Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo

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Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo
Flag of Alberta.svg Alberta electoral district
Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo 2017.svg
Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo within Alberta, 2017 boundaries
Provincial electoral district
Legislature Legislative Assembly of Alberta
MLA
 
 
 
Tany Yao
United Conservative
District created2003
First contested 2004
Last contested 2023

Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo is a provincial electoral district in 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.

Contents

The district had in recent years been favourable to the election of Progressive Conservative candidates, a trend broken when Tany Yao won it for the Wildrose. Yao joined the United Conservative Party when the Wildrose merged with the PCs.

Geography

Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo is a largely rural riding in the northeast corner of Alberta. Municipally, the riding consists of the northern part of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and almost all of Improvement District No. 24. The riding is home to the bulk of industrial activity relating to the Athabasca oil sands.

The major urban centre in the region, Fort McMurray, is split between this riding and Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, with the northern neighbourhood of Timberlea falling within the boundaries of Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo. Other communities in the riding include the hamlets of Fort Chipewyan, Fort Fitzgerald, and Fort McKay.

Three First Nation band governments are based in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo: Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort McKay First Nation, and Mikisew Cree First Nation. Smith's Landing First Nation is based outside of the riding but has several reserves within its boundaries. All of these bands are signatories of Treaty 8.

In addition to Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche to the south, Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo also borders the riding of Lesser Slave Lake to the southwest, the riding of Peace River to the west, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the province of Saskatchewan to the east.

History

The electoral district was created in the 2004 electoral boundary re-distribution by merging the electoral district of Fort McMurray with a portion of Athabasca-Wabasca residing in the Municipal district of Wood Buffalo. [1]

The decade that went by since the district was created saw significant population growth due to exploration and development of the oil sands. The 2010 electoral boundary re-distribution resulted in the splitting of the district in two along north south lines creating Fort McMurray-Conklin in the eastern half. [2]

Boundary history

Representation history

Members of the Legislative Assembly for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo
AssemblyYearsMemberParty
See Athabasca-Wabasca 1993–2004, Fort McMurray, 1986–2004
and Lesser Slave Lake 1971–2004
26th 2004–2008 Guy Boutilier Progressive Conservative
27th 2008–2009
2009–2010Independent
2010Independent Wildrose Alliance
2010–2011 Wildrose Alliance
2011–2012Wildrose
28th 2012–2013 Mike Allen Progressive Conservative
2013–2014Independent
2014–2015Progressive Conservative
29th 2015–2017 Tany Yao Wildrose
2017–2019 United Conservative
30th 2019–2023
31st 2023–

The electoral district was created in the 2003 boundary redistribution. The first election held that year saw Fort McMurray incumbent Progressive Conservative MLA Guy Boutilier win the new seat with a landslide over four other candidates to pick it up for his party.

Boutilier was appointed as Minister of Environment by Premier Ralph Klein in 2004. In 2006 he was shuffled to Minister of International Relations. He ran for a second term as a cabinet minister in the 2008 general election. That election saw him win another big majority.

On July 18, 2009 Boutilier was ejected from caucus by Premier Ed Stelmach after speaking out against the government over a broken promise to put a seniors care facility in Fort McMurray. [5] He sat as an Independent until joining the Wildrose Alliance caucus as an Independent member on June 24, 2010. On October 25, 2010 he became a full member of the caucus. [6]

However, Boutilier was defeated in 2012 by PC Mike Allen. Allen was also ejected from PC caucus in 2013 after being caught in a prostitution sting while on an official trip to Minnesota, but was readmitted to caucus in 2014. [7]

In the 2015 election, Allen was defeated by Wildrose candidate Tany Yao. When the Wildrose and PC parties merged in 2017, Yao joined the new United Conservative Party along with the rest of the Wildrose caucus.

Yao running as a member of the United Conservative Party would once again defeat NDP candidate Stephen Drover in the 2019 general election by a healthy margin of 7,140 votes.

Legislative election results

2004

2004 Alberta general election
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Progressive Conservative Guy C. Boutilier 4,43363.19%
Liberal Russell W. (Russ) Collicott1,80225.69%
New Democratic Dave Malka4626.59%
Alberta Alliance Eugene Eklund2243.19%
Independent Reginald (Reg) Normore941.34%
Total7,015
Rejected, spoiled and declined12411
Eligible electors / turnout26,61826.40%
Progressive Conservative pickup new district.
Source(s)
Source: Alberta. Chief Electoral Officer (2005). Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the General Enumeration and General Election of the Twenty-sixth Legislative Assembly (Report). Edmonton: Alberta Legislative Assembly, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer. pp. 302–305.
"Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo Statement of Official Results 2004 Alberta general election" (PDF). Elections Alberta . Retrieved April 10, 2020.

2008

2008 Alberta general election
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Progressive Conservative Guy C. Boutilier 4,51963.41+0.21
Liberal Ross Jacobs1,75824.67-1.02
New Democratic Mel Kraley5507.72+1.13
Greens Reginald (Reg) Normore3004.21+2.87
Total7,12799.62
Rejected, spoiled and declined270.38-0.39
Turnout7,15419.84-6.71
Eligible electors36,054
Progressive Conservative hold Swing +0.62
Source(s)
Source: "54 - Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, 2008 Alberta general election". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta . Retrieved December 27, 2021.
The Report on the March 3, 2008 Provincial General Election of the Twenty-seventh Legislative Assembly (PDF). Elections Alberta. pp. 414–417. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

2012

2012 Alberta general election
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Progressive Conservative Mike Allen 3,60948.99%–14.42%
Wildrose Alliance Guy C. Boutilier 3,16442.95%
New Democratic Denise Woollard 3725.05%–2.67%
Liberal Amy McBain2223.01%–21.65%
Total7,367
Rejected, spoiled and declined55320
Eligible electors / turnout21,84333.98%+14.14%
Progressive Conservative hold Swing –16.35%
Source(s)
Source: "59 - Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, 2012 Alberta general election". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta . Retrieved May 21, 2020.
Chief Electoral Officer (2012). The Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the 2011 Provincial Enumeration and Monday, April 23, 2012 Provincial General Election of the Twenty-eighth Legislative Assembly (PDF) (Report). Edmonton, Alta.: Elections Alberta. pp. 352–355. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.

2015

2015 Alberta general election
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Wildrose Tany Yao 3,83540.03%-2.92%
New Democratic Stephen Drover2,91530.42%25.38%
Progressive Conservative Mike Allen 2,48625.95%-23.04%
Liberal Robin Le Fevre3453.60%0.59%
Total9,581
Rejected, spoiled and declined37345
Eligible electors / turnout22,94041.95%+7.97%
Wildrose gain from Progressive Conservative Swing 1.78%
Source(s)
Source: "59 - Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, 2015 Alberta general election". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta . Retrieved May 21, 2020.
Chief Electoral Officer (2016). 2015 General Election. A Report of the Chief Electoral Officer (PDF) (Report). Edmonton, Alta.: Elections Alberta. pp. 325–326.

2019

2019 Alberta general election
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
United Conservative Tany Yao 10,26971.06%5.00%
New Democratic Stephen Drover3,12921.65%-8.77%
Alberta Party Marcus Erlandson8045.56%
Alberta Independence Michael Keller2491.72%
Total14,451
Rejected, spoiled and declined433413
Eligible electors / turnout22,49764.48%22.54%
United Conservative hold Swing 6.93%
Source(s)
Source: "61 - Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, 2019 Alberta general election". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta . Retrieved May 21, 2020.
Alberta. Chief Electoral Officer (2019). 2019 General Election. A Report of the Chief Electoral Officer. Volume II (PDF) (Report). Vol. 2. Edmonton, Alta.: Elections Alberta. pp. 275–278. ISBN   978-1-988620-12-1 . Retrieved April 7, 2021.
Change and swing for UCP candidate is based on the combination of Wildrose and PC candidate results.

2023

2023 Alberta general election
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
United Conservative Tany Yao 6,48367.7-3.36
New Democratic Tanika Chaisson1,88419.7-1.95
Independent Funky Banjoko6256.5
Independent Zulkifl Mujahid3313.5
Alberta Party Bradley Friesen2552.7-2.86
Total10,455100
Rejected and declined860.5
Turnout9,57841.60
Eligible voters23,219
United Conservative hold Swing -1.41
Source(s)

Senate nominee election results

2004

2004 Senate nominee election results: Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo [9] Turnout 26.45%
AffiliationCandidateVotes% votes% ballotsRank
Progressive Conservative Betty Unger 2,56015.87%50.23%2
Progressive Conservative Bert Brown 2,21813.75%43.52%1
Progressive Conservative Cliff Breitkreuz 1,88211.67%36.92%3
Progressive Conservative David Usherwood1,68310.43%33.02%6
 Independent Link Byfield 1,5099.36%29.61%4
Progressive Conservative Jim Silye 1,3558.40%26.58%5
Alberta Alliance Michael Roth1,3388.30%26.25%7
 Independent Tom Sindlinger 1,2337.64%24.19%9
Alberta Alliance Gary Horan1,1777.30%23.09%10
Alberta Alliance Vance Gough1,1767.28%23.07%8
Total votes16,131100%
Total ballots5,0973.17 votes per ballot
Rejected, spoiled and declined1,839

Voters had the option of selecting four candidates on the ballot

2012

Student vote results

2004

Participating schools [10]
Beacon Hill School
Dr. K.A. Clark School
Father Mercredi Catholic High School
Fort McMurray Christian School
Fort McMurray Composite High School
Timberlea Public 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 [11]
AffiliationCandidateVotes%
Progressive Conservative Guy Boutilier 40038.13%
  NDP Dave Malka22421.35%
 IndependentReginald Normore19918.97%
  Liberal Russell Collicott16315.54%
Alberta Alliance Eugene Eklund636.01%
Total1,049100%
Rejected, spoiled and declined40

2012

2012 Alberta student vote results
AffiliationCandidateVotes%
Progressive Conservative Mike Allen%
Wildrose Guy Boutilier
  Liberal Amy McBain%
  NDP Denise Woollard%
Total100%

See also

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References

  1. Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission (February 2003). "Proposed Electoral Division Areas, Boundaries, and Names for Alberta. Final Report to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta". Legislative Assembly of Alberta . Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  2. Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission (June 2010). "Proposed Electoral Division Areas, Boundaries, and Names for Alberta. Final Report to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta" (PDF). Legislative Assembly of Alberta. ISBN   978-0-9865367-1-7 . Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  3. Electoral Divisions Act , S.A. 2003, c. E-4.1
  4. "Bill 28 Electoral Divisions Act" (PDF). Legislative Assembly of Alberta. 2010.
  5. Braid, Don (July 17, 2009). "Bold critique of Stelmach endangers Alberta Tory MLA". Calgary Herald . Archived from the original on July 18, 2009. Retrieved July 18, 2009.
  6. Bennett, Dean (June 25, 2010). "Former Alberta cabinet minister joins Wildrose Alliance". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved June 25, 2010.
  7. "Alberta MLA Mike Allen back in PC Caucus". Global News. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
  8. "61 - Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta . Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  9. "Senate Nominee Election 2004 Tabulation of Official Results" (PDF). Elections Alberta. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 4, 2009. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
  10. "School by School results". Student Vote Canada. Archived from the original on October 5, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2008.
  11. "Riding by Riding Results - the Candidates". Student Vote Canada. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved April 19, 2008.