Aberhart, William (ā`bərhärt), 1878–1943, premier of Alberta, Canada, b. Ontario. He was a schoolteacher and a founder and dean of the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute (opened 1927). About 1932 he became interested in Social Credit Social Credit, economic plan in Canada, based on the theories of Clifford Hugh Douglas . The central idea is that the problems fundamental to economic depression are those of unequal distribution owing to lack of purchasing power.
..... Click the link for more information. , which advocated direct money payments to all citizens. He was an organizer of the Social Credit party of Alberta and was elected (1935) to the provincial legislature with enough supporters to control it. Thus Aberhart became premier (1935–43) of the first Social Credit government in the world. However, many of the legislative attempts to enact his principles were declared invalid by the courts.

Aberhart, William

(born Dec. 30, 1878, Kippen, Ont., Can.—died May 23, 1943, Vancouver, B.C.) Canadian politician and the country's first Social Credit Party premier (Alberta, 1935–43). Aberhart was a high school principal in Calgary, Alta. (1915–35). An active lay preacher, he founded the Calgary Prophetic Bible Institute (1918). In 1932 he used his evangelical rhetoric to promote monetary-reform theories to solve the economic problems created in Alberta by the Great Depression, proposing to issue dividends (social credit) to each person, based on the real wealth of the province. When his party won a majority in the 1935 provincial election, he became premier and minister of education, but his social-credit proposals were disallowed by the federal government.