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The “United Farmers” party, in political power at berta could overcome this difficulty by establishing a
the time in Alberta, were interested in Social Credit provincial credit system of its own, as the Constitu-
but believed it could only be implemented on a na- tion granted the right to “raise loans upon the sole
tional, rather than on a provincial, level. credit of the province.” As Louis Even explained,
Notice, as long as Aberhart’s movement was limit- money is based on the country’s production, made
ed to educating the people, all was well, much like the by labor and natural resources, both under prov-
education movement launched by Louis Even around incial jurisdiction, according to the same Canadian
the same time in Quebec. Even, just like Aberhart, had constitution.
come across a book explaining Douglas Social Cred- Douglas wrote in The Social Crediter on Sep-
it, and stated, “It’s a light on my path, tember 11, 1948: “When Mr. Aberhart
everyone needs to know it.” Unfortu- won his first electoral victory in 1935,
nately, things turned sour in Alberta all he did was to recruit an army for a
when Aberhart’s education movement war [against the monopoly of credit].
morphed into a political party. That war has never been fought.”
Aberhart disagreed with the Aberhart had learned from his
United Farmers, and presented Social mistakes during his first years in office
Credit candidates in the 1935 election, and was ready, after World War II, to
and won 56 of the 63 seats in the prov- take up the fight again, but he died in
incial legislature. In the 1935 election, May of 1943 (under suspicious circum-
Aberhart did not even run as a candi- stances; several spoke of poisoning
date. The newly-elected “social credit” following an official dinner).
members, claiming the presence of His successor, Ernest Manning,
their teacher, one of them resigned to declared, in 1947, that his government
make way for him, and Aberhart had to would no longer attempt to implement
take the office of prime minister, with Social Credit in Alberta. Incidentally,
the state coffers empty and civil ser- William Aberhart after retiring from politics, Ernest Man-
vants awaiting their pay, not to mention the creditors ning accepted a position on the Board of Directors
of the public debt. of a bank, and was appointed a senator by Canadian
All these 56 “social credit” MLAs were new to Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
politics, and formed, to use Douglas’ expression, a So those who say that “Social Credit is that failed
“group of amateurs” who were no match for the Fi- ‘funny money’ scheme tried in Alberta” are incorrect.
nanciers, falling into their trap and committing sev- Social Credit did not fail in Alberta, for the simple
eral errors which could have been avoided, had they reason that it was never tried. All attempts to imple-
followed Douglas’s advice. ment Social Credit policies were opposed and de-
For example, when Aberhart took office, rather feated by a centralized power. Douglas said that if
than listening to Douglas’ advice, he went to Ottawa Social Credit was absurd and without value as an ef-
seeking financial credits to implement Social Credit. fective answer to the Great Depression, that the best
The federal government provided instead an eco- way to have this demonstrated would have been al-
nomic adviser, Mr. Robert Magor, whose apparent lowing the government of Alberta to implement So-
objective was to undermine Social Credit. Measures cial Credit policy. But it seemed that the credit mon-
were adopted that were the opposite of Social Credit opolists feared that even a partial implementation of
principles. Douglas described what occurred as “a Social Credit would prove so successful that every
policy of capitulation to orthodox finance. Almost effort had to be made to prevent it.
every mistake of strategy which could be made in We firmly believe that the Social Credit prin-
Alberta had been made.” ciples will be, when implemented, a very efficient
It must be noted that although Aberhart was sin- way to eliminate poverty. However, the only ef-
cere, he had little knowledge of Social Credit and did fective way to have the Social Credit proposals ap-
not understand its technical basis. This often led him plied by governments is not to promote new par-
to simplify and thus distort Douglas’ ideas. In the fol- ties, especially those called “social credit”, but to
lowing years, fifteen Social Credit bills were success- make the Social Credit principles known among the
fully passed by the Alberta government, but were all population, in order to create public pressure that
vetoed by the federal government or ruled unconsti- will be strong enough to get the government — of
tutional by Canada’s Supreme Court. any party in power — to issue its own currency,
The problem was that money and banking are without debt, and to implement the principles of
under federal jurisdiction, according to the Canadian real Douglas social credit ... and thus fight the false
Constitution. Douglas explained to Aberhart that Al- Alain Pilote

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