Edmonton Centre (provincial electoral district)
 Alberta electoral district
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|
2010 boundaries
|
|||
| Provincial electoral district | |||
| Legislature | Legislative Assembly of Alberta | ||
| MLA |
New Democratic |
||
| District created | 1957 | ||
| First contested | 1959 | ||
| Last contested | 2015 | ||
Edmonton-Centre formerly styled Edmonton Centre from 1959 to 1971 is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada. Created in 1957 and first contested in 1959. The district is the oldest active provincial riding in Edmonton.
The electoral district of Edmonton-Centre was created in the 1957 boundary redistribution that saw the riding's of Edmonton and Calgary broken up into single member electoral districts when the province reintroduced first past the post.
The 2010 boundary redistribution kept the riding mostly the same as 2003 except for a realignment on the eastern boundary where it was pushed back to 104 Street instead of completely running along 97 Street like it did before the change.
The electoral district of Edmonton-Centre is currently the oldest continuous active provincial electoral district in the city of Edmonton. It has a long history going back to 1959 when the single transferable vote super districts of Edmonton and Calgary were abolished in favor of single member districts.
Over the years, candidates from four different parties have been elected in the district without being able to return after being defeated. From 1959 to 1986 the riding returned MLA's sitting with governing parties in Alberta while the later years past 1986 MLA's have been returned from the official opposition.
The first elected MLA was Social Credit candidate Ambrose Holowach who had previously served as a Member of Parliament sitting with the federal wing of Social Credit from 1953-1958. Holowach was re-elected twice more and served a ministerial portfolio as Provincial Secretary in the governments of Ernest Manning and Harry Strom from 1962 to 1971.
The 1971 election would bring great change to the province and to Edmonton-Centre. Holowach did not run for re-election and the riding was won by Progressive Conservative candidate Gordon Miniely. His party would form government for the first time that year and Miniely would serve in the Peter Lougheed cabinet until he retired from office after his second term in 1979.
Mary LeMessurier would be the third elected representative of the riding. First elected in 1979 she would also be appointed to cabinet like her two predecessors before her. She served as Minister of Culture in the Lougheed government and kept her portfolio briefly after Don Getty became Premier in 1985. She would run for re-election in 1986 but face a stunning defeat by NDP candidate William Roberts.
...
Wikipedia