In 1890, when the local population reached 1,478, an application was made to the
Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories to grant town incorporation. Such was granted on 3 December of that year and the following 9 February, the first town council meeting was held in the Lethbridge Hotel.
Charles Alexander Magrath was the first mayor and was joined by six aldermen. Shortly after Alberta became a province in 1905, an application was made for a city charter. City status was granted on 9 May 1906, and the first council meeting was held on 21 May with a mayor and six aldermen as before. The
Alberta Legislature approved a new charter on 25 March 1913 that would see the city governed by three elected
commissioners: the mayor, who was also commissioner of finance; a commissioner of
public utilities and a commissioner of
public works. The charter became effective 1 January 1914 and the first meeting under this commission was held on 5 January 1914 under mayor
William Duncan Livingston Hardie. Within eight years, however, local citizens felt the commission was becoming dictatorial and were able to get the charter amended to allow for three additional but advisory commissioners. The newly elected commissioners attended their first meeting on 24 April 1922. In 1928, Lethbridgians voted in a
plebiscite to change their civic government from commission board scheme to council–manager form. The council was to be composed of seven aldermen, one of whom would be elected internally as mayor. As well, a city manager was to be appointed by city council to administer its policies. The new elections were held in June 1928, with city councillors elected through
Single transferable voting (STV). They were to serve staggered terms. In their first meeting, on 23 July 1928, council elected Robert Barrowman as mayor. Disillusionment with STV led to a referendum being held in December 1928, where a majority voted in favour of cancelling STV. Thereafter the city has elected its city council through Block Voting, at-large with no wards. Block Voting means there are a far greater number of votes than the number of voters. In 2017, 21,000 voters cast 128,000 votes. In 1961, city electors voted in favour of electing their mayor directly. In 1962, city voters elected
Frank Sherring as mayor. Seven years later, the number of aldermen was increased from six to eight, the number it still has today. Lethbridge City Council voted unanimously to adopt the gender-neutral term Councillor for its elected members on March 5, 2012. The move came after advocacy from various public interest groups in the community, as Lethbridge was one of the last city councils in Alberta to still use the term Alderman. After changes to provincial legislation, the term length for municipal councils in Alberta was increased from 3 years to 4 years, beginning with the
2013 election. ==Elections==