Province Alberta | ||
Bonnyville was a provincial electoral district in north east Alberta, Canada. It elected members to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from its creation in 1952 until 1997 when the riding was renamed Bonnyville-Cold Lake, to more accurately reflect the two largest population centres in the constituency. It was created in 1952 from the northern part of the St. Paul electoral district.
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Representation history
The new district was won by former United Farmers MLA for St. Paul, Laudas Joly, running as a Social Credit candidate. Upon his retirement in 1955, the riding would be won by Jake Josvanger, as part of the Liberal Party's brief revival under James Harper Prowse.
Social Credit would re-take Bonnyville in 1959, but new MLA Karl Nordstrom died in office in 1961, triggering a by-election later that year. Social Credit candidate Romeo Lamothe would retain the seat, and go on to serve two full terms after that.
In Peter Lougheed's 1971 victory for the Progressive Conservatives, candidate Donald Hansen would capture Bonnyville for the new government, and serve two terms as MLA. Upon his retirement in 1979, Ernie Isley would retain the seat for the PCs and serve four terms as MLA, holding several cabinet positions under Lougheed and Don Getty.
When Ralph Klein became premier in 1992, Isley remained minister of Agriculture, but then lost his seat in the 1993 election to Liberal Leo Vasseur.
The riding was then replaced by Bonnyville-Cold Lake for the 1997 election, in which PC candidate Denis Ducharme would defeat Vasseur and re-gain the seat.
1950's
The 1952 and 1955 elections were done by instant-runoff voting, although a second round was not needed in the district for either.
Alberta switched back to traditional first past the post elections in 1959, which can be seen in the dramatic drop in spoiled (incorrectly marked) ballots compared to previous elections.
1957 liquor plebiscite
On October 30, 1957 a stand-alone plebiscite was held province wide in all 50 of the then current provincial electoral districts in Alberta. The government decided to consult Alberta voters to decide on liquor sales and mixed drinking after a divisive debate in the Legislature. The plebiscite was intended to deal with the growing demand for reforming antiquated liquor control laws.
The plebiscite was conducted in two parts. Question A asked in all districts, asked the voters if the sale of liquor should be expanded in Alberta, while Question B asked in a handful of districts within the corporate limits of Calgary and Edmonton asked if men and woman were allowed to drink together in establishments.
Province wide Question A of the plebiscite passed in 33 of the 50 districts while Question B passed in all five districts. Bonnyville voted in favour of the proposal by an overwhelming majority. The district recorded a poor voter turnout, falling well below the province wide average of 46%.
Official district returns were released to the public on December 31, 1957. The Social Credit government in power at the time did not considered the results binding. However the results of the vote led the government to repeal all existing liquor legislation and introduce an entirely new Liquor Act.
Municipal districts lying inside electoral districts that voted against the Plebiscite were designated Local Option Zones by the Alberta Liquor Control Board and considered effective dry zones, business owners that wanted a license had to petition for a binding municipal plebiscite in order to be granted a license.