Lac La Biche-McMurray

Lac La Biche-McMurray was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada from 1971 to 1986. It was mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

It replaced the district of Lac La Biche with minimal boundary changes in 1971, and when abolished in 1986, was replaced by Athabasca-Lac La Biche and Fort McMurray. It differed from the current Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche riding in that it included the entire city of Fort McMurray.

Representation history

Members of the Legislative Assembly for Lac La Biche-McMurray

Assembly	Years	Member		Party
See Lac La Biche 1952-1971
17th	1971–1972		Damase Bouvier	Social Credit
	1972–1975			Independent
18th	1975–1979		Ron Tesolin	Progressive Conservative
19th	1979–1982		Norm Weiss
20th	1982–1986
See Fort McMurray 1986–2004 and Athabasca- Lac La Biche 1986–1993

The riding's first MLA was Dan Bouvier, newly-minted member for Lac La Biche. Elected under the Social Credit banner, he resigned from caucus a year later "in the interest of [his] constituents". He did not run again in the 1975 election.

The riding was then picked up by the governing Progressive Conservatives, with Ron Tesolin winning by a large margin over four rivals. He served only one term as MLA, but Norm Weiss held the riding for the PCs for two more terms.

Lac La Biche-McMurray was then abolished for the 1986 election and replaced with Fort McMurray, where Weiss would go on to serve two more terms, and Athabasca-Lac La Biche, which would be picked up by the New Democrats.

Electoral results

1971 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Damase Bouvier	2,679	53.37%	-3.50%
	Progressive Conservative	Elmer Roy	1,927	38.39%	+12.93%
	New Democratic	Kenneth Orchard	414	8.25%	+4.01%
Total valid votes			5,020
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			38
Electors / Turnout			8,198	61.70%
	Social Credit notional hold		Swing		-8.22%

1975 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Ron Tesolin	2,859	53.05%	+14.66%
	Independent	Mike Chandi	737	13.68%
	Liberal	Jean Davidson	703	13.05%
	Social Credit	Ken Cochrane	560	10.39%	-42.98%
	New Democratic	Ronald Morgan	530	9.83%	+1.59%
Total valid votes			5,389
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			38
Electors / Turnout			9,842	55.14%	-6.56%
	Progressive Conservative gain from Independent		Swing		+0.49%

In the late 70's, the population of Lac La Biche-McMurray inflated alongside the economic boom in the Athabasca oil sands, seen in the near-doubling of eligible electors for the 1979 election.

1979 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Norm Weiss	3,431	49.91%	-3.14%
	New Democratic	Claire Williscroft	1,777	25.85%	+16.02%
	Social Credit	Conrad Sehn	1,347	19.59%	+9.20%
	Liberal	Denise Diesel	320	4.65%	-8.40%
Total valid votes			6,875
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			31
Electors / Turnout			17,015	40.59%	-14.55%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		-9.58%

1982 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Norm Weiss	6,844	57.37%	+7.46%
	New Democratic	Dermond Travis	3,481	29.18%	+3.33%
	Western Canada Concept	Jim Williams	1,021	8.59%
	Liberal	Roland Woodward	584	4.90%	+0.25%
Total valid votes			11,930
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			133
Electors / Turnout			23,569	51.18%	+10.59%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		+2.07%