Premiers of Alberta by time served in office as of December 5, 2023. The premier always stays in office during an election campaign. That time is included in the total, even if the premier is defeated.
Rank | Name | Incumbency | Terms of office [lower-alpha 1] | Mandates | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ernest Manning | 25 years, 195 days | May 31, 1943 | December 12, 1968 | 7 | █ Social Credit |
2 | Peter Lougheed | 14 years, 52 days | September 10, 1971 | November 1, 1985 | 4 | █ Progressive Conservative |
3 | Ralph Klein | 14 years, 0 days | December 14, 1992 | December 14, 2006 | 4 | █ Progressive Conservative |
4 | John Edward Brownlee | 8 years, 229 days | November 23, 1925 | July 10, 1934 | 2 | █ United Farmers |
5 | William Aberhart | 7 years, 262 days | September 3, 1935 | May 23, 1943 | 2 | █ Social Credit |
6 | Arthur Sifton | 7 years, 157 days | May 26, 1910 | October 30, 1917 | 2 | █ Liberal |
7 | Don Getty | 7 years, 42 days | November 1, 1985 | December 13, 1992 | 2 | █ Progressive Conservative |
8 | Ed Stelmach | 4 years, 297 days | December 14, 2006 | October 7, 2011 | 1 | █ Progressive Conservative |
9 | Alexander Cameron Rutherford | 4 years, 266 days | September 2, 1905 | May 26, 1910 | 2 | █ Liberal |
10 | Herbert Greenfield | 4 years, 102 days | August 13, 1921 | November 23, 1925 | 1 [lower-alpha 2] | █ United Farmers |
11 | Rachel Notley | 3 years, 341 days | May 24, 2015 | April 30, 2019 | 1 | █ New Democratic |
12 | Charles Stewart | 3 years, 287 days | October 30, 1917 | August 13, 1921 | 0 | █ Liberal |
13 | Jason Kenney | 3 years, 164 days | April 30, 2019 | October 11, 2022 | 1 | █ United Conservative |
14 | Harry Strom | 2 years, 272 days | December 12, 1968 | September 10, 1971 | 0 | █ Social Credit |
15 | Alison Redford | 2 years, 167 days | October 7, 2011 | March 23, 2014 | 1 | █ Progressive Conservative |
16 | Danielle Smith (incumbent) | 1 year, 55 days | October 11, 2022 | Present | 1 | █ United Conservative |
17 | Richard Gavin Reid | 1 year, 55 days | July 10, 1934 | September 3, 1935 | 0 | █ United Farmers |
18 | Jim Prentice | 251 days | September 15, 2014 | May 24, 2015 | 0 | █ Progressive Conservative |
19 | Dave Hancock | 176 days | March 23, 2014 | September 15, 2014 | 0 | █ Progressive Conservative |
Richard Gavin "Dick" Reid was a Canadian politician who served as the sixth premier of Alberta from 1934 to 1935. He was the last member of the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) to hold the office, and that party's defeat at the hands of the upstart Social Credit League in the 1935 election made him the shortest serving premier to that point in Alberta's history.
John Edward Brownlee, was the fifth premier of Alberta, serving from 1925 until 1934. Born in Port Ryerse, Ontario, he studied history and political science at the University of Toronto's Victoria College before moving west to Calgary to become a lawyer. His clients included the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA); through his connection with that lobby group, he was involved in founding the United Grain Growers (UGG).
Herbert W. Greenfield was a Canadian politician and farmer who served as the fourth premier of Alberta from 1921 until 1925. Born in Winchester, Hampshire, in England, he immigrated to Canada in his late twenties, settling first in Ontario and then in Alberta, where he farmed. He soon became involved in the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA), a farmers' lobby organization that was in the process of becoming a political party, and was elected as the organization's vice president. Greenfield did not run in the 1921 provincial election, the first provincial general election in which the UFA fielded candidates, but when the UFA won a majority in the Legislature in that election he was chosen by the UFA caucus to serve as Premier. Like most of the UFA caucus, Greenfield had no experience in government and he struggled in the position.
The 1921 Canadian federal election was held on December 6, 1921, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 14th Parliament of Canada. The Union government that had governed Canada through the First World War was defeated, and replaced by a Liberal government under the young leader William Lyon Mackenzie King. A new third party, the Progressive Party, won the second most seats in the election.
The Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta was a provincial centre-right party in the Canadian province of Alberta that existed from 1905 to 2020. The party formed the provincial government, without interruption, from 1971 until the party's defeat in the 2015 provincial election under premiers Peter Lougheed, Don Getty, Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmach, Alison Redford, Dave Hancock and Jim Prentice. At 44 years, this was the longest unbroken run in government at the provincial or federal level in Canadian history.
The United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) is an association of Alberta farmers that has served different roles in its 100-year history – as a lobby group, a successful political party, and as a farm-supply retail chain. As a political party, it formed the government of Alberta from 1921 to 1935.
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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.
Peace River is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting. The district used instant-runoff voting from 1926 to 1957.
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John Robert Boyle was a Canadian politician and jurist who served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, a cabinet minister in the Government of Alberta, and a judge on the Supreme Court of Alberta. Born in Ontario, he came west and eventually settled in Edmonton, where he practiced law. After a brief stint on Edmonton's first city council, he was elected in Alberta's inaugural provincial election as a Liberal. During the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway scandal, he was a leader of the Liberal insurgency that forced Premier Alexander Cameron Rutherford from office.
George Hoadley was a long serving popular provincial politician and rancher from Alberta, Canada. Hoadley served a legendary career in the Alberta legislature during the early years when he led the Alberta Conservative Party in opposition and his effect in shaping policy in the province is widely remembered to this day as he served a broad range of portfolios during his years in the United Farmers government.
Rachel Anne Notley is a Canadian politician who was the 17th premier of Alberta from 2015 to 2019, and has been the leader of the Opposition since 2019. She sits as the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Edmonton-Strathcona, She is the longest serving member of the legislature by consecutive time in office and is the leader of the Alberta New Democratic Party (NDP). The daughter of former Alberta NDP leader Grant Notley, she was a lawyer before entering politics; she focused on labour law, with a specialty in workers' compensation advocacy and workplace health and safety issues.
Marlaina Danielle Smith is a Canadian politician, former lobbyist, and former columnist and media personality who has been serving as the 19th premier of Alberta and leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) since October 2022.
John Edward Brownlee was Premier of Alberta, Canada, from 1925 to 1934 as leader of the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) caucus in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. After a number of early successes, his popularity and his government's suffered from the hardships of the Great Depression. In 1934, he was embroiled in a sex scandal when a family friend sued him for seduction. Though Brownlee denied the events she alleged, when the jury found in her favour he announced his resignation as premier.
John Edward Brownlee served as Attorney-General of the province of Alberta in western Canada from 1921 until 1926, in the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) government of Herbert Greenfield. As Brownlee was the only lawyer in a caucus formed almost entirely of farmers, his role extended beyond the traditional expectations of an attorney-general, and ranged from providing legal advice to explaining how to write a business letter; he also became the government's de facto leader in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.
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