Things then got worse for the CCF. In the 1955 election, the CCF's share of the vote was only 8% and the previously dormant Conservatives passed it in the seat count. Moreover, Roper himself lost his seat in Edmonton (although Dushenki was elected and Stanley Ruzycki was elected in Vegreville). Roper placed third of thirty candidates on the first ballot, but as Premier Ernest Manning's large number of surplus votes was redistributed to the riding's other Social Credit candidates (and James Harper Prowse's only slightly smaller surplus was redistributed to other Liberals, Roper fell out of the top seven, where he needed to remain in order to be re-elected.