Peace River North

Peace River North is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. It was created under the name North Peace River by the Constitution Amendment Act, 1955, which split the old riding of Peace River into northern and southern portions for the 1956 B.C. election. Its current name has been in use since 1991.

Peace River North (1991–)
North Peace River (1956–1991)

British Columbia electoral district
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of British Columbia
MLA	Dan Davies Liberal
District created	1955
First contested	1956

Peace River North has been represented by a variety of British Columbia Political parties over the years. The riding has consistently elected political parties that come from the right side of the political spectrum. For many years the riding was represented by the BC Social Credit Party. Currently, the riding is represented by the centre-right BC Liberal Party. The left of centre New Democratic party has never been successful in electing a candidate to the BC Legislature, despite fielding numerous candidates since the 1950s.

Demographics

Population, 2001	32,353
Population change, 1996–2001	4.3%
Area (km²)	160,485
Population density (people per km²)	0.20

Geography

As of the 2017 provincial election, Peace River North comprises the entire area of the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and the northern portion of the Peace River Regional District, located in northeastern British Columbia. The electoral district is bordered by Alberta in the east and the Yukon and Northwest Territories to the north. Communities in the electoral district consist of Fort St. John, Fort Nelson, Taylor and Hudson's Hope.[1]

History

Member of Legislative Assembly

This riding has elected the following Members of the Legislative Assembly:

History

Assembly	Years	Member		Party
Peace River prior to 1956
25th	1956–1960		Harold Earl Roche	Social Credit
26th	1960–1963		Jacob Francis Huhn
28th	1963–1966
28th	1966–1969		Ed Smith
29th	1969–1972
30th	1972–1975
31st	1975–1979
32nd	1979–1983		Tony Brummet
33rd	1983–1986
34th	1986–1991
35th	1991–1994		Richard Neufeld
	1994–1996			Reform
36th	1996–1997
	1997–2001			Liberal
37th	2001–2005
38th	2005–2009
39th	2009–2011		Pat Pimm
	2011			Independent
	2011–2013			Liberal
40th	2013–2016
	2016–2017			Independent
41st	2017–present		Dan Davies	Liberal

Election results

Peace River North, 1991–present

2017 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Dan Davies	9,707	66.27	$53,883
	Independent	Bob Fedderly	2,785	19.01	$31,928
	New Democratic	Robert Dempsey	962	6.57	$1,739
	Independent	Rob Fraser	917	6.27	$25,354
	Independent	Jeff Richert	275	1.88	$1,064
Total valid votes			14,646	100.00
Total rejected ballots			65	0.44
Turnout			14,711	56.74
Source: Elections BC[2]

2013 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Pat Pimm	7,905	58.94	+15.79	$115,737
	Independent	Arthur Austin Hadland	3,287	24.51	–6.82	$40,752
	New Democratic	Judy Ann Fox-McGuire	1,319	9.84	–4.14	$36,341
	Conservative	Wyeth Sigurdson	900	6.71	–	$882
Total valid votes			13,411	100.00
Total rejected ballots			44	0.33
Turnout			13,455	51.47
	Liberal hold		Swing		+11.30
Source: Elections BC[3]

2009 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Pat Pimm	3,992	43.15	–16.22	$55,563
	Independent	Arthur Hadland	2,899	31.33	–	$17,962
	New Democratic	Jackie Allen	1,293	13.98	–13.14	$17,855
	Green	Liz Logan	1,010	10.92	+4.03	$26,218
	Refederation	Sue Arntson	58	0.63	–	$260
Total valid votes			9,252	100.0
Total rejected ballots			52	0.6
Turnout			9,304	40
	Liberal hold		Swing		–23.78

2005 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Richard Neufeld	5,498	59.37	–13.85	$97,647
	New Democratic	Brian Churchill	2,511	27.12	+15.56	$21,975
	Green	Clarence G. Apsassin	638	6.89	–	$200
	Independent	Leonard Joseph Seigo	613	6.62	–	$3,829
Total valid votes			9,260	100.0
Total rejected ballots			61	0.66
Turnout			9,321	47.4
	Liberal hold		Swing		–14.70

2001 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Richard Neufeld	6,629	73.22	+44.56 +24.81	$37,046
	New Democratic	Brian Churchill	1,047	11.56	–6.48	$9,796
	Marijuana	Paul Renaud	810	8.95	–	$3,199
	Unity	Roy Daniel Stange	568	6.27	–	$867
Total valid votes			9,054	100.0
Total rejected ballots			55	0.61
Turnout			9,109	55.12
	Liberal gain from Reform		Swing		+25.52

1996 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Reform	Richard Neufeld	5,299	48.41	–6.38	$23,557
	Liberal	Ben Knutson	3,137	28.66	+9.17	$20,370
	New Democratic	Brian Churchill	1,975	18.04	–4.29	$27,682
	Social Credit	Dave Bodnar	240	2.19	–52.60	$3,978
	Progressive Democrat	Neil Bitterman	169	1.54	–	$425
	Independent	Brent Hoar	125	1.14	–	$100
Total valid votes			10,945	100.0
Total rejected ballots			43	0.39
Turnout			10,988	60.49
	Reform gain from Social Credit		Swing		+19.62

1991 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Social Credit	Richard Neufeld	5,758	54.79	–12.42	$23,852
	New Democratic	A. Jean Leahy	2,347	22.33	–2.13	$34,828
	Liberal	Vincent R. Rodriguez	2,048	19.49	+16.56	$2,305
	Green	Clarence G. Apsassin	303	2.88	–	$1,895
	Independent	Dorothy L. Folk	54	0.51	–	$925
Total valid votes			10,510	100.0
Total rejected ballots			277	2.57
Turnout			10,787	70.01
	Social Credit hold		Swing		–5.14

North Peace River, 1956–1991

1986 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Tony Brummet	6,359	67.21	–9.50
	New Democratic	Ken Platz	2,314	24.46	+3.33
	Progressive Conservative	Ian Bernard MacKenzie	511	5.40	–
	Liberal	Jill C. Moore	277	2.93	+0.77
Total valid votes			9,461	100.0
Total rejected ballots			139
	Social Credit hold		Swing		–6.42

1983 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Tony Brummet	8,528	76.71	+0.69
	New Democratic	Elmer George Kabush	2,349	21.13	–2.85
	Liberal	David Charles Parkinson	240	2.16	–
Total valid votes			11,117	100.0
Total rejected ballots			108
	Social Credit hold		Swing		+1.77

1979 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Tony Brummet	6,598	76.02	+8.15
	New Democratic	Joseph Mark Breti	2,081	23.98	–4.78
Total valid votes			8,679	100.0
Total rejected ballots			147
	Social Credit hold		Swing		+6.46

1975 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Dean Edward Smith	5,048	67.87	+21.85
	New Democratic	Andrew Philip Schuck	2,139	28.76	+2.73
	Liberal	Desmond Martin	251	3.37	–0.69
Total valid votes			7,438	100.0
Total rejected ballots			96
	Social Credit hold		Swing		+9.56

1972 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Dean Edward Smith	3,004	46.02	–27.21
	New Democratic	Dennis Warren Nelson	1,699	26.03	+8.41
	Progressive Conservative	Derril Laverne Leahy	1,560	23.90	–
	Liberal	William John Herdy	265	4.06	–5.08
Total valid votes			6,528	100.0
Total rejected ballots			87
	Social Credit hold		Swing		–17.81

1969 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Dean Edward Smith	3,877	73.23	+24.79
	New Democratic	Douglas George Pomeroy	933	17.62	+3.86
	Liberal	Leith Douglas Boulter	484	9.14	–6.07
Total valid votes			5,294	100.0
Total rejected ballots			49
	Social Credit hold		Swing		+10.46

1966 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Dean Edward Smith	1,799	48.44	–20.99
	Independent	Jacob Francis Huhn	583	15.70	–53.73
	Liberal	Leith Douglas Boulter	565	15.21	–2.91
	New Democratic	Douglas George Pomeroy	511	13.76	+1.32
	Independent	Robert Lyle Angus	256	6.89	–
Total valid votes			3,714	100.0
Total rejected ballots			35
	Social Credit hold		Swing		–18.34

1963 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Jacob Francis Huhn	2,310	69.43	+23.22
	Liberal	Daniel Gilchrist Murray	603	18.12	–8.69
	New Democratic	Douglas George Pomeroy^1	414	12.44	–9.08
Total valid votes			3,327	100.0
Total rejected ballots			34
	Social Credit hold		Swing		+15.96
^1Listed as Dan George in Statement of Votes. Change for New Democrats is based from the Co-operative Commonwealth.

1960 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Jacob Francis Huhn	1,651	46.21	–7.02
	Liberal	John William Belesaigne Baker	958	26.81	+6.10
	Co-operative Commonwealth	John Gordon Curtis	769	21.52	+3.94
	Progressive Conservative	Wilbert Daniel Bowes	114	3.19	–
	Independent	Robert Lyle Angus	81	2.27	–
Total valid votes			3,573	100.0
Total rejected ballots			57
	Social Credit hold		Swing		–6.56

1956 British Columbia general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Social Credit	Harold Earl Roche	1,087	53.23
	Liberal	John William Belesaigne Baker	423	20.71
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Vera Agnes Loucks	359	17.58
	Common Herd	Margaret Teresa Lally Murray	173	8.47
Total valid votes			2,042	100.0
Total rejected ballots			80

References

• Results of 2013 election (pdf)
• BC Stats Profile - 2001 (pdf)
• Results of 2001 election (pdf)
• 2001 Expenditures (pdf)
• Results of 1996 election
• 1996 Expenditures (pdf)
• Results of 1991 election
• 1991 Expenditures
• Website of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

Specific

1. "Peace River North Electoral District" (PDF). Elections BC. Retrieved 25 September 2017.
2. "Statement of Votes – 41st Provincial General Election – May 9, 2017" (PDF). Elections BC. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
3. "Statement of Votes - 40th Provincial General Election" (PDF). Elections BC. Retrieved 17 May 2017.