Wild Rose (electoral district)

Wild Rose

Alberta electoral district
Wild Rose in relation to other Alberta ridings
Federal electoral district
Legislature	House of Commons
MP	Blake Richards Conservative
District created	1986
First contested	1988
Last contested	2011
District webpage	profile, map
Demographics
Population (2006)	115,872
Electors (2011)	90,193
Area (km²)	27,778
Pop. density (per km²)	4.2
Census divisions	Division No. 6, Division No. 9, Division No. 15
Census subdivisions	Calgary, Rocky View County, Airdrie, Cochrane, Mountain View County, Canmore, Clearwater County, Olds, Banff, Didsbury

Wild Rose is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1988. It had been called a safe seat for the Conservative Party of Canada.

Geography

The district is in the southwest part of Alberta. Within the large riding are the cities and towns of Airdrie, Olds, Didsbury, Cochrane, Canmore, and Banff, as well as the municipal district of Bighorn, the county of Mountain View, Improvement district No.9 (Banff), parts of Clearwater and Rocky View. The Stoney First Nation is also located within the riding. The riding is bounded by British Columbia to the west, Calgary to the southeast and Red Deer to the northeast.

History

The electoral district was created in 1986 from Bow River, Red Deer and Macleod ridings.

In 2003, about 30% of this district was transferred to Crowfoot riding and about 4% of Red Deer riding was transferred to this district.

Since its creation Wild Rose has been one of the safest ridings in the country for the Conservative Party and its predecessors, which have won every election since 1993 by lopsided margins. Neither the Liberals nor the New Democrats have ever secured more than 15 percent of the vote in Wild Rose. In the 2006 election, the Green Party finished a distant second with 10.84 percent of the popular vote, which was was among the highest percentages received for the Green Party in that election. The Green Party candidate, Lisa Fox, was again the second-place finisher in the October 2008 election, finishing ahead of the Liberal, New Democratic and Libertarian candidates with 6,389 votes, but far behind the winner Richards, who won 72.9 percent of all votes cast (36,869 votes total). In 2011 Richards defeated all of his opponents combined by a nearly three-to-one margin.

List of Members of Parliament

This riding has elected the following members of the Canadian House of Commons:

Parliament	Years	Member		Party
Bow River, Red Deer and Macleod prior to 1986
34th	1988–1993		Louise Feltham	Progressive Conservative
35th	1993–1997		Myron Thompson	Reform
36th	1997–2000
	2000			Canadian Alliance
37th	2000–2003
	2003–2004			Conservative
38th	2004–2006
39th	2006–2008
40th	2008–2011		Blake Richards	Conservative
41st	2011–present

Member of Parliament

Its Member of Parliament is Blake Richards, a realtor and volunteer firefighter before becoming MP. He was first elected as a candidate of the Conservative Party in the 2008 election following the retirement of his predecessor, Myron Thompson. Richards worked for Thompson as Constituency Assistant for seven years. Richards is a member of the Commons' Standing Committees on Agriculture and Agri-Food, and Public Safety and National Defence.

Election results

Canadian federal election, 2011
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Conservative	Blake Richards	43,669	74.7	+1.8	–
	New Democratic	Jeff Horvath	6,595	11.3	+3.1	–
	Green	Michael MacDonald	4,071	7.0	-5.6	–
	Liberal	John Reilly	3,908	6.7	+1.0	–
	Christian Heritage	Randy VandenBroek	181	0.3	–	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			58,424	100.0
Total rejected ballots			128	0.2	0.0
Turnout			58,552	61.7	+6
Eligible voters			94,970	–	–

Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Conservative	Blake Richards	36,869	72.9	+0.4	$50,972
	Green	Lisa Fox	6,390	12.6	+1.8	$14,559
	New Democratic	Jeff Horvath	4,169	8.2	+0.9	$5,001
	Liberal	Jenn Turcott	2,890	5.7	-4.0	$6,555
	Libertarian	Krista Zoobkoff	246	0.5	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			50,564	100.0	$101,401
Total rejected ballots			107	0.2	0.0
Turnout			50,671	56	-9

Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Conservative	Myron Thompson	39,487	72.2	+1.6	$52,003
	Green	Sean Maw	5,929	10.8	+2.6	$8,652
	Liberal	Judy Stewart	5,331	9.7	-2.9	$8,736
	New Democratic	Shannon Nelles	3,972	7.3	-1.2	$2,057
Total valid votes			54,715	100.0
Total rejected ballots			127	0.2	0.0
Turnout			54,842	66.7	+5.2

Canadian federal election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Conservative	Myron Thompson	33,337	70.6	-12.7	$41,324
	Liberal	Judy Stewart	5,971	12.6	+1.6	$22,911
	New Democratic	Jeff Horvath	4,009	8.5	+4.4	$4,672
	Green	Chris Foote	3,904	8.3	–	$696
Total valid votes			47,221	100.0
Total rejected ballots			101	0.2	-0.1
Turnout			47,322	61.51	-1.0

Canadian federal election, 2000
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Alliance	Myron Thompson	40,193	70.4	+6.6	$38,078
	Progressive Conservative	Truper McBride	7,370	12.9	-6.1	$17,837
	Liberal	Bryan Mahoney	6,334	11.1	-1.0	$8,304
	New Democratic	Anne Wilson	2,320	4.1%	+0.5	$2,552
	Independent	Garnet T. Hammer	908	1.6	–	$72
Total valid votes			57,125	100.0
Total rejected ballots			175	0.3
Turnout			57,300	62.5	+2.0

Canadian federal election, 1997
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp	Expenditures
	Reform	Myron Thompson	28,569	63.8	+0.4	$43,013
	Progressive Conservative	Bert Dyck	8,506	19.0	+3.6	$34,928
	Liberal	Bryan Mahoney	5,428	12.1	-2.0	$9,259
	New Democratic	Anne Wilson	1,594	3.6	+1.3	$2,614
	Green	Vanessa Violini	692	1.5	+0.6	$275
Total valid votes			44,789	100.0
Total rejected ballots			88	0.2
Turnout			44,877	60.5

Canadian federal election, 1993
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±pp
	Reform	Myron Thompson	30,820	63.4	+30.0
	Progressive Conservative	Louise Feltham	7,502	15.4	-32.8
	Liberal	Roy Shellnutt	6,861	14.1	+4.0
	New Democratic	Anne Wilson	1,095	2.3	-5.5
	National	Stuart Hughes	807	1.7
	Independent	Michael Leslie	581	1.2
	Green	Scott Chisholm Lamont	457	0.9
	Independent	Dave Strang	267	0.5
	Natural Law	Dale Doram	201	0.4
Total valid votes			48,591	100.0

Canadian federal election, 1988
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Louise Feltham	20,054	48.2
	Reform	Dal Brown	13,895	33.4
	Liberal	Cathy Richards	4,209	10.1
	New Democratic	Robin Slater	3,209	7.7
	Confederation of Regions	Dennis S. Combs	209	0.5
Total valid votes			41,576	100.0

See also

• List of Canadian federal electoral districts
• Alberta federal electoral districts
• Past Canadian electoral districts

Sources

• Library of Parliament Riding Profile
• Expenditures - 2008
• Expenditures - 2004
• Expenditures - 2000
• Expenditures - 1997

External links

• Elections Canada
• Website of the Parliament of Canada