Alex Ross was a stonemason, politician and cabinet minister from
Alberta,
Canada.
Political career
Alex was first elected in the
1917 Alberta election defeating
Conservative Thomas Tweedie. He was elected as the first and only member of the
Labor Representation League to sit in the assembly. The Labor Representation League later merged with the
Dominion Labor Party .
In the
1921 Alberta election after Calgary Centre was abolished he ran in the reconstituted
Calgary riding and won the top spot in a 5 member block vote. In that election the
United Farmers of Alberta defeated the
Liberals in the rural part of the province, and formed the government. The United Farmers did not run any candidates in
Calgary and Ross was asked to serve as Minister of Public Works despite being a member of the opposition.
Ross was acclaimed in a ministerial by-election on December 9, 1921.
In 1922 Alex Ross helped found the
Canadian Labor Party and served on its executive with other prominent labor politicians of the era, such as
Elmer Ernest Roper and
Alf Farmilo.
1926 election
Alex served out the rest of his second term as a minister, and his third term for the legislature until the
1926 Alberta general election. He was nominated by the Canadian Labor Party to run in Calgary, however the
Calgary Herald reported that he did not appear to be enthusiastic to run, but would accept his nomination anyway. On voting day, Ross was defeated in the 8th round of vote transfers finishing 8th out of 11...
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