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.
Representation history
| 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".[1] 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
| Alberta general election, 1971 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ∆%[2] | ||||
| 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% | ||||||
| Alberta general election, 1975 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
| Alberta general election, 1979 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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% | ||||||
| Alberta general election, 1982 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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% | ||||||
References
- ↑ "New House Leader for SoCreds". Montreal Gazette. Edmonton. 1973-09-17. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
- ↑ "Heritage Community Foundation: Election results for Lac La Biche". Retrieved 2016-08-24.