West Yellowhead

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

The district in its early history was a swing riding, changing party hands often. More recently, support has gone to electing candidates from the Progressive Conservatives, who have held the district with sizable majorities since 1997. The current representative is UCP Martin Long who was first elected in the 2019 provincial election.

Geography

West Yellowhead is a predominantly rural riding located in northwest and west-central Alberta. The landscape includes the Rocky Mountains of Jasper National Park, their foothills, and large expanses of boreal forest, some of which has been cleared for agriculture.

There are no cities in the riding. The only urban municipalities within its boundaries are three large towns: Edson, Hinton, and Whitecourt. Other population centres include Jasper, incorporated as a specialized municipality, and Grande Cache, a former town that became a hamlet in 2019.

West Yellowhead also includes the entirety of three rural municipalities (Improvement District No. 12, Improvement District No. 25, and Yellowhead County) and parts of two others (the Municipal District of Greenview No. 16 and Woodlands County).

No First Nation band governments are based in the riding. However, the riding does includes three reserves (Alexis Cardinal River Indian Reserve 234, Alexis Elk River Indian Reserve 233, and Alexis Whitecourt Indian Reserve 232) that are associated with the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, a signatory of Treaty 6. The unrecognized Aseniwuche Winewak Nation also has several settlements in the riding, in the Grande Cache area.

West Yellowhead borders seven other electoral districts: Grande Prairie-Wapiti and Central Peace-Notley to the north, Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock to the northeast, Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland and Drayton Valley-Devon to the east, and Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre and Banff-Kananaskis to the south. The riding's western boundary is the Alberta-British Columbia border.

History

The district was created in the 1986 boundary redistribution from most of the old Edson electoral district. Since it was created, the district has remained almost unchanged. The 2010 boundary redistribution did not change the riding from 2003.

Boundary history

81 West Yellowhead 2003 boundaries
Bordering districts
North	East	West	South
Grande Prairie-Smoky and Grande Prairie-Wapiti	Drayton Valley-Calmar and Whitecourt-Ste. Anne	British Columbia boundary	Rocky Mountain House
riding map goes here		File:Whereiswestyellowhead.png
Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2003, Electoral Divisions Act.
Starting at the intersection of the west boundary of the Province and the north boundary of Twp. 58; then 1. east along the north boundary to the left bank of the Smoky River; 2. downstream along the left bank to its most westerly intersection with the north boundary of Twp. 62; 3. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Rge. 25 W5; 4. south along the east boundary to the right bank of the Berland River; 5. downstream along the right bank of the Berland River to the right bank of the Athabasca River; 6. downstream along the right bank of the Athabasca River to the east boundary of Rge. 19 W5; 7. south along the east boundary to the north boundary of Twp. 58; 8. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Rge. 18 W5; 9. south along the east boundary to the north boundary of Twp. 57; 10. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Rge. 16 W5; 11. south along the east boundary to the north boundary of Twp. 47; 12. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Rge. 15 W5; 13. south along the east boundary to the north boundary of Twp. 44; 14. west along the north boundary to the east boundary of Rge. 19 W5; 15. south along the east boundary to the north boundary of Twp. 43; 16. west along the north boundary to the right bank of the Brazeau River; 17. upstream along the right bank to the Jasper National Park boundary; 18. in a generally southwesterly direction along the park boundary to the Alberta-British Columbia boundary; 19. in a generally northwesterly direction along the boundary to the starting point.
Note:

85 West Yellowhead 2010 boundaries
Bordering districts
North	East	West	South
Grande Prairie-Smoky and Grande Prairie-Wapiti	Drayton Valley-Devon and Whitecourt-Ste. Anne	British Columbia boundary	Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre
File:WestYellowhead electoral district 2010.jpg		File:WestYellowhead in Alberta.jpg
Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2010, Electoral Divisions Act.
Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2003, Electoral Divisions Act.
Note: The district remained unchanged in 2010.

Electoral history

Members of the Legislative Assembly for West Yellowhead
Assembly	Years	Member		Party
See: Edson 1913-1986
21st	1986–1989	Template:Canadian party colour|	Ian Reid	Progressive Conservative
22nd	1989–1993	Template:Canadian party colour|	Jerry Doyle	New Democrat
23rd	1993–1997	Template:Canadian party colour|	Duco Van Binsbergen	Liberal
24th	1997–2001	rowspan=5 Template:Canadian party colour|	Ivan Strang	Progressive Conservative
25th	2001–2004
26th	2004–2008
27th	2008–2012	Robin Campbell
28th	2012–2015
29th	2015–2019	Template:Canadian party colour|	Eric Rosendahl	New Democrat
30th	2019–2023	rowspan=2 Template:Canadian party colour|	Martin Long	United Conservative
31st	2023–

The electoral district was created in the 1986 general election. The first election held that year saw a tight race between incumbent Progressive Conservative MLA Ian Reid who had previously represented the Edson electoral district and New Democrat candidate Phil Oakes. Reid barely hung onto win to pick up the new district for his party.

The 1989 election would see Reid defeated by New Democrat candidate Jerry Doyle in another close race. Doyle would only last a single term in office as he was defeated by Liberal candidate Duco Van Binsbergen in the 1993 general election.

The Progressive Conservatives would regain the seat in the 1997 general election as candidate Ivan Strang defeated Van Binsbergen. Strang was re-elected in the 2001 election with a solid majority. He won a third term in the 2004 general election taking less than half the popular vote but winning a comfortable plurality over the opposition candidates which polled an evenly dived vote. He would retire from office in 2008.

Progressive Conservative Robin Campbell was elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012. Campbell lost to Eric Rosendahl of the New Democratic Party when the NDP were voted into government on May 4, 2015.

Legislative election results

2004

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2001

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1997

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1993

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1989

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1986

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Senate nominee election results

2004

2004 Senate nominee election results: West Yellowhead					Turnout 46.49%
Affiliation		Candidate	Votes	% votes	% ballots	Rank	Independent	Link Byfield	2,025	10.23%	30.13%	4	Michael Roth	1,540	7.78%	22.91%	7	Gary Horan	1,434	7.25%	21.33%	10	Vance Gough	1,415	7.15%	21.05%	8	Independent	Tom Sindlinger	1,352	6.83%	20.11%	9
Total votes			19,787	100%
Total ballots			6,722	2.94 votes per ballot
Rejected, spoiled and declined			1,510

Voters had the option of selecting four candidates on the ballot

Student vote results

2004

Participating schools
Crescent Valley School
Ecole Mountain View School
Gerard Redmond Community Catholic School
Harry Collinge High School
Holy Redeemer Catholic Jr/Sr High School
Parkland Composite High School
Pine Grove Middle School
Yellowhead Koinonia Christian 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
Affiliation		Candidate	Votes	%	NDP	Barry Madsen	448	24.86%	Liberal	Rob Jolly	341	18.92%	Monika Schaefer	149	8.27%
Total			1,802	100%
Rejected, spoiled and declined			62

2012

2012 Alberta student vote results
Affiliation		Candidate	Votes	%	NDP	Barry Madsen	57	8.73%	Liberal	Michael Martyna	49	7.50%
Total			653	100%

See also

• List of Alberta provincial electoral districts
• Canadian provincial electoral districts

External links

• Website of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta