Calgary-Varsity

Calgary-Varsity
Alberta electoral district
	Calgary-Varsity within the City of Calgary, 2017 boundaries
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Alberta
MLA	Luanne Metz ; New Democratic
;
District created	1993
First contested	1993
Last contested	2023

Last updated April 26, 2024

Calgary-Varsity is a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The district was created in 1993 and returns a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

History

The electoral district was created in the 1993 boundary redistribution out of parts of three electoral districts. They were Calgary-Foothills, Calgary-North Hill and Calgary-North West.

The 2010 boundary redistribution saw the district only slightly altered. It picked up some land from Calgary-Bow and Calgary-Mountain View when the south boundary was moved south to run completely along the Bow River and it also picked up a few blocks of houses from Calgary-North Hill when the east boundary between 17th Ave NW and 24 Ave NW was moved one block over to 18 Street NW

Boundary history

23 Calgary-Varsity 2003 boundaries^[1]
Bordering districts
North	East	West	South
Calgary-Foothills and Calgary-Nose Hill	Calgary-North Hill	Calgary-Bow and Calgary-North West	Calgary-Mountain View
riding map goes here
Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2003, Electoral Divisions Act.
Starting at the intersection of Sarcee Trail NW with John Laurie Boulevard NW; then 1. southeast along John Laurie Boulevard NW to 19 Street NW; 2. south along 19 Street NW to 16 Avenue NW; 3. west along 16 Avenue NW to Shaganappi Trail NW; 4. north along Shaganappi Trail NW to 32 Avenue NW; 5. west along 32 Avenue NW and its westerly extension to the right bank of the Bow River; 6. north along the right bank of the Bow River to the southerly extension of Silver Springs Boulevard NW; 7. north along the extension and Silver Springs Boulevard NW to Silver Springs Gate NW; 8. east and north along Silver Springs Gate NW to Sarcee Trail NW; 9. north along Sarcee Trail NW to the starting point.
Note:

26 Calgary-Varsity 2010 boundaries
Bordering districts
North	East	West	South
Calgary-Foothills and Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill	Calgary-Klein	Calgary-Bow and Calgary-Hawkwood	Calgary-Currie and Calgary-Mountain View

Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2010, Electoral Divisions Act.

Note:

Representation history

Members of the Legislative Assembly for Calgary-Varsity
Assembly	Years	Member		Party
See Calgary-Foothills and Calgary-North Hill 1971-1993, Calgary-North West 1979-1993
23rd	1993–1997		Murray Smith	Progressive Conservative
24th	1997–2001
25th	2001–2004
26th	2004–2008		Harry Chase	Liberal
27th	2008–2012		Harry Chase	Liberal
28th	2012–2014		Donna Kennedy-Glans	Progressive Conservative
	2014			Independent
	2014–2015			Progressive Conservative
29th	2015–2019		Stephanie McLean	New Democratic
29th	2019		Vacant
30th	2019–2023		Jason Copping	United Conservative
31st	2023–present		Luanne Metz	New Democratic

The electoral district was created in 1993 and comprised land that had existed in three electoral districts. The region at that era had returned a mixture of Liberal and Progressive Conservative representatives.

In the first election in the district held in 1993, the district saw a closely contested race between Progressive Conservative candidate Murray Smith and Liberal candidate Carrol Jaques. Smith would win with a plurality of 47%. Premier Ralph Klein appointed Smith to his first cabinet post as Minister of Economic Development and Tourism in 1994. He would be shuffled to the Labour portfolio in 1996.

Smith and Jaques faced each other again in the 1997 election with both candidates losing popular vote. Smith however won his second term by taking a majority of the ballots cast. After the election Smith kept his Labour portfolio until 1999 when he was shuffled to be the Minister of Gaming.

The 2001 election would see Jaques and Smith face each other for the third time. The result would be a near landslide in Smith's favour. After the election Smith would once again change cabinet portfolios this time becoming Minister of Energy until he retired at dissolution of the assembly in 2004.

Liberal candidate Harry Chase was elected as the second representative of the riding in the 2004 election with nearly 45% of the vote. He won his second term in 2008 with a slightly larger plurality.

In 2012 Progressive Conservative candidate Donna Kennedy-Glans was elected with 46% of the vote. She briefly sat as an independent in protest of Alison Redford's leadership.

In 2015 New Democrat candidate Stephanie McLean was elected with 44% of the vote. After serving in the cabinet of Rachel Notley, she stepped down as MLA shortly before the 2019 election.

Despite the NDP attracting a star candidate to run in Calgary-Varsity, Anne McGrath, she was defeated by United Conservative candidate Jason Copping, who is the district's current representative.

Legislative election results

2023

v t e 2023 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Luanne Metz	13,449	58.27	+14.83
	United Conservative	Jason Copping	9,377	40.63	-5.53
	Wildrose Loyalty Coalition	Oaklan Davidsen	141	0.61	–
	Solidarity Movement	Kent Liang	112	0.49	–
Total valid votes			23,079	98.96	–
Rejected and declined			243	1.04
Turnout			23,322	70.65
Eligible electors			33,010
	New Democratic gain from United Conservative		Swing		+10.18
Source(s) Source: Elections Alberta ^[2]

Elections in the 2010s

v t e 2019 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United Conservative	Jason Copping	10,853	46.16	+1.90
	New Democratic	Anne McGrath	10,215	43.44	+3.29
	Alberta Party	Beth Barberree	1,687	7.17	+6.05
	Liberal	Ryan Campbell	383	1.63	-10.48
	Green	Cheryle Chagnon-Greyeyes	274	1.17	-1.04
	Independence	Chris McAndrew	101	0.43	New
Total valid votes			23,513	99.89
Rejected, spoiled and declined			264	1.11
Turnout			23,777	73.34
Eligible electors			32,422
	United Conservative notional hold		Swing		-0.69
Source(s) "2019 Provincial General Election Results". Elections Alberta. Retrieved April 30, 2019.

v t e 2015 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Stephanie McLean	8,297	43.94	+39.31
	Progressive Conservative	Susan Billington	5,700	30.19	-15.71
	Wildrose	Sharon Polsky	2,598	13.76	-12.45
	Liberal	Pete Helfrich	1,862	9.86	-10.62
	Green	Carl Svoboda	424	2.25	+0.92
Total valid votes			18,881	99.33	+0.03
Rejected, spoiled and declined			127	0.67	-0.03
Eligible voters / turnout			32,467	58.55	-1.30
	New Democratic gain from Progressive Conservative		Swing		+27.51
Source(s) "2015 Provincial General Election Results". Elections Alberta. Archived from the original on August 1, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2017.

2015 Alberta general election redistributed results
Party		Votes	%
	New Democratic	8,322	40.16
	Progressive Conservative	6,137	29.61
	Wildrose	3,034	14.64
	Liberal	2,510	12.11
	Green	456	2.20
	Alberta Party	233	1.12
	Social Credit	32	0.15
Source(s) Source: Ridingbuilder

v t e 2012 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Donna Kennedy-Glans	8,099	45.90	+9.22
	Wildrose	Rob Solinger	4,624	26.21	+19.06
	Liberal	Bruce Payne	3,614	20.48	-26.85
	New Democratic	Jackie Seidel	817	4.63	+1.00
	Alberta Party	Alex McBrien	255	1.45
	Evergreen	Carl Svoboda	234	1.33	-3.87
Total valid votes			17,643	99.30	-0.11
Rejected, spoiled and declined			124	0.70	+0.11
Eligible electors / turnout			29,688	59.85	+15.21
	Progressive Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing		+18.04
Source(s) Elections Alberta. "Electoral Division Results: Calgary-Varsity" . Retrieved June 13, 2018.

Elections in the 2000s

2008 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Harry Chase	6,907	47.34	+2.70
	Progressive Conservative	Jennifer Diakiw	5,353	36.69	-2.63
	Wildrose Alliance	Brennan Lytle	1,043	7.15	+1.77
	Greens	Sean Maw	758	5.19	-0.16
	New Democratic	Tim Stock-Bateman	530	3.63	-0.85
Total valid votes			14,591	99.41	-0.07
Rejected, spoiled and declined			87	0.59	+0.07
Eligible electors / Turnout			32,883	44.64	-9.67
	Liberal hold		Swing		+2.67
Source(s) The Report on the March 3, 2008 Provincial General Election of the Twenty-seventh Legislative Assembly. Elections Alberta. July 28, 2008. pp. 260–263.

2004 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Harry Chase	6,347	44.64	+16.01
	Progressive Conservative	Michael Smyth	5,591	39.32	-20.10
	Alberta Alliance	Ronald Beniger	765	5.38	New
	Greens	Richard Larson	761	5.35	+2.92
	New Democratic	Mark Gabruch	637	4.48	-5.04
	Social Credit	Len Skowronski	118	0.83	New
Total valid votes			14,219	99.48	+0.01
Rejected, spoiled and declined			75	0.52	-0.01
Eligible electors / Turnout			26,318	54.31	-5.14
	Liberal gain from Progressive Conservative		Swing		+18.06
Source(s) "Calgary-Varsity Statement of Official Results 2004 Alberta general election" (PDF). Elections Alberta. Retrieved March 3, 2012.

2001 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Murray Smith	8,173	59.42	+8.00
	Liberal	Carrol Jaques	3,938	28.63	-9.87
	New Democratic	Susan Scott	1,309	9.52	+4.97
	Greens	Tavis Du Preez	334	2.43	+1.49
Total valid votes			13,754	99.47	-0.37
Rejected, spoiled and declined			73	0.53	+0.37
Eligible electors / Turnout			23,260	59.45	+0.24
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		+8.94
Source(s) "Calgary-Varsity Official Results 2001 Alberta general election" (PDF). Elections Alberta. Retrieved March 27, 2010.

Elections in the 1990s

1997 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Murray Smith	7,232	51.42	+3.54
	Liberal	Carrol Jaques	5,414	38.50	-0.05
	Social Credit	Mike Bressers	646	4.59	New
	New Democratic	Dirk Huysman	640	4.55	-5.48
	Greens	Joel Ashworth	132	0.94	-2.04
Total			14,064	99.84	+0.10
Rejected, spoiled and declined			23	0.16	-0.10
Eligible electors / Turnout			23,792	59.21	-5.53
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		+1.80
Source(s) "1997 General Election". Elections Alberta. Archived from the original on February 14, 2012. Retrieved January 26, 2012.

1993 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Murray Smith	8,520	47.88
	Liberal	Carrol Jaques	6,860	38.55
	New Democratic	Sharon Kimmel	1,785	10.03
	Greens	Mike Sawyer	531	2.98
	Natural Law	Santo Esposito	99	0.56
Total valid votes			17,795	99.74
Rejected, spoiled and declined			47	0.26
Eligible electors / Turnout			27,560	64.74
	Progressive Conservative pickup new district.
Source(s) "Calgary-Varsity results 1993 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Archived from the original on December 8, 2010. Retrieved March 15, 2010.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

Senate nominee election results

2004 Senate nominee election results: Calgary-Varsity^[3]					Turnout 54.44%
	Affiliation	Votes	% votes	% ballots	Rank
	Progressive Conservative	Bert Brown	5,387	16.92%	49.83%	1
	Progressive Conservative	Jim Silye	4,891	15.36%	45.25%	5
	Progressive Conservative	Betty Unger	4,072	12.79%	37.67%	2
	Independent	Link Byfield	3,812	11.97%	35.26%	4
	Independent	Tom Sindlinger	2,920	9.17%	27.01%	9
	Progressive Conservative	David Usherwood	2,682	8.42%	24.81%	6
	Progressive Conservative	Cliff Breitkreuz	2,536	7.96%	23.46%	3
	Alberta Alliance	Vance Gough	2,105	6.61%	19.47%	8
	Alberta Alliance	Michael Roth	1,895	5.95%	17.53%	7
	Alberta Alliance	Gary Horan	1,547	4.61%	14.31%	10
Total votes			31,847	100%
Total ballots			10,810	2.95 votes per ballot
Rejected, spoiled and declined			3,517

Voters had the option of selecting four candidates on the ballot

Student vote results

Participating schools^[4]
Banff Trail School
Brentwood Elementary
Ecole Varsity Acres School
F. E. Osborne Junior High School
H.D. Cartwright Junior High School
Jerry Potts Elementary
Sir William Van Horne High School
William Aberhart High School

On November 19, 2004, a student vote was conducted at participating Alberta schools to parallel the 2004 Alberta general election results. The vote was designed to educate students and simulate the electoral process for persons who have not yet reached the legal majority. The vote was conducted in 80 of the 83 provincial electoral districts with students voting for actual election candidates. Schools with a large student body that reside in another electoral district had the option to vote for candidates outside of the electoral district then where they were physically located.

2004 Alberta student vote results^[5]
	Affiliation	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Harry Chase	424	30.44%
	Progressive Conservative	Michael Smyth	373	26.78%
	Green	Richard Larson	282	20.24%
	NDP	Mark Gabruch	203	14.57%
	Alberta Alliance	Ronald Beniger	60	4.31%
	Social Credit	Len Skowronski	51	3.66%
Total			1,393	100%
Rejected, spoiled and declined			95

Related Research Articles

Lethbridge-West is an Alberta provincial electoral district, covering the western half of the city of Lethbridge, including all of West Lethbridge.

Calgary-Shaw is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district is one of 87 current districts mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.

Edmonton-Centre formerly styled Edmonton Centre from 1959 to 1971 was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting from 1959 to 2019.

Calgary-Buffalo is a current provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The district is one of 87 districts mandated to return a single member (MLA) to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting. Calgary-Buffalo is currently represented by NDP MLA Joe Ceci.

Sherwood Park is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada.

Calgary-Fish Creek is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district is one of 87 mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.

Calgary-Egmont was a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting from 1971 to 2012.

Calgary-Elbow is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada. Its most recent MLA was Doug Schweitzer, who won the seat in the 2019 provincial election, stepped down on August 31, 2022 and the electoral district was unrepresented until May 2023, when Samir Kayande from the NDP was elected in a general election.

Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first-past-the-post method of voting from 2004 to 2019.

Calgary-West is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada.

Calgary-North Hill was a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting from 1971 to 2012.

Calgary-North West is a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The district was created in 1979 and is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foothills-Rocky View</span> Defunct provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada

Foothills-Rocky View was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from under the first-past-the-post voting system 2004 to 2012.

Calgary-Lougheed is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. It is one of 87 districts mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first-past-the-post method of voting.

Calgary-Mountain View is a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting. The district was created in 1971 and is currently represented by Kathleen Ganley of the Alberta New Democratic Party.

Calgary-Currie is a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was created in 1971 and is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.

Calgary-Foothills is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the northwest corner of Calgary. It elected six consecutive Progressive Conservative MLAs from its creation in 1971 until ousted Premier Jim Prentice disclaimed his winning seat on the 2015 general election night, later electing a member of the Wildrose in the following by-election.

Grande Prairie-Wapiti is a provincial electoral district in northwestern Alberta, Canada. It is one of 87 mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.

Murray D. Smith is a businessman and former provincial-level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1993 until 2004 sitting with the governing Progressive Conservative caucus. During his time in office he served as a cabinet minister under the government of Ralph Klein serving various cabinet portfolios from 1994 to 2004.

Calgary-Glenmore, styled Calgary Glenmore from 1957 to 1971, is a provincial electoral district in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The district is mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

References

↑ "E‑4.1". Statutes of the Province of Alberta. Government of Alberta. 2003. p. 15.
↑ "25 - Calgary-Varsity". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta . Retrieved June 8, 2023.
↑ "Senate Nominee Election 2004 Tabulation of Official Results" (PDF). Elections Alberta. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 4, 2009. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
↑ "School by School results". Student Vote Canada. Archived from the original on October 5, 2007. Retrieved April 18, 2008.
↑ "Riding by Riding Results - the Candidates". Student Vote Canada. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved April 19, 2008.

External links

The Legislative Assembly of Alberta

51°05′N114°08′W / 51.09°N 114.14°W / 51.09; -114.14

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[2003bound-1] "E‑4.1". Statutes of the Province of Alberta. Government of Alberta. 2003. p. 15.

[2] "25 - Calgary-Varsity". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta . Retrieved June 8, 2023.

[senresults2004-3] "Senate Nominee Election 2004 Tabulation of Official Results" (PDF). Elections Alberta. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 4, 2009. Retrieved March 1, 2010.

[school-4] "School by School results". Student Vote Canada. Archived from the original on October 5, 2007. Retrieved April 18, 2008.

[stu2004-5] "Riding by Riding Results - the Candidates". Student Vote Canada. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved April 19, 2008.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

v t e Current Alberta provincial electoral districts
North	Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul Central Peace-Notley Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo Grande Prairie Grande Prairie-Wapiti Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland Lesser Slave Lake Morinville-St. Albert Peace River St. Albert West Yellowhead
Edmonton	Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview Edmonton-Castle Downs Edmonton-City Centre Edmonton-Decore Edmonton-Ellerslie Edmonton-Glenora Edmonton-Gold Bar Edmonton-Highlands-Norwood Edmonton-Manning Edmonton-McClung Edmonton-Meadows Edmonton-Mill Woods Edmonton-North West Edmonton-Riverview Edmonton-Rutherford Edmonton-South Edmonton-South West Edmonton-Strathcona Edmonton-West Henday Edmonton-Whitemud
Central	Camrose Drayton Valley-Devon Drumheller-Stettler Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville Innisfail-Sylvan Lake Lacombe-Ponoka Leduc-Beaumont Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills Red Deer-North Red Deer-South Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre Spruce Grove-Stony Plain Sherwood Park Strathcona-Sherwood Park Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright
Calgary	Calgary-Acadia Calgary-Beddington Calgary-Bhullar-McCall Calgary-Bow Calgary-Buffalo Calgary-Cross Calgary-Currie Calgary-East Calgary-Edgemont Calgary-Elbow Calgary-Falconridge Calgary-Fish Creek Calgary-Foothills Calgary-Glenmore Calgary-Hays Calgary-Klein Calgary-Lougheed Calgary-Mountain View Calgary-North Calgary-North West Calgary-North East Calgary-Peigan Calgary-Shaw Calgary-South East Calgary-Varsity Calgary-West
South	Airdrie-Cochrane Airdrie-East Banff-Kananaskis Brooks-Medicine Hat Cardston-Siksika Chestermere-Strathmore Cypress-Medicine Hat Highwood Lethbridge-East Lethbridge-West Livingstone-Macleod Taber-Warner
See also: Politics of Alberta List of Alberta general elections 2019 election