His two-and-a-half years as Premier were the last of the thirty-six-year Social Credit dynasty, as his defeat by Peter Lougheed saw its replacement by a new era Progressive Conservative government.
[5] The Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame, which inducted Strom in 1985, credited him with expanding the use of irrigation in the province and for being a key figure leading up to the signing of a 1973 cost-sharing agreement on the subject with the federal government.
[6] This rejection was not to last: a group of influential young Social Crediters, including the Premier's son Preston, started a movement to draft Strom.
[2] Strom accepted their overtures, but as late as a week before he announced his candidacy he was still offering to step aside in favour of another candidate of the young Turks' choice.
[2] Strom's campaign theme was "the social development of Alberta", and this general theme encompassed such diverse policy planks as a citizens' committee on constitutional reform, a head start program for disadvantaged youth, commissions on the future of urban planning and education, an expansion of the role of backbenchers in policy development, and the opening of a branch of the Premier's office in Calgary.
[9] Harry Strom became Premier December 12, 1968 and served until the 1971 election, when his government was defeated by Peter Lougheed's Progressive Conservatives.
[3] This tenure makes him the fourth shortest-serving former Premier in Alberta's history, after Dave Hancock, Jim Prentice, and Richard G. Reid.
[10] In response to increasing use of illicit drugs by Alberta youth, his government, led by Education Minister Bob Clark, inserted anti-narcotics messages into the province's school curriculum.
Other priorities were the reform of the Premier's Office and the establishment of an Intergovernmental Affairs Secretariat, converted by Peter Lougheed's government into a full ministry under Don Getty.
[12] Realizing this, Hamilton once handed him a folder with nothing but a paper reading "Sock it to 'em, Harry" before the Premier was to give a speech at the University of Alberta.
[12] Strom also resisted calling an early election to give his government a fresh mandate, despite Hamilton's impassioned advocacy for this course of action.
[14] Most of all, he was humble: he had not sought the party leadership and notoriously asked after being repeatedly addressed as "Premier" at his first cabinet meeting why it could not "just be plain 'Harry' anymore".
[14] When travelling to Ottawa, he stayed at the un-posh Skyline Hotel and ate meals in its basement cafeteria, where he ordered bread and pea soup for $0.25.
[11] He briefly considered a spring campaign, in the hopes that the planting season would have farmers feeling optimistic and therefore inclined to support the incumbent government.
However, after concluding that farmers would not react well to going to the polls in the middle of planting or harvest season, Strom finally settled on August 30.
[16] The party recruited star candidates, including Calgary alderman George Ho Lem and former Calgary Stampeder star Don Luzzi (Edmonton alderman and future mayor Cec Purves was defeated in his bid to win the Social Credit nomination in Edmonton-Strathcona from Strathcona Centre incumbent Joseph Donovan Ross), but was handicapped in these efforts by Strom's unwillingness to offer cabinet posts or other incentives to potential new candidates.
[11] In one, which was pulled after a single showing, Strom appeared scowling in his living room, urging Albertans to lower their expectations of government.
[11] Another, produced by Tommy Banks and showing Strom in a variety of settings talking about the province's changing face, was more successful.
[15] The Edmonton Journal, which had earlier published a poll showing that a plurality of Edmontonians intended to vote PC, endorsed Lougheed for Premier.