Chester Ronning

Chester Alvin Ronning (December 13, 1894 – December 31, 1984) was a Canadian educator, politician, and diplomat.

Ronning was born in Fancheng, China, now in Xiangyang, Hubei province, the son of Norwegian American Lutheran missionaries, and graduated from the University of Alberta in 1916 with a B.Sc. Ronning's family moved from China to the Peace River country of Alberta. Halvor Ronning, Chester's father, was instrumental in establishing a Norwegian settlement north-west of Grande Prairie called Valhalla Centre. When Chester Ronning started his studies at the University of Alberta, he travelled by horse from Valhalla Centre to Edmonton along the Edson Trail. This was the only "road" connecting the Peace country to the provincial capital. In later years the Northern Alberta Railway (now part of Canadian National Railway) was constructed.

He was a member of the United Farmers of Alberta and on October 25, 1932, he was elected in a by-election for Camrose. From his entry into the legislature, he was an outspoken adherent of the newly formed Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party. He was defeated in the 1935 provincial election that wiped out the UFA government. He was leader of the Alberta CCF from 1940 to 1942. The 1940 Alberta election saw no CCFers elected despite winning 11 per cent of the vote. Ronning stepped aside as leader in favour of Elmer Roper, who won a 1942 by-election to become Alberta's first elected CCF MLA. Ronning ran unsuccessfully for the CCF in the 1945 federal election in the riding of Camrose, losing to the Social Credit candidate, James Alexander Marshall. at the University of Alberta Augustana Campus in Camrose, Alberta. The Centre exists to facilitate interdisciplinary research, critical teaching, ethical reflection, and public programming on a range of issues in which religious communities, practices and ideas are directly implicated, or on which thoughtful religious perspectives might be brought to bear. Chester Ronning School in Camrose, Alberta, is also named after him.