MLA Tany Yao
Wildrose First contested 2004 | District created 2003 Last contested 2015 | |
 | ||
Legislature Legislative Assembly of Alberta | ||
Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo is a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. The district is one of current districts 87 mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.
Contents
The district was created in the 2004 boundary redistribution and is the largest current district in terms of both land mass and population, this district includes most of the North East Alberta and borders Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories The main communities are Fort McMurray, and Fort Chipewyan in the north, along the north shore of Lake Athabasca. The district also includes the gigantic Wood Buffalo National Park. This district is home to the oil sands that play a major contribution towards the Alberta economy and contribute 2% of Canada's GDP.
The district had in recent years been favourable to the election of Progressive Conservative candidates, a trend broken by the 2015 election of Wildrose MLA Tany Yao.
History
The electoral district was created in the 2003 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.
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 Alberta boundaries commission decided to split the district in two along north south lines creating Fort McMurray-Conklin in the eastern half.
Representation history
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. 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.
2004 Senate nominee election district results
Voters had the option of selecting 4 Candidates on the Ballot
2004 election
On November 19, 2004 a Student Vote was conducted at participating Alberta schools to parallel the 2004 Alberta general election results. The vote was designed to educate students and simulate the electoral process for persons who have not yet reached the legal majority. The vote was conducted in 80 of the 83 provincial electoral districts with students voting for actual election candidates. Schools with a large student body that reside in another electoral district had the option to vote for candidates outside of the electoral district then where they were physically located.