Hooke
'30+5 I know, I was There' by Alfred J Hooke
A first-hand account of the workings and history of the Social Credit Government in Alberta, Canada 1935-68
About the Author
Alfred John Hooke was born in Whitecroft, Gloucestershire, UK on 25 February
1905, the same year in which Alberta in Western Canada became a province. At the age of eight he went to Alberta with his parents and attended school till he was thirteen. He worked as a hired hand till he was seventeen, then returned to school and successfully completed five years of study with their attendant exams in three years.
He started teaching in 1926 and for eight of the following nine years was principal of three different high schools. He left teaching in 1935 to become a full-time Member of the Legislature (Parliament) in the world’s first Social Credit government. On 1 June 1943 he entered the Cabinet as Provincial Secretary. He was made Chairman of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, the recommendations of which Committee resulted in the formation of the Department of Economic Affairs in June 1945 of which Mr Hooke became
Minister. In 1952 he also assumed the portfolio of Minister of Public Works when the previous incumbent became ill.
From 1955 onwards he held a variety of other ministerial posts until his retirement from the Cabinet in 1968 when he returned to the back benches.
His book, ‘30+5 I Know, I was There’ gives a first-hand account of the workings and history of the Social Credit Government in Alberta, 1935-1968. ‘His is a record of public service seldom, if ever, equalled in Canada.’
To access the book chapter by chapter please click here.