Between the elections of 1940 and 1944, the Second World War brought a welcome flurry of activity to a province that could hardly wait to say goodbye to the Great Depression. As historian David Leonard explains, by 1944, the times were literally buoyant:

82 000 people had joined from Alberta in various services, and they were seeing victory in battles at Dieppe and on the Remedie Line. And Alberta was contributing in other ways too. Certainly with the Alaska Highway begun in 1942, Albertans contributed considerable manpower and also services and supplies. Blatchford Field, for example, in Edmonton, which is the site of the municipal airport today, was the busiest field on the North American continent in 1943. On one day alone, 860 planes touched ground at Blatchford Field.

The economy boomed in other ways too. Local industries such as Great Western Garments really took off. And the farm yields were high, and of course, there was a great demand for the grain of Alberta because Britain?s supply was cut off from Europe. And the coal industry in Alberta, it emerged out of a decade-long slump.

Everybody who wanted a job had a job. And what Albertans couldn?t spend on consumer goods, they spent on entertainment.

Canteens and dances and movie theatres were packed like never before because people were getting out; they were active. People had money because they had jobs. But with the rationing going on, luxury items were at a minimal. Anything that?s plastic or gasoline was rationed. Even things like butter and sugar were rationed. And most of them, the phrase at the time, if you were ever talking to anybody over a counter, was the phrase, don?t you know there?s a war going on?

In 1943, Alberta?s Premier William Aberhart suddenly died. The man who stepped into his shoes and renewed Alberta?s support for Social Credit was the young Ernest Manning.

On the Heritage Trail, I?m Cheryl Croucher.