Alberta provincial electoral districts

Alberta provincial electoral districts are currently single member ridings that each elect one member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. There are 83 current districts fixed in law in Alberta.

History

The original twenty five districts were drawn up by Liberal Member of Parliament Frank Oliver prior to the first general election of 1905. The original boundaries were widely regarded as being gerrymandered to favor the Alberta Liberal Party. Every boundary redistribution since 1905 has been based on the original boundaries, with districts being split or merged.

From 1905 to 1926 with only a few exceptions each district elected a single member on the First Past the Post system. Calgary and Edmonton as well as Medicine Hat were elected on a plurality block vote, where each voter had as many votes as candidates were elected.

There have also been a couple of cases where members were elected at large, and did not represent any districts.

From 1926 to 1955 members in Calgary and Edmonton were elected in Single Transferable Vote super ridings that had five to seven members. Outside of the two cities one member was elected under the optional system, with vote transfer taking place only if one candidate had less than 50% of the vote. There were no district changes between 1926 and 1940.

With Alberta in a population boom in the fifties and Calgary and Edmonton growing, single transferable vote was becoming too complicated, with vote counting taking days before any results could be announced. In 1959 the super ridings were broken up and the voting system was made standard across the province.

In 1977 Elections Alberta was created to independently oversee election laws. Independent boundary commissions were set up to tweak the boundaries to population changes that occurred after every census.

As is the case with nearly every other Canadian jurisdiction, the number of districts has not increased in proportion to the population. Prior to the 1986 election the number of districts was fixed by law at 83 thus any change to that number would have to be enacted by the legislature. Even though the population has increased by more than 40% since 1986, the number of districts has not been changed. Because much of the population increase has taken place in Calgary, there has been a decline in the number of districts in rural areas and, more recently, in Edmonton in favor of more city districts in Calgary, leading some to criticize Alberta's largest city for having too much power. However, there seems to be limited support for changing the law.

Unlike some provinces such as Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan, districts are created and abolished with great frequency, whereas districts in those provinces have remained the same for decades.

List of provincial electoral districts

*Airdrie-Chestermere
*Athabasca-Redwater
*Banff-Cochrane
*Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock
*Battle River-Wainwright
*Bonnyville-Cold Lake
*Calgary Bow
*Calgary Buffalo
*Calgary Cross
*Calgary Currie
*Calgary East
*Calgary Egmont
*Calgary Elbow
*Calgary Fish Creek
*Calgary Foothills
*Calgary Fort
*Calgary Glenmore
*Calgary Hays
*Calgary Lougheed
*Calgary Mackay
*Calgary McCall
*Calgary Montrose
*Calgary Mountain View
*Calgary North Hill
*Calgary North West
*Calgary Shaw
*Calgary Varsity
*Calgary West
*Calgary-Nose Hill
*Cardston-Taber-Warner
*Cypress-Medicine Hat
*Drayton Valley-Calmar
*Drumheller-Stettler
*Dunvegan-Central Peace
*Edmonton Beverly-Clareview
*Edmonton Calder
*Edmonton Castle Downs
*Edmonton Centre
*Edmonton Decore
*Edmonton Ellerslie
*Edmonton Glenora
*Edmonton Gold Bar
*Edmonton Highlands-Norwood
*Edmonton Manning
*Edmonton McClung
*Edmonton Meadowlark
*Edmonton Mill Creek
*Edmonton Mill Woods
*Edmonton Riverview
*Edmonton Rutherford
*Edmonton Whitemud
*Edmonton-Strathcona
*Foothills-Rocky View
*Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo
*Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville
*Grande Prairie Smoky
*Grande Prairie Wapiti
*Highwood
*Innisfail-Sylvan Lake
*Lac La Biche-St. Paul
*Lacombe-Ponoka
*Leduc-Beaumont-Devon
*Lesser Slave Lake
*Lethbridge East
*Lethbridge West
*Little Bow
*Livingstone-Macleod
*Medicine Hat
*Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills
*Peace River
*Red Deer North
*Red Deer South
*Rocky Mountain House
*Sherwood Park
*Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert
*St. Albert
*Stony Plain (electoral district)
*Strathcona
*Strathmore-Brooks
*Vermilion-Lloydminster
*West Yellowhead (electoral district)
*Wetaskiwin-Camrose
*Whitecourt-Ste. Anne

Historical provincial electoral districts

*Airdrie-Rocky View
*Athabasca
*Athabasca-Wabasca
*Banff
*Calgary
*Calgary Bowness
*Calgary Centre
*Calgary Forest Lawn
*Calgary McKnight
*Calgary Millican
*Calgary North
*Calgary North East
*Calgary Nose Creek
*Calgary Queens Park
*Calgary South
*Calgary South East
*Calgary Victoria Park
*Cardston
*Cardston-Chief Mountain
*Clearwater
*Dunvegan
*Edmonton
*Edmonton East
*Edmonton Norwood
*Edmonton South
*Edmonton West
*Gleichen
*Jasper West
*Lethbridge
*Lethbridge City
*Lethbridge District
*Lloydminster
*Olds-Didsbury
*Pakan
*Pincher Creek-Macleod
*Red Deer
*Rocky Mountain
*Rosebud
*Strathcona Centre
*Strathcona East
*Strathcona South
*Strathcona West
*Victoria
*Whitford
*Willingdon

ee also

* Alberta federal electoral districts

External links

* [http://www.assembly.ab.ca/ Legislative Assembly of Alberta]