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This article shows results of Canadian federal elections in the province of Alberta outside the Calgary and Edmonton areas.

Regional profile

Rural Alberta is the most conservative region in Canada often leaning toward populist politics. For most of the last 80 years, the major right-wing party of the day has won all or most of the ridings here, often by large margins. The evangelical Social Credit Party was founded in rural Alberta, and for many years was either the first or second party in much of the region. The Progressive Conservative Party swept every riding here from 1972 to 1993. Rural Alberta was the power base for the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties from 1993 to 2000. The Conservative Party of Canada then won every riding in this region by large margins, making rural Alberta the least competitive region in the country. Some ridings in this area had been friendly to Red Tories, but since the 1990s the entire region has turned in a more fiscal and social conservative direction. For example, former prime minister Joe Clark represented the riding of Yellowhead (and its predecessor, Rocky Mountain) from 1972 to 1993 during his first tenure in parliament, but ran in (and won) the comparatively less conservative seat of Calgary Centre during his comeback to politics in 2000.

Much of this area has not been represented by a centre-left MP in recent memory; for instance, Lethbridge has been represented solely by right-wing MPs since 1930. The Liberals have been completely shut out from rural Alberta since 1972. As evidence of the antipathy much of the region has for the Liberals, Jack Horner crossed the floor in 1977 to join the Liberals, only to be soundly defeated when he ran for reelection in Crowfoot as a Liberal in 1979, losing almost three-fourths of his vote from 1974. He was also resoundingly defeated when he tried to regain the riding in 1980. Increasing political polarization has seen Liberals draw their lowest percentage of votes here in recent years, rarely obtaining more than 20 percent of the vote, and in some ridings (Crowfoot and Yellowhead) they have attracted less than 3 percent.

The New Democratic Party has also had poor results. The Green Party finished second ahead of the NDP in the Wild Rose riding in 2006. The NDP surged in 2011 across Alberta, including Wild Rose. In 2011 the NDP finished second in all of the rural Alberta ridings.

As a measure of how deeply conservative rural Alberta is, the Conservatives retained all their seats there in 2015 when the party was heavily defeated nationally. They took every riding with 60 percent or more of the vote, with centre-left parties only managing to exceed 20 percent mark in three ridings. However, support for the Conservatives was not universal; in all but three ridings, the NDP and Liberals collectively obtained 20 percent, sometimes reaching past 30 percent.

Social scientist Clark Banack describes a "triple alienation" in rural Alberta, formed of the regional sense of Western isolation born from frustrations around federal support, alienation as 'ordinary people' in a rapidly changing province, and a specific 'rural alienation' from urbanites "in terms of lifestyle, values and work ethic". Sociologist Sam Reimer surveyed Albertans and found that those in rural areas had a strong tendency toward anti-immigration views, regardless of religious affiliation. Political scientist Nelson Wiseman wrote that early American settlers to Alberta shaped its politics with the concept of "Alberta's exceptionalism", giving a strong base to conservative parties, receptiveness to neoliberalism, and strongly resisting federal intrusion.

2015

2011

2008

2006

2004

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1. Fort McMurray-Athabasca
2. Crowfoot
3. Lethbridge
4. Macleod
5. Medicine Hat
6. Peace River
7. Red Deer
8. Vegreville-Wainwright
9. Westlock-St. Paul
10. Wetaskiwin
11. Wild Rose
12. Yellowhead

• Conservative Party of Canada
• Green Party of Canada
• Liberal Party of Canada
• New Democratic Party

2000

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008)

References

1. ^ Barber, Kathryn; Maas, Willem (2024). "Analytic Introduction: The Unique Features of Canadian Small Centres". Canadian Ethnic Studies. 56 (3). Canadian Ethnic Studies Association: 1–14. doi:10.1353/ces.2024.a939613.
2. Wiseman, Nelson (Winter 2011). "The American Imprint on Alberta Politics". Great Plains Quarterly. 31 (1). University of Nebraska Press: 39–53. JSTOR 23534537.

• Politics of Alberta
• Canadian federal election results in Alberta