potential investors, particularly in the oil industry, of a good climate for profit taking. The path for such legislation was made smoother by the conservatism of one wing of the labour movement in the province and the fear of being tarnished with the Communist brush by the other wing. Conservatives and reform In 1971, Peter Lougheed's Conservatives put an end to the long rule of the Social Credit Party as the Progressive Conservative Party came to power. Many experts maintain that the large-scale social change that occurred in the province as a result of the postwar oil boom was responsible for this important change of government. Urbanization, in particular the expansion of the urban middle classes, secularization, and increasing wealth are often cited as the primary causes of Social Credit's downfall. Bell (1993) challenges this popular interpretation, arguing instead that short-term factors such as leadership, contemporaneous issues, and campaign organization better explain the Conservative triumph. The Conservatives remained in power, under seven different premiers, for 44 years of majority governments. But in 2015 the government met its demise against a slate of younger, fresher candidates put forward by the Alberta NDP, led by Rachel Notley. In the 2019 election, a newly reunited conservative party, the United Conservative Party, won a majority government. See also Battle of the Belly River History of Lethbridge List of premiers of Alberta Natural Resources Acts History of the petroleum industry in Canada References Bibliography a short encyclopedia The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, online edition. A very good starting point Dictionary of Canadian Biography (1966–2006) online edition. Scholarly biographies of every important person who died by 1930. 14 popular essays on the fur trade, aboriginal peoples, exploration, the North-West Mounted Police, ranchers, homesteaders, territorial and provincial politics, women, and Alberta culture. primary sources standard survey by leading historian a comparison with Saskatchewan, Fulltext in EBSCO Other books External links scholarly articles in Alberta History 1999 to present Alberta Historical Review and Alberta History journals published 1953 to present History of the Rocky Mountains