Ernie Jamison

Who was Ernie Jamison?

William Ernest "Ernie" Jamison was a publisher and member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

Jamison grew up in Edmonton. Early in his career, he worked as an ad setter for the Edmonton Bulletin. He went on to acquire the Western Weekly, a magazine that circulated with weekly newspapers around Alberta. In an effort to increase circulation of the magazine, he purchased the St. Albert Gazette from Ronald Harvey in 1966. He continued to publish the paper until his retirement, whereupon he passed it on to his children.

In the 1971 Alberta election, Jamison was one of more than forty new Progressive Conservative MLAs elected as Peter Lougheed swept to power. Jamison was re-elected in the 1975 election, but his performance in office had begun to alienate many members of his party. Former St. Albert mayor Ray Gibbon announced his intention to challenge him party's nomination in 1975, and another former mayor, Richard Plain, blamed Jamison for his defeat in 1977, accusing him of using his control of what was then St. Albert's only newspaper to orchestrate a victory for Ronald Harvey, from whom Jamison had bought the paper eleven years previous. Myrna Fyfe defeated Jamison for the nomination in the 1979 election, as Jamison left the Legislature.