Edgar Peter Lougheed PC CC AOE QC (/ˈlɔːhiːd/ LAW-heed; July 26, 1928 – September 13, 2012) was a Canadian lawyer and Progressive Conservative politician who served as the tenth premier of Alberta from 1971 to 1985, presiding over a period of reform and economic growth.

[20][8] While still a student at Harvard, Lougheed had a number of jobs including a brief time at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City, and a summer with Gulf Oil in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Lougheed was a staunch believer that people should avoid excessive specialization in favour of maximizing their diversity of experience,[22] and he anticipated spending time in business, law, and politics.

[22][23] Later in 1962, Lougheed left Mannix to establish an independent law practice, partnering with John Ballem who brought oil and gas experience and later adding Marvin McDill.

The party had not formed government since Alberta's founding in 1905, and under leader Milt Harradence had captured a mere 13 per cent of the vote and no seats in the previous 1963 election.

[22] According to Lougheed, Alberta needed to be a senior partner in Confederation, but the Social Credit Party was not in touch with the province's true potential to be a national leader.

[30] Lougheed also started to build a team of supporters who followed him throughout his career including Roy Deyell, Merv Leitch, and Rod McDaniel, who took prominent positions in the Progressive Conservative Party.

Lougheed sought candidates who were already public figures, often meeting with editors of local weekly newspapers, mayors and presidents of boards of trade to determine who the community's leaders were.

[42][50] One of the challenges Strom faced was the need to modernize the rural-focused Social Credit Party to better reflect the growing urbanization in Alberta, something he was not able to effectively accomplish.

[55] Many observers argue that the Progressive Conservative victory in 1971 was primarily a result of Lougheed's charisma, combined with growing urbanization and an out-of-touch Social Credit government.

[48] Other scholars share similar views that include Lougheed as the saviour of the urban middle class that was seeking a revigorated government aligned with the province's new resource age.

Bell argues the Social Credit's poor relationships with unions and Strom's weak campaign led to the progressive conservatives narrow victory of 5.3 percentage points.

[65] Other promises included the creation of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, reduction of personal income taxes by at least 28 per cent, and increased social program spending, all of which were built on growing non-renewable natural resource revenue resulting from the 1970s energy crisis.

[65] While opposition criticism focused on Lougheed's interference with the free market, which was exemplified by the 1974 purchase of Pacific Western Airlines for $37.5-million (equivalent to $224.9-million in 2023) and significant government spending authorized through Order-in-Council instead of appropriations through the legislature, neither was effective for swaying voters.

[85] Lougheed, while serving as the leader of the opposition, accused the Social Credit government of not ensuring Albertans received fair value from the exploitation of public non-renewable natural resources.

As Premier, Lougheed implemented several policies to increase the value of Alberta's resources, counter federal programs he viewed as threats and expand development in the oil sands.

[86][88] Lougheed used the export tax to claim force majeure and cancel all existing oil and gas leases, and reissued them under the new higher royalty rate.

[96] Lougheed and Getty met with other firms to fill Atlantic Richfield's place, and in February 1975 the consortium met with the governments of Alberta, Ontario, and Canada in the neutral site of Winnipeg with negotiations including federal ministers Jean Chrétien and Donald Macdonald, Ontario contingent led by Premier Bill Davis, and the Alberta contingent led by Lougheed, Getty, Leitch and Dickie.

[101] While the program increased domestic price controls, the emphasis on revenue sharing and incentives for oil exploration on federally owned lands was viewed critically by Lougheed.

If Alberta reduced production, Central Canada refineries and other businesses would need to purchase foreign oil which would be heavily subsidized by the federal government, a cost that it could not afford to with a $13.7 billion deficit in 1980.

[107] Critics have argued that Lougheed undertook a hostile and polarizing campaign toward federal oil and gas policy which forced Albertans to choose between provincial and national citizenship.

[68] Along with the amending formula, Lougheed's constitutional legacy includes the inclusion of the notwithstanding clause which provides legislatures with the authority to supersede certain provisions of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

[111][112] Lougheed's constitutional influence began following his election in 1971 through two actions, first by rejecting the basis of the proposed Victoria Charter,[113] and second by creating the Ministry of Federal and Intergovernmental Affairs.

[86] Trudeau's actions further reinforced Lougheed's position that Alberta would only support Constitutional changes on the condition that provincial jurisdiction over resources was maintained.

These corporations included ATCO, Royal Bank of Canada, Princeton Developments, Nortel, CFCN Communications, Bombardier, Canadian Pacific Railway, Keyera, Carlson Construction and a number of other businesses.

In 2006, Lougheed's position changed after the resignation of Premier Ralph Klein, and he began to make occasional political statements and take interviews where he discussed public policy.

[161] While Lougheed did not support additional engrained rights for Indigenous persons, claiming that it would create a new order of government, he accepted the consensus to include the provisions in the Charlottetown Accord.

[161] Lougheed also advocated for a "citizen assembly" composed of elected representatives from each province to negotiate Constitutional reforms as a fallback measure if the Charlottetown Accord failed.

[127] Despite his party's Conservative label, Lougheed consistently made policies and investments that significantly expanded the government's role in the economy, impacted industries across the province, both in oil and gas and other areas of the free market, such as the purchase of Pacific Western Airlines.

The close ties of the state-owned Alberta Energy Company to the government gave critics the impression of an "unfair competitive advantage", and Lougheed's intervention in the free market through controlling oil and gas production worried his conservative base.