Drumheller-Stettler is a provincial electoral district (riding) in Alberta, Canada. The electoral district is 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 the 2003 boundary redistribution and came into force in 2004 from the old districts of Drumheller-Chinook and Lacombe-Stettler.

Drumheller-Stettler
Alberta electoral district
Drumheller-Stettler within Alberta, 2017 boundaries
Provincial electoral district
LegislatureLegislative Assembly of Alberta
MLA
 
 
 
Nate Horner
United Conservative
District created2003
First contested2004
Last contested2023

The district is named after the towns of Drumheller and Stettler and covers a large rural portion of central east Alberta. It also contains the towns of Cereal, Consort, Hanna, Oyen and Youngstown and Dinosaur Provincial Park.

Situated in a very conservative region even by the standards of rural central Alberta, the district and its antecedents have been strongholds of centre-right parties for decades, such as the Social Credit Party, Progressive Conservatives, Wildrose Party, and currently the United Conservative Party, giving them their best result of all ridings in the 2023 provincial election, with over 82% of the vote. Smaller right wing parties such as the Alberta Alliance and Western Canada Concept have also historically done well in this region. The current representative in the district is Nate Horner.

History

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The electoral district was created in the 2003 boundary redistribution after parts of Drumheller-Chinook and Lacombe-Stettler were merged. The 2010 redistribution saw Paintearth County transferred to this division from Battle River-Wainwright.[1]

Boundary history

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Representation history

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Members of the Legislative Assembly for Drumheller-Stettler[3]
Assembly Years Member Party
See Drumheller-Chinook 1997-2004 and Lacombe-Stettler 1993-2004
26th 2004–2007 Shirley McClellan Progressive Conservative
2007 Vacant
2007–2008 Jack Hayden Progressive Conservative
27th 2008–2012
28th 2012–2015 Rick Strankman Wildrose
29th 2015–2017
2017–2019 United Conservative
2019 Independent
30th 2019–2023 Nate Horner United Conservative
31st 2023–

The riding was created when the writ was dropped for the 2004 general election as a merger between Drumheller-Chinook and the eastern half of the Lacombe-Stettler riding. Deputy Premier Shirley McClellan, MLA for Drumheller-Chinook, defeated five other candidates to pick up the new district.

McClellan resigned her seat in the Legislature on January 15, 2007, the same day that former premier Ralph Klein resigned his seat in Calgary-Elbow. By-elections for both electoral districts were held on June 12, 2007.

The by-election saw a significant shift in support for the opposition parties with the re-emergence of the Liberal Party, which hadn't run a candidate in 2004, taking second place. The Alberta Alliance and NDP fared the worst, both retaining the same candidates from the general election, but dropping from second and third to fifth and last respectively. The Progressive Conservative candidate Jack Hayden won the district with a slightly reduced popular vote. Social Credit made surprising gains, jumping from last to third place, and Independent candidate John Rew also made a strong showing.

Hayden won his second term in the 2008 general election, winning a landslide. He was appointed to cabinet by Premier Ed Stelmach, first as Minister of Infrastructure until 2011, and then as Minister of Parks, Tourism and Recreation.

However, Hayden was narrowly defeated in the 2012 general election by Wildrose candidate Rick Strankman, famous for having gone to jail in protest of the Canadian Wheat Board.[4] He was the first opposition MLA to represent the area since Gordon E. Taylor served as MLA for Drumheller in the 1970s.

In 2014 most of the Wildrose caucus, including Opposition Leader Danielle Smith, crossed the floor to the governing Progressive Conservatives in support of Jim Prentice's government. Strankman and four other Wildrose MLA's chose to remain with the party. In the 2015 general election, Strankman was re-elected by a much greater margin, as the Progressive Conservatives went down to a stunning defeat and Wildrose increased their seat count.

Wildrose subsequently merged with the Progressive Conservatives to form the United Conservative Party under Jason Kenney. While Strankman initially joined the party in 2017, he abandoned it in 2019 to sit as an Independent after losing the party's nomination to stand as candidate in the upcoming general election.[5][6]

Legislative election results

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2004

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2004 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes %
Progressive Conservative Shirley McClellan 6,772 65.02
Alberta Alliance Dave France 1,414 13.58
New Democratic Richard Bough 869 8.34
Alberta Party Eileen Walker 616 5.92
Separation David Carnegie 465 4.47
Social Credit Mary-Lou Kloppenburg 279 2.67
Total valid votes 10,415
Rejected, spoiled, and declined 86
Eligible electors / Turnout 20,653 50.85
Progressive Conservative pickup new district.
Source(s)
"Drumheller-Stettler Statement of Official Results 2004 Alberta general election" (PDF). Elections Alberta. Retrieved March 25, 2010.

2007 by-election

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Alberta provincial by-election, June 12, 2007
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Jack Hayden 4,180 57.65 −7.37
Liberal Tom Dooley 993 13.69
Social Credit Larry Davidson 852 11.75 9.08
Independent John Rew 519 7.16
Alberta Alliance Dave France 355 4.90 −8.68
Green Jennifer Wigmore 249 3.43
New Democratic Richard Bough 103 1.42 −6.92
Total 7,251
Rejected, spoiled, and declined 13 25 3
Eligible electors / turnout 22,509 32.31
Progressive Conservative hold Swing −10.53
Source(s)
Alberta. Chief Electoral Officer (2007). Report on the June 12, 2007 By-elections: Calgary-Elbow & Drumheller-Stettler (Report). Edmonton: Legislative Assembly of Alberta; Chief Electoral Officer. Retrieved April 20, 2021.

2008

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2008 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Jack Hayden 6,986 68.90% 11.25%
Liberal Tom Dooley 1,463 14.43% 0.73%
Wildrose Alliance Dave France 1,062 10.47% 5.57%
Green Amanda Bolton 353 3.48% 0.05%
New Democratic Richard Bough 276 2.72% 1.30%
Total 10,140
Rejected, spoiled, and declined 27 7 1
Eligible electors / turnout 23,268 43.73%
Progressive Conservative hold Swing 5.99%
Source(s)
Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (2008). The Report on the March 3, 2008 Provincial General Election of the Twenty-Seventh Legislative Assembly. Edmonton: Alberta Legislative Assembly. pp. 402–407. ISSN 1483-1171. Retrieved November 11, 2020.

2012

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2012 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Wildrose Rick Strankman 7,452 49.38 +38.91
Progressive Conservative Jack Hayden 6,587 43.65 -25.25
New Democratic Aditya "Adi" Rao 408 2.70 -0.02
Liberal Cam Roset 362 2.40 -12.03
Alberta Party Andrew Berdahl 281 1.86
Total valid votes 15,090
Rejected, spoiled, and declined 49 57 2
Registered electors / turnout 24,788 61.31 +17.58
Wildrose gain from Progressive Conservative Swing +32.08

2015

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2015 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Wildrose Rick Strankman 7,570 47.66 -1.72
Progressive Conservative Jack Hayden 5,388 33.92 -9.73
New Democratic Emily Shannon 2,927 18.43 +15.73
Total valid votes 15,885
Rejected, spoiled, and declined 30 19 12
Eligible electors / Turnout 26,861 59.36 -1.95
Wildrose hold Swing +4.01
Source(s)
Elections Alberta. "Electoral division results: Drumheller-Stettler". Retrieved July 16, 2018.

2019

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2019 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
United Conservative Nate Horner 16,958 76.69% -4.89%
Independent Rick Strankman 1,841 8.33%
Alberta Party Mark Nikota 1,461 6.61%
New Democratic Holly Heffernan 1,446 6.54% -11.89%
Alberta Independence Jason Hushagen 230 1.04%
Alberta Advantage Greg Herzog 176 0.80%
Total 22,112
Rejected, spoiled and declined 62 51 4
Eligible electors / turnout 29,679 74.73% 15.43%
United Conservative hold Swing 27.31%
Source(s)
Source: "59 - Drumheller-Stettler, 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. 262–268. ISBN 978-1-988620-12-1. Retrieved April 7, 2021.

2023

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2023 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
United Conservative Nate Horner 15,270 82.14 +5.45
New Democratic Juliet Franklin 2,684 14.44 +7.90
Alberta Independence Shannon Packham 382 2.05 +1.01
Wildrose Loyalty Coalition Hannah Stretch Viens 150 0.81
Solidarity Movement Carla Evers 104 0.56
Total 18,590 99.45
Rejected and declined 103 0.55
Turnout 18,693 60.59
Eligible voters 30,850
United Conservative hold Swing -1.22
Source(s)

Senate nominee election results

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2004

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2004 Senate nominee election results: Drumheller-Stettler[8] Turnout 50.52%
Affiliation Candidate Votes % votes % ballots Rank
Progressive Conservative Bert Brown 4,705 17.12% 53.89% 1
Progressive Conservative Betty Unger 3,888 14.15% 44.53% 2
Progressive Conservative Cliff Breitkreuz 2,873 10.46% 32.91% 3
Progressive Conservative Jim Silye 2,840 10.34% 32.53% 5
  Independent Link Byfield 2,826 10.28% 32.37% 4
Progressive Conservative David Usherwood 2,798 10.18% 32.05% 6
Alberta Alliance Vance Gough 2,208 8.04% 25.29% 8
Alberta Alliance Michael Roth 2,153 7.84% 24.66% 7
Alberta Alliance Gary Horan 1,923 6.99% 22.03% 10
  Independent Tom Sindlinger 1,265 4.60% 14.49% 9
Total votes 27,479 100%
Total ballots 8,731 3.15 votes per ballot
Rejected, spoiled and declined 1,703

Voters had the option of selecting four candidates on the ballot


Student vote results

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2004

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Participating schools[9]
Byemoor School
C. J. Peacock School
Delia School
Jenner Colony School
New Brigden School
South Central High School
Stettler Middle School
Veteran School
William E. Hay Composite School
Youngstown 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[10]
Affiliation Candidate Votes %
Progressive Conservative Shirley McClellan 519 55.63%
  NDP Richard Bough 110 11.79%
Alberta Alliance Dave France 91 9.75%
Separation David Carnegie 86 9.22%
Alberta Party Eileen Walker 83 8.90%
  Social Credit Mary-Lou Kloppenburg 44 4.71%
Total 933 100%
Rejected, spoiled and declined 36

2012

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2012 Alberta student vote results
Affiliation Candidate Votes %
Progressive Conservative Jack Hayden %
Wildrose Rick Strankman
  Liberal Cam Roset %
Alberta Party Andrew Berdahl
  NDP Aditya "Adi" Rao %
Total 100%

References

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  1. ^ "Proposed Electoral Division Areas, Boundaries, and Names for Alberta" (PDF). Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission. June 2010. p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
  2. ^ "E‑4.1". Statutes of the Province of Alberta. Government of Alberta. 2003. pp. 37–39.
  3. ^ "Members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta 1905-2006" (PDF). Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 30, 2007. Retrieved February 27, 2010.
  4. ^ McKay, Hannah (August 8, 2012). "Strankman 'overwhelmed' as grain farmers gain open market". Stettler Independent. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
  5. ^ Bell, David (January 15, 2019). "MLA quits UCP over 'hyper-partisan, self-centred' politics | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
  6. ^ Rieger, Sarah (September 30, 2019). "Incumbent MLA who once compared carbon tax to Ukrainian genocide loses UCP nomination vote | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
  7. ^ "59 - Drumheller-Stettler". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  8. ^ "Senate Nominee Election 2004 Tabulation of Official Results" (PDF). Elections Alberta. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 4, 2009. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
  9. ^ "School by School results". Student Vote Canada. Archived from the original on February 13, 2012. Retrieved April 27, 2008.
  10. ^ "Riding by Riding Results - the Candidates". Student Vote Canada. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved April 19, 2008.
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