 Since the 1917 election was held in the throes of the First World War , it was unlikely to be an election as usual — indeed , the Conservatives favoured prolonging the legislature until the end of the war . Sifton was not willing to go that far , but did introduce legislation to re @-@ elect , by act of the legislature , the twelve MLAs who had enlisted in the armed forces — of these , seven were Liberals and five Conservatives ; one of the Liberals , Joseph Stauffer of <unk> , was killed in action before the legislation took effect . The Conservatives supported this legislation , though they later cast aspersions on it by suggesting that of the Liberals re @-@ elected , two had never left Canada . A second piece of election legislation provided for two special MLAs to be elected by the 38 @,@ 000 Albertans serving overseas ; the Conservatives protested that two MLAs was not sufficient for such a large number of voters , especially since Clearwater by this time had only 116 eligible voters . 
