As Brownlee was the only lawyer in a caucus formed almost entirely of farmers, his role extended beyond the traditional expectations of an attorney-general, and ranged from providing legal advice to explaining how to write a business letter; he also became the government's de facto leader in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

As a member of a farmers' government, he was also involved in attempts to alleviate drought-induced poverty in southern Alberta and in investigations into the establishment of a provincial wheat pool.

Though Brownlee was not initially interested in the UFA's political activities, this changed through his association with Wood and Progressive Party of Canada leader Thomas Crerar.

Brownlee demurred, reluctant to take the resulting cut in income, not eager to leave his family in Calgary to work in Edmonton (the provincial capital), and leery of the high expectations invested in the new government by the province's farmers.

At the caucus meeting that approved his appointment, he put an end to discussion of whether nominations for justices of the peace should come from UFA locals or its central political committee by asserting that they would continue to be handled by the office of the Attorney-General.

[20] Brownlee warned these MLAs that regardless of their beliefs, the Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta was free to request the government's resignation any time he considered that it lacked or did not merit the legislature's confidence.

The proposal attracted notice from across Canada; R. B. Bennett advised Brownlee, his former clerk, to warn Moore and Love that it was unconstitutional and demand that they withdraw it.

Brownlee was reluctant to do so, since a similar proposal had been part of the UFA's election platform, and instead moved successful amendments weakening the motion to a vague "statement of intent".

The writings of C. H. Douglas advocating an economic system that he called social credit were attracting notice in Alberta, and his adherents included many UFA members.

[27] At the 1924 UFA convention, Bevington and his followers reaffirmed their demands; Brownlee responded by pointing to the findings of the MacGibbon commission and to his contention that the proposal was unconstitutional and would bankrupt the province.

[31] In 1922, he warned the premier that unless the government sharply cut expenditures, he would find it difficult to defend its fiscal policy in that year's session of the legislature.

In 1923, he found an ally for his position in new provincial treasurer Richard Gavin Reid, who impressed on his cabinet colleagues the need for thrift and recommended the creation of a purchasing department for coordinating government expenditures.

[38] In 1920, Prime Minister Arthur Meighen committed the federal government in principle to transferring resource rights; all that remained to discuss were the terms.

[39] Alberta, while willing to forgo the annual subsidy, wanted compensation for some of the land and resources previously awarded by the federal government to private interests, including 6,400,000 acres (2,600,000 ha) of land granted to eastern railway companies, mineral leases that deprived the government of royalties for more than half of the 6,000,000 short tons (5,400,000 t) of coal extracted from Alberta annually, and assorted areas with hydroelectric potential that had been yielded to private companies.

[38] Though early attempts at reaching agreement were hampered by the unwillingness of the Maritime provinces to agree to the necessary constitutional amendments unless their own annual subsidies were increased,[41] negotiations between the provincial and federal government continued intermittently throughout the 1920s.

[42] Liberal Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King occasionally appeared receptive to Alberta's demands, but never fully agreed to them.

"[43] Despite this letter, the sides seemed close to agreement in early 1925: at a January conference Alberta accepted in principle a federal offer of three years of continuing subsidy after the transfer of resource rights.

As Alberta's smaller towns and rural areas were being connected to the electrical grid, Calgary Power made an application to the federal government for hydroelectric rights on the upper Bow River.

[45] The two largest such rightsholders, the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Hudson's Bay Company, urged the federal government to use its power of disallowance to put a stop to the legislation.

Third, the federal government's stated reasons for disallowing the legislation, which were released belatedly by justice minister Ernest Lapointe, were (according to Brownlee) erroneous and led Brownlee to suggest that Lapointe, a Québécois lawyer trained in the civil law tradition of his home province rather than the common law system used in the rest of Canada, must be unfamiliar with the land-holding system outside of Quebec.

[48] The Act, a Brownlee brainchild, created a Drought Relief Commissioner to whom farmers in affected areas could turn for financial counselling and asset administration.

[49] It authorized the adjustment of farmers' debts to levels that were within the debtors' means, but still sufficiently acceptable to creditors that their willingness to make loans would not disappear altogether.

[52] The name change of the legislation reflected Brownlee's growing belief that farmers' financial troubles were due to factors more systemic than lack of rain.

Brownlee and his cabinet colleague Richard Gavin Reid undertook an investigation of how soon this might be, which included a trip to San Francisco to meet with Aaron Sapiro, an American agricultural cooperative leader.

[54] However, in their absence the Edmonton Journal and Calgary Herald had invited Sapiro to tour Alberta, and his speeches stirred up extravagant expectations among UFA members for immediate action, in time for the new organization to market the 1923 crop.

[55][56] Faced with the zeal of its membership, the UFA leadership appointed a 17-person committee, including Brownlee, to create the Alberta Cooperative Wheat Producers Limited.

He initially cooled expectations by announcing that he had no interest in making "any hasty or ill-considered move", either in changing the law or altering enforcement of the existing one.

[10] On September 21, 1922, Constable Steve Lawson of the Alberta Provincial Police was murdered at his Blairmore home by bootlegger Emil Picariello and his companion Florence Lassandra.

The sentiment that criminal activities such as Picariello's were the inevitable result of prohibition laws became a popular one, as did the view that the government should legalize and regulate liquor sales.

[33][75] They made another attempt in 1925; Brownlee again threatened to resign, but this time was persuaded by Henry Wise Wood to accept the crown if Greenfield relinquished it willingly.