On this day in 1905, Edmonton was announced as the future capital of the new province of Alberta.
It wasn't official yet, but a newspaper report at the time noted that Edmonton "has been definitely selected" as the seat of government for the new province, based on leaked info from Ottawa. A delegation from the city was there, meeting with the federal government to secure the city's status as the capital. But they weren't the only ones pushing for the title — the report notes that Calgary wanted it, too.
Edmonton won that debate, but it wasn't a certain victory. On Sept. 1, 1905, the Alberta Act came into effect, which established the province of Alberta and set out the structure of its government. Written into the act was a section that declared Edmonton the presumptive capital of the infant province "unless and until the Lieutenant Governor in Council of the said province otherwise directs." That left the door open to those who wanted to have the capital moved.
The capital question was a major issue in the province's first election in November 1905. The Liberals campaigned on keeping Edmonton as the capital, while the Conservative Party favoured moving the seat to Calgary. That said, it wasn't a clean split down party lines. Candidates of both parties often supported one or the other, depending on which was closer to their constituency.
After the Liberals won, Premier Alexander Rutherford decided to put the decision on the capital to a vote in the legislature.
The question came up during the first session of the Alberta Legislature. There was no Legislature Building at the time, so the province's first leaders gathered at the old Thistle Rink arena, the largest building in Edmonton at the time. During that session, several motions called for the capital to be moved to other parts of the province. Calgary, obviously, was the top alternative, but arguments were also made for places like Red Deer and Banff. Those proposals were voted down.
A little over a month later, Liberal MLA William Cushing made a motion again proposing to move the capital to Calgary. Part of the argument was about the future legislature building — Edmonton was in the midst of a real estate boom and rising land prices, and hadn't yet decided on a site for the government building. Calgary, on the other hand, was offering 25 acres of free land. Despite the offer, legislators voted the motion down 16-8, and Edmonton's status as Alberta's capital was secured.
Of course, the Assembly would eventually get a permanent home in Edmonton when the Legislature Building opened in 1912. And over the next 114 years, the government's footprint expanded, with government workers working in offices all across the city, mostly downtown, until COVID-19 made working from home an option. Last week, almost 12,000 workers returned to the office full-time, as the province ended the hybrid work model it had adopted during the pandemic.
This clipping was found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist Rev Recluse of Vintage Edmonton.