The incumbent Liberal Party led by Premier Alexander C. Rutherford achieved a re-election victory, securing a majority government by winning 36 out of the 41 seats in the legislature with more than 59 percent of the popular vote.

The 1905 Alberta general election as a fiercely contested battle between the formidable Liberal machine led by Rutherford and the less organized Conservative Party under R. B. Bennett.

The Liberal government, in its two months of power, had not faced any scandals or policy failures, making it difficult for the opposition to effectively criticize and challenge them.

[6] Furthermore, Thomas argues that the Conservative Party's strong positions on issues such as provincial control over the school system and public lands did not resonate significantly with the voters.

[5] The Conservatives attributed their defeat to the Roman Catholic vote, which was perceived to be sympathetic to Wilfrid Laurier due to his support for separate schools.

[9][10] Following the appointment of Matthew McCauley, the Vermilion representative, as the Warden of the Edmonton Penitentiary, Liberal James Bismark Holden was acclaimed as his successor on July 16, 1906.

[9] A significant surprise occurred in the 1909 by-election in Lethbridge when William Simmons resigned to run in the 1908 Canadian federal election in Medicine Hat.

[14] Prime Minister Laurier had received assurances from Alberta Members of Parliament Peter Talbot and Frank Oliver that the distribution was fair.

The government introduced the Act respecting the Legislative Assembly of Alberta,[1] which significantly altered the electoral map and extended the maximum term of the Legislature from four to five years.

[20] Historian Lewis Thomas notes that the idea of redistribution was deemed necessary due to the rapid population growth and development, and the significant increase in seats was generally accepted without controversy.

[18] However, Albert Robertson, leader of the Conservative Party and representative for High River, criticized the extension of the election cycle from four to five years and the provisions for two members in each of Calgary and Edmonton.

[26] Additionally, the Act provided the government with the option to postpone the election date for the electoral districts of Athabasca and Peace River to allow more time for information about the nominated candidates to be disseminated.

[30] Premier Rutherford dedicated much of his election efforts to conservative strongholds in Southern Alberta, including Calgary, Lethbridge, and Pincher Creek, where he campaigned for candidates.

[32] Following the disappointing outcome of the 1905 election, and with the failure to secure a seat in Calgary, R. B. Bennett, the leader of the Conservative Party, resigned from his position and temporarily withdrew from politics.

In the Legislature, Robertson advocated for public ownership of the telephone system[33] and railways,[34] which differed from the government's policy of leaving both sectors under private control.

[35] Other platform proposals included reforestation in areas affected by forest fires, a commission for electrical power, the establishment of an experimental farm, civil service reform, the construction of highways, government-owned grain elevators, and other initiatives.

[35] Once again, the Conservative Party failed to make a significant impact with voters, managing to secure only two seats in the Legislature, with Bennett winning in Calgary and George Hoadley in the neighboring Okotoks constituency.

In a closely contested race, O'Brien narrowly defeated Liberal candidate John Angus Macdonald by a margin of only 32 votes.

[40] Lethbridge City's incumbent MLA Donald McNabb, the only Labour Party man in the Legislature, ran for his seat again in 1909 but he placed a distant third.

[41] Independent-Conservative candidate Edward Michener defeated the Liberal incumbent John Thomas Moore in Red Deer.

This was attributed to the presence of R. B. Bennett in the legislature, with the newspaper describing him as superior to both Robertson and Hiebert in terms of political skills and debating abilities.

[32] Prior to the 1909 election, the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway (A&GW) President William Clarke had announced that the line would be completed by the end of 1912, ahead of schedule.

[42] Everything seemed to be progressing as planned when, at the beginning of the new legislative session, Liberal backbencher John R. Boyle asked the government a series of innocuous questions about the company and the guarantees made to it.

In this letter, Cushing gave his reasons for resigning as disagreement with the government's railway policy, which he claimed was developed without his involvement or consent.

The majority on the commission did not find Rutherford or his cabinet guilty of any wrongdoing, but criticized them for poor judgment, both concerning to the loan guarantees and the exemptions the A&GW received from provincial legislation.

[49] James Cornwall, a Liberal backbencher who supported Rutherford, fared somewhat worse: his personal financial involvement in the railway gave rise to "suspicious circumstances", but he too was not proven guilty of any wrongdoing.

He ultimately adopted a similar policy to Rutherford's, and the A&GW was eventually built by private interests using the money raised from provincial loan guarantees.