Dunvegan (electoral district)

Dunvegan was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting from 1959 to 1971, and again from 1986 to 2004.[1]

Dunvegan

Alberta electoral district
Defunct provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Alberta
District created	1959
District abolished	1971
District re-created	1986
District re-abolished	2004
First contested	1959
Last contested	2001

The seat for Dunvegan in the Leglislative Assembly 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.[2] 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).

The Dunvegan electoral district was dissolved in the 2003 electoral boundary re-distribution, and replaced by the Dunvegan-Central Peace electoral district for the 2004 Alberta general election with no changes to the district's boundaries.[3]

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
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

1959 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Joseph M. Scruggs	1,080	38.96%	–
	Progressive Conservative	Bennidict V. Griep	661	23.85%	–
	Liberal	Steven P. Tachit	648	23.38%	–
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Floyd Albin Johnson	383	13.82%	–
Total			2,772	–	–
Rejected, Spoiled and Declined			17	–	–
Eligible electors / Turnout			3,551	78.54%	–
	Social Credit pickup new district.
Source(s) Source: "Dunvegan Official Results 1959 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1960s

1963 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Ernest Leonard Lee	1,306	52.66%	13.70%
	Liberal	M.H. (Milt) Connery	849	34.23%	10.86%
	New Democratic	Roy Farran	325	13.10%	-0.72%
Total			2,480	–	–
Rejected, Spoiled and Declined			10	–	–
Eligible electors / Turnout			3,790	65.70%	–
	Social Credit hold		Swing		1.66%
Source(s) Source: "Dunvegan Official Results 1963 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. NDP swing is compared to the CCF result in 1959.

1967 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Ernest Leonard Lee	1,280	44.03%	-8.63%
	New Democratic	Phil Thompson	1,080	37.15%	24.05%
	Coalition	John A. Hammond	547	18.82%	-11.38%
Total			2,907	–	–
Rejected, Spoiled and Declined			176	–	–
Eligible electors / Turnout			10,991	28.05%	–
	Social Credit hold		Swing		-5.77%
Source(s) Source: "Dunvegan Official Results 1967 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Liberal-PC Coalition swing is compared to the Liberal result in 1963.

1980s

1986 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Glen Clegg	4,146	51.25%	21.32%
	New Democratic	Jim Gurnett	3,944	48.75%	12.06%
Total			8,090	–	–
Rejected, Spoiled and Declined			32	–	–
Eligible electors / Turnout			11,213	72.43%	–
	Progressive Conservative pickup new district.
Source(s) Source: "Dunvegan Official Results 1986 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. The 1986 swing is calculated from the 1984 by-election in Spirit River-Fairview, which had similar boundaries and which was won by Gurnett.

1989 Alberta general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Glen Clegg	4,049	56.22%	4.97%
	New Democratic	Jim Gurnett	2,603	36.14%	-12.61%
	Liberal	R. Gerald Eherer	550	7.64%	–
Total			7,202	–	–
Rejected, Spoiled and Declined			13	–	–
Eligible electors / Turnout			10,507	68.67%	–
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		8.79%
Source(s) Source: "Dunvegan Official Results 1989 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1990s

1993 Alberta general election
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			10,097	–	–
Rejected, Spoiled and Declined			35	–	–
Eligible electors / Turnout			16,275	62.25%	–
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		-8.54%
Source(s) Source: "Dunvegan Official Results 1993 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1997 Alberta general election
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			9,424	–	–
Rejected, Spoiled and Declined			14	–	–
Eligible electors / Turnout			16,061	58.76%	–
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		8.24%
Source(s) Source: "Dunvegan Official Results 1997 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

2000s

2001 Alberta general election
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%
	Alberta Independence	Ron (Earl) Miller	248	2.85%	–
	Independent	Fred Euler	208	2.39%	–
Total			8,709	–	–
Rejected, Spoiled and Declined			30	–	–
Eligible electors / Turnout			15,907	54.94%	–
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		13.05%
Source(s) Source: "Dunvegan Official Results 2001 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Ron (Earl) Miller was listed as an Independent, but represented the Independence Party of Alberta

See also

• Alberta provincial electoral districts
• Dunvegan, Alberta an unincorporated community within the Municipal District of Fairview No. 136 in northern Alberta, Canada.

References

1. "Election results for Dunvegan". abheritage.ca. Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
2. "Alberta Heritage Foundation: Constituency Map for the year of 1959". Archived from the original on 2010-12-08. Retrieved 2016-08-30.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
3. Alberta Electoral Boundaries Commission (February 2003). "Proposed Electoral Division Areas, Boundaries, and Names for Alberta. Final Report to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta". Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Retrieved May 29, 2020.

Further reading

• Office of the Chief Electoral Officer; Legislative Assembly Office (2006). A Century of Democracy: Elections of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 1905-2005. The Centennial Series. Edmonton, AB: Legislative Assembly of Alberta. ISBN 0-9689217-8-7. Retrieved 25 May 2020.

External links

• Elections Alberta
• The Legislative Assembly of Alberta