| Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo | |
| Province: | Alberta |
| Prov-Rep: | Tany Yao |
| Prov-Rep-Party: | UCP |
| Prov-Status: | active |
| Prov-Created: | 2003 |
| Prov-Election-First: | 2004 |
| Prov-Election-Last: | 2023 |
Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district is one of 87 districts mandated to return a single member (MLA) to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.
The district had in recent years been favourable to the election of Progressive Conservative candidates, a trend broken when Tany Yao won it for the Wildrose. Yao joined the United Conservative Party when the Wildrose merged with the PCs.
Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo is a largely rural riding in the northeast corner of Alberta. Municipally, the riding consists of the northern part of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo and almost all of Improvement District No. 24. The riding is home to the bulk of industrial activity relating to the Athabasca oil sands.
The major urban centre in the region, Fort McMurray, is split between this riding and Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, with the northern neighbourhood of Timberlea falling within the boundaries of Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo. Other communities in the riding include the hamlets of Fort Chipewyan, Fort Fitzgerald, and Fort McKay.
Three First Nation band governments are based in Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo: Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Fort McKay First Nation, and Mikisew Cree First Nation. Smith's Landing First Nation is based outside of the riding but has several reserves within its boundaries. All of these bands are signatories of Treaty 8.
In addition to Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche to the south, Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo also borders the riding of Lesser Slave Lake to the southwest, the riding of Peace River to the west, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the province of Saskatchewan to the east.
The electoral district was created in the 2004 electoral boundary re-distribution by merging the electoral district of Fort McMurray with a portion of Athabasca-Wabasca residing in the Municipal district of Wood Buffalo.[1]
The decade that went by since the district was created saw significant population growth due to exploration and development of the oil sands. The 2010 electoral boundary re-distribution resulted in the splitting of the district in two along north south lines creating Fort McMurray-Conklin in the eastern half.[2]
| 54 Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo 2003 boundaries[3] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bordering districts | ||||
| North | East | West | South | |
| none | none | Lesser Slave Lake, Peace River | Lac La Biche-St. Paul | |
| riding map goes here | 150px | |||
| Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2003, Electoral Divisions Act. | ||||
| Starting at the intersection of the east boundary of Rge. 10 W5 and the north boundary of the Province; then 1. east along the north boundary of the Province to the east boundary of the Province; 2. south along the east boundary of the Province to the north boundary of Twp. 73, Rge. 1 W4 (north boundary of the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range [CLAWR]); 3. west along the north boundary of the CLAWR to the east boundary of Sec. 21, Twp. 73, Rge. 9 W4; 4. north along the east boundary of Secs. 21, 28 and 33 in the Twp. and Secs. 4, 9, 16, 21, 28 and 33 in Twp. 74, Rge. 9 W4 to the north boundary of Twp. 74; 5. west along the north boundary of Twp. 74 to the east boundary of Rge. 10; 6. north along the east boundary of Rge. 10 to the north boundary of Twp. 80; 7. west along the north boundary of Twp. 80 to the east boundary of Rge. 13 W4; 8. south along the east boundary of Rge. 13 to the north boundary of Sec. 13 in the Twp.; 9. west along the north boundary of Secs. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 in the Twp. to the east boundary of Rge. 14 W4; 10. north along the east boundary of Rge. 14 to the north boundary of Twp. 80; 11. west along the Twp. to the intersection with the right bank of the Athabasca River; 12. downstream along the right bank of the Athabasca River to the intersection with the east boundary of Rge. 18 W4 in Twp. 86; 13. north along the east boundary of Rge. 18 to the north boundary of Twp. 95; 14. west along the north boundary of Twp. 95 to the east boundary of Rge. 20 W4; 15. north along the east boundary of Rge. 20 to the north boundary of Twp. 96; 16. west along the north boundary of Twp. 96 to the 5th meridian; 17. north along the 5th meridian to the north boundary of Twp. 111; 18. east along the north boundary of Twp. 111 to the east boundary of Rge. 23 W4; 19. north along the east boundary of Rge. 23 to the north boundary of Twp. 112; 20. west along the north boundary of Twp. 112 to the 5th meridian (Wood Buffalo National Park boundary); 21. north, west and north along the park boundary to the starting point. | ||||
| Note: | ||||
| 59 Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo 2010 boundaries[4] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bordering districts | ||||
| North | East | West | South | |
| Northwest Territories boundary | Fort McMurray-Conklin | Lesser Slave Lake and Peace River | Fort McMurray-Conklin | |
| Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2010, Electoral Divisions Act. | ||||
| Note: Boundary descriptions were not used in the 2010 redistribution | ||||
| Assembly | Years | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| See Athabasca-Wabasca 1993–2004, Fort McMurray, 1986–2004 and Lesser Slave Lake 1971–2004 | |||||
| 26th | 2004–2008 | Guy Boutilier | Progressive Conservative | ||
| 27th | 2008–2009 | ||||
| 2009–2010 | Independent | ||||
| 2010 | Independent Wildrose Alliance | ||||
| 2010–2011 | Wildrose Alliance | ||||
| 2011–2012 | Wildrose | ||||
| 28th | 2012–2013 | Mike Allen | Progressive Conservative | ||
| 2013–2014 | Independent | ||||
| 2014–2015 | Progressive Conservative | ||||
| 29th | 2015–2017 | Tany Yao | Wildrose | ||
| 2017–2019 | United Conservative | ||||
| 30th | 2019–2023 | ||||
| 31st | 2023– | ||||
The electoral district was created in the 2003 boundary redistribution. The first election held that year saw Fort McMurray incumbent Progressive Conservative MLA Guy Boutilier win the new seat with a landslide over four other candidates to pick it up for his party.
Boutilier was appointed as Minister of Environment by Premier Ralph Klein in 2004. In 2006 he was shuffled to Minister of International Relations. He ran for a second term as a cabinet minister in the 2008 general election. That election saw him win another big majority.
On July 18, 2009 Boutilier was ejected from caucus by Premier Ed Stelmach after speaking out against the government over a broken promise to put a seniors care facility in Fort McMurray.[5] He sat as an Independent until joining the Wildrose Alliance caucus as an Independent member on June 24, 2010. On October 25, 2010 he became a full member of the caucus.[6]
However, Boutilier was defeated in 2012 by PC Mike Allen. Allen was also ejected from PC caucus in 2013 after being caught in a prostitution sting while on an official trip to Minnesota, but was readmitted to caucus in 2014.[7]
In the 2015 election, Allen was defeated by Wildrose candidate Tany Yao. When the Wildrose and PC parties merged in 2017, Yao joined the new United Conservative Party along with the rest of the Wildrose caucus.
Yao running as a member of the United Conservative Party would once again defeat NDP candidate Stephen Drover in the 2019 general election by a healthy margin of 7,140 votes.
| 2004 Senate nominee election results Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo[8] | Turnout 26.45% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Affiliation | Candidate | Votes | % votes | % ballots | Rank | Independent | Link Byfield | 1,509 | 9.36% | 29.61% | 4 | Michael Roth | 1,338 | 8.30% | 26.25% | 7 | Independent | Tom Sindlinger | 1,233 | 7.64% | 24.19% | 9 | Gary Horan | 1,177 | 7.30% | 23.09% | 10 | Vance Gough | 1,176 | 7.28% | 23.07% | 8 | |
| Total votes | 16,131 | 100% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total ballots | 5,097 | 3.17 votes per ballot | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rejected, spoiled and declined | 1,839 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Participating schools[9] | |
|---|---|
| Beacon Hill School | |
| Dr. K.A. Clark School | |
| Father Mercredi Catholic High School | |
| Fort McMurray Christian School | |
| Fort McMurray Composite High School | |
| Timberlea Public School |
| 2004 Alberta student vote results[10] | ||||||||||||||||
| Affiliation | Candidate | Votes | % | NDP | Dave Malka | 224 | 21.35% | Independent | Reginald Normore | 199 | 18.97% | Liberal | Russell Collicott | 163 | 15.54% | |
| Total | 1,049 | 100% | ||||||||||||||
| Rejected, spoiled and declined | 40 | |||||||||||||||
| 2012 Alberta student vote results | ||||||||||||
| Affiliation | Candidate | Votes | % | Liberal | Amy McBain | % | NDP | Denise Woollard | % | |||
| Total | 100% | |||||||||||