Dunvegan (electoral district)

Dunvegan was a provincial electoral district in Northwestern Alberta that existed twice: from 1959 until 1971, and again from 1986 until 2004. It was mandated to elect a single Member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, and it was held by the governing party for every year it existed. The riding was named for the small community of Dunvegan, once home to a fur trade post, and now the site of a provincial park and historic site.

History

Boundary history

The first riding named Dunvegan was created out of the western half of Peace River in 1959. It was bounded on the south by the Peace River and extended north to the Northwest Territories border, containing the entire northwest corner of Alberta.^[1] When it was abolished in 1971, the north section of the riding was transferred back to Peace River, and the southern two-thirds of the riding, along with the northern half of Spirit River, became Spirit River-Fairview.

In 1986 Dunvegan was re-created, replacing all of Spirit River-Fairview and a small part of Smoky River. In 1993 it absorbed another part of Smoky River (including the community of Falher) as well as a small part of Peace River (including Grimshaw). It was replaced by Dunvegan-Central Peace in 2004 with no boundary changes.

Representation history

Members of the Legislative Assembly for Dunvegan
Assembly	Years	Member		Party
See Peace River 1905 - 1959
14th	1959 - 1963		Joseph Scruggs	Social Credit
15th	1963 - 1967	Ernest Lee
16th	1967 - 1971	Ernest Lee
See Spirit River-Fairview 1971 - 1986
22nd	1986 - 1989		Glen Clegg	Progressive Conservative
23rd	1989 - 1993
24th	1993 - 1997
25th	1997 - 2001
26th	2001 - 2004	Hector Goudreau
See Dunvegan-Central Peace 2004 - 2012

The first MLA for Dunvegan was Joseph Scruggs, who narrowly picked the riding up for the governing Social Credit. He did not run for re-election in 1963, but Ernest Lee held the riding for the government for two more terms.

The riding was then replaced by Spirit River-Fairview, which was picked up by New Democrat leader Grant Notley, who held that riding almost until it was replaced by Dunvegan in 1986.

In that election, the governing Progressive Conservatives would win the riding for the first time, despite an NDP surge elsewhere in the province. MLA Glen Clegg represented the area for five terms, retiring in 2001.

PC candidate Hector Goudreau would hold the riding for the government in its final term, and went on to represent Dunvegan-Central Peace for both terms it existed, as well as Dunvegan-Central Peace-Notley until 2015.

Election results

1950s

Alberta general election, 1959
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Social Credit	Joseph Scruggs	1,080	38.96%
	Progressive Conservative	Bennidict Griep	661	23.85%
	Liberal	Steven Tachit	648	23.38%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Floyd Johnson	383	13.82%
Total valid votes^[2]			2,772
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			17
Electors / Turnout			3,551	78.54%
	Social Credit pickup new district.

1960s

Alberta general election, 1963
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Social Credit	Ernest Leonard Lee	1,306	52.66%	+13.70%
	Liberal	Milt Connery	849	34.23%	+10.85%
	New Democratic	Roy Mitchell	325	13.10%	-0.72%
Total valid votes			2,480
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			10
Electors / Turnout			3,790	65.70%	-12.84%
	Social Credit hold		Swing		+1.43%

NDP swing is compared to the CCF result in 1959.

Alberta general election, 1967
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Social Credit	Ernest Leonard Lee	1,280	41.84%	-10.82%
	New Democratic	Phil Thompson	1,080	35.31%	+22.21%
	Coalition	John Hammond	699	22.85%	-11.38%
Total valid votes			3,059
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			24
Electors / Turnout			4,595	67.09%	+1.39%
	Social Credit hold		Swing		-16.52%

Liberal-PC Coalition swing is compared to the Liberal result in 1963.

1980s

Alberta general election, 1986
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Progressive Conservative	Glen Clegg	4,146	51.25%	+21.32%
	New Democratic	Jim Gurnett	3,944	48.75%	+12.06%
Total valid votes			8,090
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			32
Electors / Turnout			11,213	72.43%	+7.47%
	Progressive Conservative notional gain from New Democratic		Swing		+4.63%

The 1986 swing is calculated from the 1984 by-election in Spirit River-Fairview, which had similar boundaries and which was won by Gurnett.

Alberta general election, 1989
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Progressive Conservative	Glen Clegg	4,049	56.22%	+4.97%
	New Democratic	Jim Gurnett	2,603	36.14%	-12.61%
	Liberal	Gerald Eherer	550	7.64%
Total valid votes			7,202
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			13
Electors / Turnout			10,507	68.67%	-3.76%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		+8.79%

1990s

Alberta general election, 1986
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Progressive Conservative	Glen Clegg	4,650	46.05%	-10.17%
	Liberal	Hartmann Nagel	4,347	43.05%	+35.41%
	New Democratic	Sheila Maxwell-Marks	1,100	10.89%	-25.25%
Total valid votes			10,097
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			35
Electors / Turnout			16,275	62.25%	-6.42%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		-22.79%

Alberta general election, 1986
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Progressive Conservative	Glen Clegg	5,149	54.64%	+8.59%
	Liberal	Fred Trotter	3,314	35.17%	-7.88%
	New Democratic	Marg McCuaig-Boyd	961	10.20%	-0.69%
Total valid votes			9,424
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			14
Electors / Turnout			16,061	58.76%	-3.49%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		+8.24%

2000s

Alberta general election, 1986
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Progressive Conservative	Hector Goudreau	5,857	67.25%	+12.61%
	Liberal	Bruce Rutley	1,888	21.68%	-13.49%
	New Democratic	Yvonne Sinkevich	508	5.83%	-4.37%
	Independent	Ron Miller	248	2.85%
	Independent	Fred Euler	208	2.39%
Total valid votes			8,709
Rejected, spoiled, and declined			30
Electors / Turnout			15,907	54.94%	-3.82%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		+13.05%

References

↑ "Alberta Heritage Foundation: Constituency Map for the year of 1959". Retrieved 2016-08-30.
↑ "Alberta Heritage Foundation: Dunvegan Results". Retrieved 2016-08-30.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.