Aberhart, William

(1878–1943)

   Politician, Preacher and Broadcaster.

   Aberhart was born in Ontario, Canada. Initially he earned his living as a schoolteacher and, in his spare time, he taught a Bible class at the Westbourne Baptist Church. This was very successful and led to the founding of the Prophetic Bible Institute and a regular radio ministry. In the 1930s his programmes inspired a religious revival throughout Alberta and Western Saskatchewan. During the years of the Great Depression, he formed the Social Credit party which won a landslide victory in the Alberta provincial election of 1935. Aberhart became Premier and headed the evangelical and politically Conservative administration until his death in 1943. Apart from his political activities, Aberhart is significant in that he was one of the first evangelists to realise the potential of radio as a missionary tool. He was succeeded as Premier of Alberta by his student Ernest Manning.

   J.W. Grant (ed.), The Churches and the Canadian Experience (1963);

   C.B. Macpherson, Democracy in Alberta: Social Credit and the Party System (1962).