Overview

The first book-length biography of Ernest Manning, the longest-serving premier of Alberta, who directed the transformation of the province from Depression-era poverty to modern, oil-based affluence. Brian Brennan traces the story of a poor farm boy from Saskatchewan with little formal education who rose to become one of the most successful politicians in Western Canadian history while simultaneously attaining long-lasting success as the director of Canada's National Back to the Bible Hour radio program. Drawing extensively from a series of oral-history interviews Manning did for the University of Alberta archives after he left provincial politics; from an unpublished memoir written by his wife Muriel; from interviews with family members, former colleagues and others; and from the various books and articles written about the rise and fall of the Social Credit in Alberta, Brennan tells how Manning: 1.) Left the farm as a teenager after hearing William Aberhart preaching the Bible on the radio and moved to Calgary with the intention of becoming a minister of the gospel. 2.)Became Aberhart's full-time assistant, helping run the Prophetic Bible Institute and participating in his radio broadcasts. 3.) Helped Aberhart organize study groups around the province to make Albertans aware of the social-credit monetary reform theories of an English economist named Major Clifford Douglas. 4.) Coordinated the initiative to turn Social Credit from an educational into a political movement when the ruling United Farmers of Alberta refused to adopt its economic policies. 5.) Stage-managed the successful 1935 provincial election campaign that saw Social Credit swept to power with fifty-six of sixty-three seats and, at age twenty-six, became the youngest cabinet minister in the British Empire.

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9781897252161

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Finally a biography of Ernest Manning. Brian Brennan delivers a probing but respectful biography of one of Alberta's most forceful and influential personalities that brings to light how Manning and his government's policies transformed Alberta from a have-not province into an economic powerhouse. I've always admired Ernest Manning; my government adopted many of the policies he instituted as premier, and subsequent governments have built on those. Alberta's oil and gas industry infrastructure, for example, began with Ernest Manning and still bears his imprint. Anyone wanting to understand how Alberta became what it is today should begin by reading Brennan's biography of the Saskatchewan farmer's son who became this province's longest serving premier. -- The Honourable Peter Lougheed

Finally a biography of Ernest Manning. Brian Brennan delivers a probing but respectful biography of one of Alberta's most forceful and influential personalities that brings to light how Manning and his government's policies transformed Alberta from a have-not province into an economic powerhouse. I've always admired Ernest Manning; my government adopted many of the policies he instituted as premier, and subsequent governments have built on those. Alberta's oil and gas industry infrastructure, for example, began with Ernest Manning and still bears his imprint. Anyone wanting to understand how Alberta became what it is today should begin by reading Brennan's biography of the Saskatchewan farmer's son who became this province's longest serving premier. <br>-- The Honourable Peter Lougheed

Author Information

Brian Brennan is an award-winning and best-selling author who specializes in books about the colorful personalities and the social history of Western Canada. His recent titles include How The West Was Written: The Life and Times of James H. Gray, Romancing the Rockies: Mountaineers, Missionaries, Marilyn & More, a finalist in the 2005 Banff Mountain Book Competition, and Scoundrels and Scallywags Characters from Alberta's Past, a finalist for the 2003 Grant MacEwan Author's Award.

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