Vegreville (provincial electoral district)

Vegreville was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada. It was mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1909 to 1993.

Vegreville was created from the northwest corner of the Vermilion district as part of the almost-doubling of seats in the Legislature in 1909. Over time, its boundaries were adjusted several times, shrinking to the area immediately surrounding the town of Vegreville.

In 1963, Vegreville was merged with some of the Bruce district to form Vegreville-Bruce, but in the redistribution that followed, the district was renamed Vegreville with little change in boundaries. The riding was finally abolished in 1993, mostly absorbed by Vegreville-Viking, with a small area transferred to Vermilion-Lloydminster.

Vegreville (and Vegreville-Bruce) was mostly a bellwether riding, having been held by an opposition party only once until 1982. Its first MLA was James Bismark Holden, who had already served as MLA for Vermilion for the Liberals. He served one term in Vegreville and retired in 1913.

His successor was Joseph McCallum, who won Vegreville for the Liberals by a much smaller margin in 1913 and 1917 but nonetheless held the district for the government. However, in 1921, he was soundly defeated by United Farmers of Alberta candidate Archie Matheson in their party's rise to power. Matheson was a vocal backbencher in the UFA government, opposing his own government's stances on prohibition and eugenics, and aggressively advocating for local interests during his three terms.

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