Grande Prairie-Wapiti is a provincial electoral district in northwestern Alberta, Canada. It is one of 87 mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.

Grande Prairie-Wapiti
Alberta electoral district
Grande Prairie-Wapiti within Alberta, 2017 boundaries
Provincial electoral district
LegislatureLegislative Assembly of Alberta
MLA
 
 
 
Ron Wiebe
United Conservative
District created1993
First contested1993
Last contested2023

The electoral district was created in the 1993 boundary redistribution from the old Grande Prairie electoral district and significantly modified in the 2017 redistribution.

The district and its antecedent have been a stronghold for conservative candidates in recent decades. The representative for this district is United Conservative Ron Wiebe.[1] Prior to 2023 the district was represented by Travis Toews who won election for the first time in 2017. To date there have been five representatives who have held the district.

The riding takes its name from the City of Grande Prairie and the Wapiti River.

Geography

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While a predominantly rural riding, Grande Prairie-Wapiti includes a few neighbourhoods on the east side of the City of Grande Prairie (including Cobblestone, Countryside, Crystal Heights, Crystal Landing, Hillside, Ivy Lake, and Smith). Four small towns are also located in the riding - Beaverlodge, Hythe, Sexsmith, and Wembley. The bulk of the riding's area is made up of rural municipalities, including almost all of the County of Grande Prairie No. 1 and a portion of the Municipal District of Greenview No. 16.

The riding's Indigenous community includes the Horse Lake First Nation and the Wanyandie Flats East settlement of the unrecognized Aseniwuche Winewak Nation.

Grande Prairie-Wapiti surrounds the riding of Grande Prairie and borders Central Peace-Notley to the north and east and West Yellowhead to the south. The riding's western boundary is the Alberta-British Columbia border.

History

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The electoral district was created in the 1993 boundary redistribution from the old Grande Prairie electoral district. It remained mostly unchanged in the 1997 and 2003 re-distributions. The Boundaries Commission proposed to abolish the district to create a completely urban Grande Prairie district but it changed its decision under public pressure. The 2010 distribution made minor changes to the border with Grande Prairie-Smoky in the city of Grande Prairie but stayed the same in the rural areas.[2]

Boundary history

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Electoral history

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Members of the Legislative Assembly for Grande Prairie-Wapiti
Assembly Years Member Party
See Grande Prairie 1930-1993
23rd 1993–1997 Wayne Jacques Progressive
Conservative
24th 1997–2001
25th 2001–2004 Gordon Graydon
26th 2004–2008
27th 2008–2012 Wayne Drysdale
28th 2012-2015
29th 2015–2017
2017–2019 United
Conservative
30th 2019–2023 Travis Toews
31st 2023–present Ron Wiebe

The electoral district was created in the 1993 boundary redistribution from the old Grande Prairie district. The first representative elected in 1993 was Progressive Conservative candidate Wayne Jaques. He won a hotly contested race over Liberal candidate Dwight Logan to pick up the new district for his party. Jaques was re-elected in the 1997 election with a much larger margin. He retired from provincial politics in 2001.

The second representative was Progressive Conservative was Gordon Graydon who won his first term in office in 2001 with a landslide over a field of five other candidates. He won a second term in the 2004 general election winning over half the popular vote. After the 2004 election Premier Ralph Klein appointed Graydon Minister of Gaming. He held that post until 2006. Graydon retired from provincial politics in 2008.

The third representative is current Progressive Conservative MLA is Wayne Drysdale who was elected in the 2008 election for the first time.

Legislative election results

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1993

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1993 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes %
Progressive Conservative Wayne Jacques 4,457 48.03%
Liberal Dwight Logan 3,942 42.48%
New Democratic Trish Wright 880 9.49%
Total 9,279 100.00%
Rejected, spoiled and declined 28
Eligible electors / Turnout 16,272 57.20%
Progressive Conservative pickup new district.
Source(s)
"Grande Prairie-Wapiti results 1993 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved March 28, 2010.

1997

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1997 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Wayne Jacques 5,592 63.24% +15.21%
Liberal Ray Stitsen 2,003 22.65% -19.83%
New Democratic Campbell Ross 1,247 14.10% +4.61%
Total 8,842 100.00%
Rejected, spoiled and declined 23
Eligible electors / Turnout 18,901 46.90% -10.30%
Progressive Conservative hold Swing +17.52%
Source(s)
"1997 General Election". Elections Alberta. Archived from the original on February 14, 2012. Retrieved January 26, 2012.

2001

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2001 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Gordon Graydon 5,674 65.50% +2.26%
Liberal Ray Stitsen 1,489 17.19% -5.46%
New Democratic Elroy Deimert 819 9.46% -4.64%
Social Credit Ivo Noga 432 4.99%
Independent Robert Weberg 112 1.29%
Total 8,662 100.00%
Rejected, spoiled and declined 22
Eligible electors / Turnout 19,730 44.01% -2.89
Progressive Conservative hold Swing +3.86%
Source(s)
"Grande Prairie-Wapiti Official Results 2001 Alberta general election" (PDF). Elections Alberta. Retrieved March 27, 2010.

2004

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2004 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Gordon Graydon 4,346 55.07% -10.43%
Liberal Cibylla Rakestraw 1,681 21.30% +4.11%
New Democratic Jerry MacDonald 971 12.30% +2.84%
Alberta Alliance John Hilton-O'Brien 546 6.92%
Greens Allan Webber 348 4.41%
Total 7,892 100.00%
Rejected, spoiled, and declined 34
Eligible electors / Turnout 21,683 36.58%
Progressive Conservative hold Swing -7.27%
Source(s)

2008

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2008 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Wayne Drysdale 5,145 66.70% +11.63%
Liberal Augustine Ebinu 1,304 16.90% -4.40%
New Democratic Manuela Campbell 829 10.75% -1.55%
Greens Allan Webber 436 5.65% +1.24%
Total 7,714 100.00%
Rejected, spoiled and declined 74
Eligible electors / turnout 29,053 26.81% -9.77%
Progressive Conservative hold Swing +8.02%
Source(s)
The Report on the March 3, 2008 Provincial General Election of the Twenty-seventh Legislative Assembly. Elections Alberta. July 28, 2008. pp. 430–433.

2012

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2012 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Wayne Drysdale 6,712 51.63% -15.07%
Wildrose Ethane Jarvis 4,509 34.68%
New Democratic Paula Anderson 1,209 9.30% -1.38%
Liberal Alya Nazarali 365 2.81% -14.09%
Independent Anthony Barendregt 204 1.57%
Total valid votes 12,999 100.00%
Rejected, spoiled, and declined 96
Eligible electors / Turnout 30,764 42.57% +15.76%
Progressive Conservative hold Swing -24.89%

2015

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2015 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Progressive Conservative Wayne Drysdale 6,229 35.57 -16.06
New Democratic Mary Dahr 5,062 28.90 +19.60
Wildrose Laila Goodridge 4,175 23.84 -10.84
Alberta Party Rory Tarant 2,048 11.69
Total 17,514 100.00
Rejected, spoiled, and declined 77
Eligible electors / turnout 37,445 46.98 +4.41
Progressive Conservative hold Swing -17.55
2015 Alberta general election redistributed results
Party Votes %
Progressive Conservative 6,012 37.20
Wildrose 4,669 28.89
New Democratic 4,310 26.67
Alberta Party 847 5.24
Liberal 324 2.00
Source(s)
Source: Ridingbuilder

2019

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2019 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
United Conservative Travis Toews 17,772 74.85 +8.76
New Democratic Shannon Dunfield 3,523 14.84 -11.83
Alberta Party Jason Jones 2,227 9.38 +4.14
Independent Terry Dueck 222 0.93
Total 23,744 99.19
Rejected, spoiled and declined 193 0.81
Turnout 23,937 70.94
Eligible electors 33,741
United Conservative notional hold Swing +10.30
Source(s)
Source: "64 - Grande Prairie-Wapiti, 2019 Alberta general election". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

2023

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2023 Alberta general election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
United Conservative Ron Wiebe 15,093 76.22 +1.38
New Democratic Dustin Archibald 4,063 20.52 +5.68
Alberta Independence Brooklyn Biegel 645 3.26
Total 19,801 99.66
Rejected and declined 68 0.34
Turnout 19,869 54.52
Eligible voters 36,444
United Conservative hold Swing -2.15
Source(s)

Senate nominee election results

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2004

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2004 Senate nominee election results: Grande Prairie-Wapiti[5] Turnout 43.52%
Affiliation Candidate Votes % votes % ballots Rank
Progressive Conservative Cliff Breitkreuz 3,122 16.26% 50.36% 3
Progressive Conservative Betty Unger 2,750 14.32% 44.36% 2
Progressive Conservative Bert Brown 2,488 12.96% 40.13% 1
  Independent Link Byfield 2,127 11.08% 34.31% 4
Progressive Conservative David Usherwood 1,727 9.00% 27.86% 6
Progressive Conservative Jim Silye 1,525 7.94% 24.60% 5
Alberta Alliance Michael Roth 1,476 7.69% 23.81% 7
Alberta Alliance Vance Gough 1,346 7.01% 21.71% 8
  Independent Tom Sindlinger 1,331 6.93% 21.47% 9
Alberta Alliance Gary Horan 1,306 6.81% 21.07% 10
Total votes 19,198 100%
Total ballots 6,200 3.10 votes per ballot
Rejected, spoiled and declined 1,619

Voters had the option of selecting four candidates on the ballot

2012

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Student vote results

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2004

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Participating schools[6]
Beaverlodge Elementary School
Helleny Taylor School
Kateri Mission Catholic School
Saint Joseph Catholic High School
St. Gerrard School

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.

2004 Alberta student vote results[7]
Affiliation Candidate Votes %
Progressive Conservative Gordon Graydon 458 43.25%
Green Allan Webber 193 18.22%
  NDP Jerry MacDonald 190 17.94%
  Liberal Cibylla Rakestraw 182 17.19%
Alberta Alliance John Hilton-O'Brien 36 3.40%
Total 1,059 100%
Rejected, Spoiled and Declined 36

2012

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2012 Alberta student vote results
Affiliation Candidate Votes %
Progressive Conservative Wayne Drysdale %
Wildrose Ethane Jarvis
  Liberal %
  NDP Paula Anderson %
Total 100%

References

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  1. ^ "Alberta election 2023 results: Grande Prairie-Wapiti | Globalnews.ca". Global News. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  2. ^ "Proposed Electoral Division Areas, Boundaries, and Names for Alberta" (PDF). Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission. June 2010. p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 27, 2011. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
  3. ^ "E‑4.1". Statutes of the Province of Alberta. Government of Alberta. 2003. pp. 45–46.
  4. ^ "64 - Grande Prairie-Wapiti". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
  5. ^ "Senate Nominee Election 2004 Tabulation of Official Results" (PDF). Elections Alberta. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 4, 2009. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
  6. ^ "School by School results". Student Vote Canada. Archived from the original on October 5, 2007. Retrieved April 27, 2008.
  7. ^ "Riding by Riding Results - the Candidates". Student Vote Canada. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved April 19, 2008.