Elmer Ernest Roper - CCF Leader and MLA

CCF Leader and MLA

On May 4, 1942 Conservative leader David Duggan died, and his Edmonton seat became vacant. Roper was nominated as the CCF's candidate in the ensuing by-election and came out on top of a five-person field. CCF leader Chester Ronning quickly stepped aside to hand the leadership to the party's first MLA.

Elmer Roper would be leader of the CCF for thirteen years, but he would not have to sit as its lone MLA that long: after the 1944 election, he was joined in the legislature by Aylmer Liesemer of Calgary. Two seats would be as high as the CCF would climb during Roper's tenure as its leader.

Both incumbents were re-elected in the 1948 election, but the party's share of the vote fell from 25% to 19%, and Roper did not add any new MLAs to his tiny caucus as Social Credit's stranglehold over the province remained intact. He did get a new MLA after the 1952 election - Willingdon's Nick Dushenski - but this gain was cancelled by Liesemer's defeat. Worse, the CCF's vote fell further, to 14%, and the Alberta Liberal Party doubled its seat count to four, making it clearly the official opposition and leaving the CCF as the third party.

Things then got worse for Roper. In the 1955 election, the CCF's share of the vote was only 8% and the previously dormant Conservatives passed it in the seat count. Moreover, Roper himself lost his seat in Edmonton (although Dusehsnki was returned and Stanley Ruzycki was elected in Vegreville). Roper placed third of thirty candidates on the first ballot, but as Premier Ernest Manning's large number of surplus votes was redistributed to the riding's other Social Credit candidates (and James Harper Prowse's only slightly smaller surplus was redistributed to other Liberals, Roper fell out of the top seven, where he needed to remain in order to be re-elected.

Following the election, Roper relinquished the CCF leadership. He would never again seek provincial office.