On Valentine’s Day, 1933 the citizens of Blairmore, Alberta elected a Communist town council and school board. “Alberta’s Red Democrats: the Challenges and Legacy of Blairmore Communism, 1921-1936” seeks not only to understand the Red administration that governed here during the mid-thirties, but also the community that elected it. It will be shown that the election of Mayor Bill Knight and his colleagues was neither a knee-jerk reaction to the protracted poverty of the Great Depression nor an alignment with the Communist Party of Canada as an act of desperation. The Red movement at Blairmore was deeply rooted in past experience, and as it came to fruition challenged what it meant to be a Communist in Canada. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2013-08-29 17:24:15.163