Frederick Keillor	6,881	SS	Y
	Labour	Alfred Farmilo	6,294		Y
	Labour	James Findlay	6,273		Y
	Independent	Rice Sheppard	6,262	SS	Y
	Civic Government Association	James Collisson	6,255		Y
	Civic Government Association	George Hazlett	6,107
	Civic Government Association	Herbert Baker	5,978
	Civic Government Association	George Wilkinson	4,908
	Labour	James Herlihy	4,561
	Independent	G. V. Pelton	4,417
	Labour	J. A. Thompson	4,623
	Independent	Joseph Clarke	4,130
	Independent	Charles Robson	4,026

Public school trustees

Party		Candidate	Votes	Elected
	Labour	Samuel Barnes	7,022	Y
	Civic Government Association	Thyrza Bishop	6,300	Y
	Civic Government Association	Frederick Casselman	5,641	Y
	Civic Government Association	R. Colwill	5,340
	Labour	E. E. Owen	5,300
	Labour	Mrs. D. T. Bell	5,267
	Independent	S. T. Lawrie	2,469

Separate (Catholic) school trustees

A J Crowe (SS), J O Pilon, and W D Trainor were acclaimed.

Money Bylaws

• Money items required a minimum two-thirds "Yes" majority to approve the expenditure

$86,525 for paving

• Yes - 4,305
• No - 824

$50,000 for gravelling

• Yes - 4,288
• No - 802

$23,860 for airport improvements

• Yes - 3,065
• No - 1,692

$292,688 for a hospital

• Yes - 4,362
• No - 998

$50,000 for a firehall

• Yes - 3,735
• No - 1,169

$100,000 for fire equipment

• Yes - 4,044
• No - 935

References

• Election History, City of Edmonton: Elections and Census Office