ABERHART, WILLIAM

Canadian political leader, premier of Alberta (1935-1943). Born in Ontario, the son of a German immigrant, Aberhart graduated (1906) from Queen’s University and went (1910) to Calgary to teach school. He acquired local prominence as a teacher at the Bible school that developed into the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute. In 1932, during the Great Depression, Aberhart became acquainted with the extreme “Social Credit” monetary theories of the English social economist Clifford H. Douglas. With religious zeal, Aberhart founded a political party called Social Credit (q.v.) and, largely by his spellbinding talent as an orator, attained power in the Alberta elections of 1935. His monetary reforms, including the printing of provincial scrip, were highly radical and were declared unconstitutional by the courts. Though unable to put his entire program into effect, Aberhart never lost his popularity.