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Davis was born in 1849 in Londonderry, Vermont. He was a merchant and served with the Union Army at the end of the American Civil War. He rose to the rank of Quarter-Master Sergeant, and served in Montana as late as 1871. Undoubtedly, he crossed the frontier to make his fortune in the Canadian West.
Davis was re-elected in 1891 with 74.6% of the vote, defeating another Conservative candidate (no other party was on the ballot). In 1896, however, Frank Oliver won the riding for the Liberals with 55.4% of the vote. Oliver, who had been a legislator in the Northwest Territories and would later run in Edmonton and represent that riding through to 1911, was Minister of the Interior under Wilfrid Laurier. Oliver was re-elected in 1900, defeating a certain Conservative candidate named R.B. Bennett. The future Prime Minister, then, lost his first bid at federal office here.
The boundaries changed in 1903 and Calgary was given its own riding. Its first MP was Maitland S. McCarthy, who took the riding for the Tories with 54% of the vote. McCarthy was born in 1872 in Orangeville, Ontario. A lawyer, he headed a commission investigating the differences in wages between the Municipal Corporation of the City of Edmonton and its street car employees.
McCarthy's family had a long history in the law, with his grandfather and uncle being lawyers and his father a county court judge. He attended Trinity University in Toronto before practicing law in Sarnia. It was in Sarnia that McCarthy got involved with the Conservative Party.
He moved to Calgary in September 1903 and, after being elected, spoke often in the House of Commons. He was "noted for his constant attendance."
McCarthy was re-elected in 1908 with 49.7% of the vote. Notable in this year was that the Socialist candidate Frank Sherman took 9% of the vote.
McCarthy was offered the leadership of the Alberta Conservative Party in 1909 but declined it, and he was eventually appointed to the Supreme Court of Alberta in 1914. According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, "he spoke slowly, with a sense of humour; a generalist, he gave more weight to common sense than to legal technicality." But, "according to one associate, he became a heavy drinker and could forget his legal training." Accordingly, he became the chairman of the Alcoholics Anonymous Association in Alberta.
McCarthy retired in 1926 and died in 1930, while in Montreal on vacation.
In 1911, R.B. Bennett stood again for the Tories and won with 58.2% of the vote. But in 1917, when the riding became Calgary West, it was Thomas M. Tweedie who won the riding for the Conservatives, with 73.2% of the vote. Bennett attempted a comeback in 1921, but was defeated by Joseph T. Shaw of the Labour Party. Shaw was a veteran of WWI, and took 45.9% of the vote, narrowly defeating Bennett.
In the re-match of 1925, however, Bennett bested Shaw by 62.9% to 37.1%. Shaw was not done with politics, however, and would run as a Liberal in 1935 in Calgary East.
Bennett would be re-elected three more times, always taking a majority of the vote. Bennett was briefly Minister of Finance, Mines, and the Interior under Meighen in 1926, and became Leader of the Opposition from 1927 until the 1930 election, when he led his Conservative Party to government. He remained Prime Minister (and Minister of Finance) until 1935, and leader of the Conservative Party until 1938. In the 1935 election, Bennett's main test came from Social Credit, which took almost 32% of the vote. It was the only time, however, that Social Credit finished second in the riding. 1935 was also the debut for C.C.F., which took 3.8% of the vote.
After Bennett's resignation, Douglas G.L. Cunnington was acclaimed in the 1939 by-election. Cunnington, a colonel in the army, had fought in WWI and had been wounded and captured by the Germans.
Cunnington did not remain for a long time, as in 1940 Manley J. Edwards won the riding for the Liberals with 36.9% to Cunnington's 34.8%. Rose Wilkinson, a graduate nurse running for New Democracy, won 21% of the vote.
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| Calgary South in 1952 |
Smith did not run for re-election in 1963, and the riding was won by Liberal Harry W. Hays with 40.1% of the vote, the Conservatives finishing second with 36.7%. Hays was named Minister of Agriculture in Pearson's government, and was sent to the Senate in 1966. He was available for the posting as Ray H. Ballard won the riding back for the Tories in 1965 in a narrow race: 39.1% to 38.9%.
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| Calgary South (#5) in 1968 |
A string of P.C. victories began in 1972 with the election of Peter Bawden, who defeated Mahoney by almost 30 points. Bawden, a future recipient of the Order of Canada, won the riding again in 1974. John Thomson, who had been an unsuccessful Tory candidate in Etobicoke in that election, then won the riding for the P.C.s in 1979 and again in 1980 with over two-thirds of the vote. In 1984, Bobbie Sparrow (the first woman to represent the riding), won it with 77.9% of the vote and served briefly as the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources and of Forestry under Campbell's administration after fending off the Reform Party in the 1988 election (the riding was then called Calgary Southwest).
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| Calgary South (#6) in 1979 |
This was not Manning's first political test. He had ran in 1965 for Social Credit in Edmonton East and in 1988 in Yellowhead for Reform. His father, Ernest Manning, was a Social Credit senator and was Premier of Alberta from 1943 to 1968.
After Manning's resignation, Stephen Harper won the riding for the Canadian Alliance as party leader in 2002 with 71.7% of the vote. He was not the only party leader running in that election, however, as Ron Gray of the Christian Heritage Party also ran.
Harper had first run for the Reform Party in 1988 in Calgary West, but had been unsuccessful. He was elected there in 1993, however, and later resigned to go to the National Citizen's Coalition.
Harper won the riding again in 2004 under the new Conservative banner with 68.4% of the vote, the lowest share he has ever taken. Leader of the Official Opposition since 2002, Harper became Prime Minister in 2006 after his Conservatives were elected to a minority government. Harper then won the riding again in 2008 and 2011, his last share of the vote (75.1%) the highest taken by any candidate since Sparrow in 1984. Also notable was that, with 11.9% of the vote, the NDP took its highest share in a general election since the C.C.F. took almost 16% of the vote in Calgary West in 1945.
Since 1935, when the C.C.F. first appeared, the Conservatives (including Reform and the Canadian Alliance) have averaged 61.6% of the vote, with the Liberals placing second at an average of 23.3% and the NDP third with 7.2%.
Since 1972, the main conservative option has never taken less than 58% of the vote, and Manning and Harper have managed over 65% over the last five elections. The Liberals, who were quite competitive in the riding between 1962 and 1972, have not been a factor for 40 years. It seems unlikely that any party will challenge the Conservatives' hegemony any time soon.
Calgary Southwest has a rather prolific history. Six of its MPs have either been the Leader of the Official Opposition, a cabinet minister, or the Prime Minister. The riding boasts two Prime Ministers and three leaders of the opposition. The cabinet portfolios assigned to its MPs (Interior, Finance, Mines, Agriculture, Energy, Resources, and Forestry) are a good reflection of Calgary's economic profile.
Calgary Southwest has been led by rather important figures for the last 20 years. Stephen Harper is likely to represent it for some time still. The next MP from the riding will certainly have some big shoes to fill, and a lot of history to live up to.
