oes not appear to have reached beyond Winnipeg in the east. But in general, Manitoba did not prove to be a fertile field for the Klan; meetings were poorly attended and the membership does not seem to have been large at any time (White Hoods, p. 61-62).Ku Klux Klan organizers from British Columbia entered the province of Alberta in 1926 and 1927, and began recruiting members at ten dollars per head. Within a short time, one thousand members were in the order, with locals at Calgary, Milo, Vulcan, Red Deer, Taber, Rosebud, Edmonton, and many other smaller centers. The order seemed to be making good progress until the organizers disappeared with the Klan funds in the fall of 1927. Two years later, however, in the fall of 1929, organizers from Saskatchewan revived the Klan. Within six months, the Alberta Klan called a provincial convention for March 2nd, 1930, in Calgary, where officers would be elected and a course of action planned for the coming election (White Hoods, p. 64).In the fall of 1927, most of the Ku Klux Klan bodies in eastern and western Canada merged together, under the name of “The Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Canada,” leaving as separate organizations only the Ku Klux Klan of the British Empire and the Saskatchewan organization. Four principal officials were appointed for the dominion-wide organization: Rev. George Marshall, Imperial Wizard, and J. S. Lord, Imperial Scribe, for eastern Canada with headquarters in Toronto; and Rev. Charles E. Batzold, Imperial Wizard, and A. J. England, Imperial Scribe, for western Canada with headquarters in Vancouver. However, it seems that the merging was never perfected, as most of the provincial Klan bodies were split by constant internal bickering, failing to attain stability for any length of time, and unable to organize dominion-wide conventions (White Hoods, p. 65-67).By 1926, the Klan had, although never with spectacular success, penetrated m...
