Crowfoot (electoral district)

Template:Short description Template:Use Canadian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Canada electoral district

Crowfoot was a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that was represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1968 to 2015.

It was located in the central part of the province, and is named in honour of Chief Crowfoot, leader of the Blackfoot First Nations in the 19th century.

Even by the standards of rural Alberta, Crowfoot was a strongly conservative riding. The major right-wing party of the day — Progressive Conservative (1968–1993), Reform (1993–2000), Canadian Alliance (2000–2003), and Conservative (after 2003) — won every election in this riding, usually by some of the largest recorded margins in Canadian politics. As a measure of how conservative this riding is, Jack Horner, the riding's original member, crossed the floor to the Liberals in 1977, only to tumble to only 18 percent of the vote in 1979.

This electoral district was also home to the largest margin of victory in any federal riding in the 2004 and 2006 federal elections. Conservative candidate Kevin Sorenson won 37,649 votes, or 80.2% of the riding's total in 2004. This represented a difference of 34,034 votes, or 72.5%, from the candidate with the riding's second most votes, Liberal Adam Campbell who only received 3,615 votes, or 7.7% of the riding's votes. It was the riding with the highest Conservative vote in the 2004 and 2006 elections. In 2006, Sorenson increased his vote even further, to 43,009 votes, 82.5% of the total.

Geography

The district included the City of Camrose; the Town of Drumheller; the Municipal District of Acadia No. 34; Wheatland County; Kneehill County; Starland County; the County of Stettler No. 6; the County of Paintearth No. 18; Camrose County; and all of Alberta's three special areas (Nos. 2, 3 and 4).

History

This riding was created in 1966 from parts of Medicine Hat, Acadia, Bow River, and Macleod ridings. At the time, the riding contained the rural areas south and east of Calgary, extending as far south as Claresholm and as far east as the Saskatchewan border. It also extended into the rural area of east-central Alberta as far north as Coronation.

Redistribution in 1976 altered the riding drastically. The riding lost all of its territory south of the Red Deer River, which was transferred to ridings of Bow River and Medicine Hat. In turn, the riding moved northward, taking up most of rural east-central Alberta, adding much of what was previously in the riding of Battle River. The riding would now extend as far north as the Highway 13 corridor, including Camrose.

The 1987 redistribution added the Drumheller area to the riding, as well as the Red Deer River valley area north of Drumheller from the ridings of Red Deer and Bow River. In turn, the riding lost most of the Highway 13 corridor in the north to Vegreville except for the Camrose area.

The 1996 redistribution added the Highway 13 corridor back to the riding.

In 2003, parts of Wild Rose riding were added, including the eastern exurbs of Calgary, like Chestemere. The riding subsequently lost the Highway 21 corridor east of Red Deer to the ridings of Red Deer and Wetaskiwin, and lost the Highway 13 corridor (except for Camrose) to Vegreville—Wainwright.

It was abolished in 2012. Most of the riding's eastern portion became Battle River—Crowfoot, with much of the western portion transferring to Bow River and Red Deer—Mountain View. Some outer western portions of the riding that had been annexed into Calgary joined Calgary Shepard and Calgary Forest Lawn.

Historical boundaries