Harry Strom

His parents, Nils Hjalmar Strom (1877–1928) and Elna Maria Olivia Ekensteen (1883–1969), were second generation Swedish Canadians.

He attended school in Burdett before moving to Calgary to attend high school at East Calgary High School and Calgary Technical High School, where he studied mechanics.

Harry Edwin Strom (July 7, 1914 – October 2, 1984) was the ninth premier of Alberta, from 1968 to 1971.

His two-and-a-half years as Premier were the last of the thirty-six-year Social Credit dynasty, as his defeat by Peter Lougheed saw its replacement by a new era Progressive Conservative government.

He is remembered as an honest, decent man who lacked the political skills of his predecessor, Ernest Manning, or of Lougheed.

Alberta's first native-born Premier, Strom was born in Burdett, Alberta.

He worked most of his young adult life on the family farm, and was also actively involved in his church.

Strom was born in Burdett, Alberta, on July 7, 1914.

In 1931, he received a certificate from the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art.

His father died the same year, and Strom returned home to help his mother with the operation of the family farm.

On October 27, 1938, Strom married Ruth Johnson, with whom he would have six children—Howard, Faith, Beverly, Brian, Ronald, and Arlene.

In 1943, Harry Strom was elected to the council of the County of Forty Mile No. 8 in southern Alberta.

He served on local school boards at around the same time.

After a stint in municipal politics, he ran for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1955 provincial election, and was elected.

In the 1955 provincial election, Strom ran as the Social Credit candidate in Cypress, where the incumbent, Social Crediter James Underdahl, was not seeking re-election.

He easily defeated his only opponent, Liberal Joe Flaig, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

He would be re-elected to this seat in each of the 1959, 1963, 1967, and 1971 elections, always winning more than 60% of the vote.

In 1962, Manning appointed him to his cabinet as Minister of Agriculture, a position he held until 1967 when he was appointed Minister of Municipal Affairs.

The family attended the Evangelical Free Church of Canada in Bow Island until 1962.

There, Strom served as Sunday school teacher, deacon, and board chair, in addition to his twenty years of involvement with the church's Overseas Missions Board.

Besides his activities with the church, Strom was involved in the Forty Mile Rural Electrification Association, the Burdett Home and School Association, and the Agricultural Improvement Association of Burdett.

In October 1962, Premier Ernest Manning appointed Strom Minister of Agriculture.

In this capacity, he undertook a series of initiatives related to water use, including developing an agreement with Saskatchewan and Manitoba of the use of water emanating from the eastern slopes of Alberta's Rocky Mountains.

He also passed a series of legislation, including the Soil Conservation Act and Crop Insurance Act, and undertook a major departmental organization.

When Manning decided to resign in 1968, Strom became a candidate to succeed him, and finished on top of a six candidate field.

As Premier, Strom undertook a number of initiatives, especially in education and youth-related fields, but was politically ineffective.

He lacked both charisma and an overriding sense of purpose, and his government gradually lost popularity.

When Manning decided to retire in 1968, he called a key group of senior ministers to his office to advise them of his decision.

This group included Strom, Treasurer Anders Aalborg, Industry Minister Russ Patrick, Education Minister Randy McKinnon.

Aalborg was the natural choice to succeed Manning, but he had health problems and declined to run.

Strom had no desire for the job and rejected any suggestion from the others that he be a candidate.

This rejection was not to last: a group of influential young Social Crediters, including the Premier's son Preston, started a movement to draft Strom.

They settled on him because he was personally popular among party members and because he had displayed an openness to new ideas in the past.

Strom accepted their overtures, but as late as a week before he announced his candidacy he was still offering to step aside in favour of another candidate of the young Turks' choice.

In the 1971 election, his government was handily defeated by Lougheed's Progressive Conservatives.

Strom served as opposition leader for two years, but soon relinquished the position and did not seek re-election in 1975.

After leaving politics, Strom returned to farming.

He died in 1984.

The Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame, which inducted Strom in 1985, credited him with expanding the use of irrigation in the province and for being a key figure leading up to the signing of a 1973 cost-sharing agreement on the subject with the federal government.

He also served as Minister of Municipal Affairs for the last five months of the Manning government.