| West Yellowhead | |
| Province: | Alberta |
| Prov-Rep: | Martin Long |
| Prov-Rep-Party: | UCP |
| Prov-Status: | active |
| Prov-Created: | 1986 |
| Prov-Election-First: | 1986 |
| Prov-Election-Last: | 2023 |
West Yellowhead is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district is one of 87 current ridings mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.
The district in its early history was a swing riding, changing party hands often. More recently, support has gone to electing candidates from the Progressive Conservatives, who have held the district with sizable majorities since 1997. The current representative is UCP Martin Long who was first elected in the 2019 provincial election.
West Yellowhead is a predominantly rural riding located in northwest and west-central Alberta. The landscape includes the Rocky Mountains of Jasper National Park, their foothills, and large expanses of boreal forest, some of which has been cleared for agriculture.
There are no cities in the riding. The only urban municipalities within its boundaries are three large towns: Edson, Hinton, and Whitecourt. Other population centres include Jasper, incorporated as a specialized municipality, and Grande Cache, a former town that became a hamlet in 2019.
West Yellowhead also includes the entirety of three rural municipalities (Improvement District No. 12, Improvement District No. 25, and Yellowhead County) and parts of two others (the Municipal District of Greenview No. 16 and Woodlands County).
No First Nation band governments are based in the riding. However, the riding does includes three reserves (Alexis Cardinal River Indian Reserve 234, Alexis Elk River Indian Reserve 233, and Alexis Whitecourt Indian Reserve 232) that are associated with the Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation, a signatory of Treaty 6. The unrecognized Aseniwuche Winewak Nation also has several settlements in the riding, in the Grande Cache area.
West Yellowhead borders seven other electoral districts: Grande Prairie-Wapiti and Central Peace-Notley to the north, Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock to the northeast, Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland and Drayton Valley-Devon to the east, and Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre and Banff-Kananaskis to the south. The riding's western boundary is the Alberta-British Columbia border.
The district was created in the 1986 boundary redistribution from most of the old Edson electoral district. Since it was created, the district has remained almost unchanged. The 2010 boundary redistribution did not change the riding from 2003.[1]
| 81 West Yellowhead 2003 boundaries[2] | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bordering districts | ||||
| North | East | West | South | |
| Grande Prairie-Smoky and Grande Prairie-Wapiti | Drayton Valley-Calmar and Whitecourt-Ste. Anne | British Columbia boundary | Rocky Mountain House | |
| riding map goes here | ||||
| Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2003, Electoral Divisions Act. | ||||
| Starting at the intersection of the west boundary of the Province and the north boundary of Twp. 58; then 1. east along the north boundary to the left bank of the Smoky River; 2. downstream along the left bank to its most westerly intersection with the north boundary of Twp. 62; 3. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Rge. 25 W5; 4. south along the east boundary to the right bank of the Berland River; 5. downstream along the right bank of the Berland River to the right bank of the Athabasca River; 6. downstream along the right bank of the Athabasca River to the east boundary of Rge. 19 W5; 7. south along the east boundary to the north boundary of Twp. 58; 8. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Rge. 18 W5; 9. south along the east boundary to the north boundary of Twp. 57; 10. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Rge. 16 W5; 11. south along the east boundary to the north boundary of Twp. 47; 12. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Rge. 15 W5; 13. south along the east boundary to the north boundary of Twp. 44; 14. west along the north boundary to the east boundary of Rge. 19 W5; 15. south along the east boundary to the north boundary of Twp. 43; 16. west along the north boundary to the right bank of the Brazeau River; 17. upstream along the right bank to the Jasper National Park boundary; 18. in a generally southwesterly direction along the park boundary to the Alberta-British Columbia boundary; 19. in a generally northwesterly direction along the boundary to the starting point. | ||||
| Note: | ||||
| 85 West Yellowhead 2010 boundaries | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bordering districts | ||||
| North | East | West | South | |
| Grande Prairie-Smoky and Grande Prairie-Wapiti | Drayton Valley-Devon and Whitecourt-Ste. Anne | British Columbia boundary | Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre | |
| Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2010, Electoral Divisions Act. | ||||
| Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2003, Electoral Divisions Act. | ||||
| Note: The district remained unchanged in 2010. | ||||
| Members of the Legislative Assembly for West Yellowhead[3] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assembly | Years | Member | Party | ||
| See: Edson 1913-1986 | |||||
| 21st | 1986–1989 | Ian Reid | Progressive Conservative | ||
| 22nd | 1989–1993 | Jerry Doyle | New Democrat | ||
| 23rd | 1993–1997 | Duco Van Binsbergen | Liberal | ||
| 24th | 1997–2001 | Ivan Strang | Progressive Conservative | ||
| 25th | 2001–2004 | ||||
| 26th | 2004–2008 | ||||
| 27th | 2008–2012 | Robin Campbell | |||
| 28th | 2012–2015 | ||||
| 29th | 2015–2019 | Eric Rosendahl | New Democrat | ||
| 30th | 2019–2023 | Martin Long | United Conservative | ||
| 31st | 2023– | ||||
The 1989 election would see Reid defeated by New Democrat candidate Jerry Doyle in another close race. Doyle would only last a single term in office as he was defeated by Liberal candidate Duco Van Binsbergen in the 1993 general election.
The Progressive Conservatives would regain the seat in the 1997 general election as candidate Ivan Strang defeated Van Binsbergen. Strang was re-elected in the 2001 election with a solid majority. He won a third term in the 2004 general election taking less than half the popular vote but winning a comfortable plurality over the opposition candidates which polled an evenly dived vote. He would retire from office in 2008.
Progressive Conservative Robin Campbell was elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012. Campbell lost to Eric Rosendahl of the New Democratic Party when the NDP were voted into government on May 4, 2015.[4]
| 2004 Senate nominee election results West Yellowhead[5] | Turnout 46.49% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Affiliation | Candidate | Votes | % votes | % ballots | Rank | Independent | Link Byfield | 2,025 | 10.23% | 30.13% | 4 | Michael Roth | 1,540 | 7.78% | 22.91% | 7 | Gary Horan | 1,434 | 7.25% | 21.33% | 10 | Vance Gough | 1,415 | 7.15% | 21.05% | 8 | Independent | Tom Sindlinger | 1,352 | 6.83% | 20.11% | 9 | |
| Total votes | 19,787 | 100% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total ballots | 6,722 | 2.94 votes per ballot | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rejected, spoiled and declined | 1,510 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Participating schools[6] | |
|---|---|
| Crescent Valley School | |
| Ecole Mountain View School | |
| Gerard Redmond Community Catholic School | |
| Harry Collinge High School | |
| Holy Redeemer Catholic Jr/Sr High School | |
| Parkland Composite High School | |
| Pine Grove Middle School | |
| Yellowhead Koinonia Christian School |
| 2004 Alberta student vote results[7] | |||||||||||||||
| Affiliation | Candidate | Votes | % | NDP | Barry Madsen | 448 | 24.86% | Liberal | Rob Jolly | 341 | 18.92% | Monika Schaefer | 149 | 8.27% | |
| Total | 1,802 | 100% | |||||||||||||
| Rejected, spoiled and declined | 62 | ||||||||||||||
| 2012 Alberta student vote results[8] | ||||||||||||
| Affiliation | Candidate | Votes | % | NDP | Barry Madsen | 57 | 8.73% | Liberal | Michael Martyna | 49 | 7.50% | |
| Total | 653 | 100% | ||||||||||