Frederick John Mitchell - Political Career

Political Career

Mitchell first sought political office in Edmonton's 1940 municipal election, when he ran for alderman on Edmonton City Council. He finished sixth of eighteen candidates, and was elected to a two year term. He would be re-elected eleven times: in 1942 (when he placed fifth of twelve candidates), 1944 (fifth of twelve), 1946 (sixth of thirteen), 1948 (second of twelve), 1950 (fourth of twelve), 1952 (third of eight), 1954 (third of eighteen), 1956 (first of nine), 1960 (first of eighteen), and 1962 (first of thirteen). He retired from politics in 1964 without ever having lost a municipal election; in fact, the only break in his twenty-four years as alderman took place from September to October 1959 when he was appointed mayor by city council to replace William Hawrelak, who had resigned. In October, Elmer Ernest Roper was elected mayor, and Mitchell (who had not run) resumed the interrupted aldermanic term to which he had been elected in 1958. This incident makes Mitchell both the shortest-serving mayor in Edmonton's history and the only one never to have run for the position (while neither Cornelius Gallagher nor Terry Cavanagh were ever elected mayor, both ran unsuccessfully at some point in their respective careers). At the time of his retirement, he was the longest serving alderman in Edmonton's history, although both Ed Leger and Ron Hayter have since surpassed him.

Mitchell was less successful in his forays into provincial politics. He belonged to the Conservative Party of Alberta, which was a marginal force during Mitchell's involvement in the early 1950s. He ran for the party in the riding of Edmonton during the 1952 provincial election, but finished twenty-fourth out of twenty-nine candidates on the first ballot (the riding used a single transferable vote electoral system at the time) and was not elected. He fared only slightly better in his second and final attempt in the 1955 provincial election, when he finished twenty-third out of thirty candidates in the same riding.