The UFA began as a non-partisan organization whose aim was to be a lobby group promoting the interest of farmers in the province.

To the surprise of nearly everyone, including themselves, UFA took 38 seats in the election, winning a majority government, and sweeping the Liberals out of power after almost 16 years.

The United Farmers government initiated several reforms, including improving medical care, broadening labour rights and making the tax system fairer.

[4] In 1923, the government formed the Alberta Wheat Pool and upset some of its support base by ending Prohibition, replacing it with open sale of alcohol through government-owned liquor stores and carefully regulated beer parlours, and refusing to establish a provincial bank, a bank owned by the provincial government, despite UFA conventions calling for it.

In 1925, John E. Brownlee, who was already widely believed to be the "true" leader of the United Farmers, succeeded Greenfield as Premier.

Banks were repossessing the farms of many farmers who were unable to pay off their loans and interest when grain prices were lower than the cost of production.

At the same time, however, the government faced opposition from socialists calling for more interventionist anti-capitalist policies and for radical monetary reform.

The latter stance was supported by William Aberhart's Social Credit movement, which in 1933–35 grew to a potent force among the province's farmers.

The final blow for Brownlee occurred when he was caught up in a sex scandal as he was accused of seducing a young clerk working in the Attorney General's office.

Richard G. Reid succeeded Brownlee as Premier, however with many voters jumping to the new Social Credit Party, the United Farmers' fall in politics was as rapid as its rise.

The ninth UFA MP, William Thomas Lucas of Camrose, ran as a Conservative and was also defeated by the Socreds.

[5] In 1938, the CCF committed itself to run candidates in the next provincial and elections, setting up local riding clubs for that purpose.

Many right-wing and centrist members of the UFA joined the Alberta Unity Movement, an attempt to form a coalition between United Farmers, Liberals and Conservatives to defeat Social Credit in the 1940 provincial election.

The ninth, William Thomas Lucas, ran as a Conservative in 1935 and was also defeated by the Social Credit landslide that were elections in Alberta that year.

That same year, UFA bought the assets of Maple Leaf Fuels, giving the co-op greater control over the business.