Drumheller-Stettler

Albertaelectoral district
Drumheller-Stettler within Alberta, 2017 boundaries
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Alberta
MLA	Nate Horner United Conservative
District created	2003
First contested	2004
Last contested	2023

Drumheller-Stettler is aprovincialelectoral district (riding) inAlberta, Canada. The electoral district is mandated to return a single member to theLegislative Assembly of Alberta using thefirst past the post method of voting. The district was created in the 2003 boundary redistribution and came into force in 2004 from the old districts ofDrumheller-Chinook andLacombe-Stettler.

The district is named after the towns ofDrumheller andStettler and covers a large rural portion of central east Alberta. It also contains the towns ofCereal,Consort,Hanna,Oyen andYoungstown andDinosaur Provincial Park.

Situated in a very conservative region even by the standards ofrural central Alberta, the district and its antecedents have been strongholds of centre-right parties for decades, such as theSocial Credit Party,Progressive Conservatives,Wildrose Party, and currently theUnited Conservative Party, giving them their best result of all ridings in the2023 provincial election, with over 82% of the vote. Smaller right wing parties such as theAlberta Alliance andWestern Canada Concept have also historically done well in this region. The current representative in the district isNate Horner.

The electoral district was created in the 2003 boundary redistribution after parts of Drumheller-Chinook and Lacombe-Stettler were merged. The 2010 redistribution sawPaintearth County transferred to this division fromBattle River-Wainwright.^[1]

52 Drumheller-Stettler 2003 boundaries[2]
Bordering districts
North	East	West	South
Battle River-Wainwright	none	Innisfail-Sylvan Lake,Lacombe-Ponoka,Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills,Strathmore-Brooks	Cypress-Medicine Hat
riding map goes here
Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2003, Electoral Divisions Act.
Starting at the intersection of the north boundary of Twp. 42 and the east boundary of Rge. 19; then 1. east along the north boundary to the right bank of the Battle River; 2. downstream along the right bank to the east boundary of Sec. 8 in Twp. 41, Rge. 16 W4; 3. south along the east boundary of Secs. 8 and 5 in the Twp. and the east boundary of Secs. 32, 29, 20, 17, 8 and 5 in Twps. 40, 39, 38 and 37, Rge. 16 W4 to the north boundary of Twp. 36; 4. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Sec. 33 in the Twp.; 5. south along the east boundary of Secs. 33, 28, 21 and 16 in the Twp. to the north boundary of Sec. 10 in the Twp.; 6. east along the north boundary of Secs. 10, 11 and 12 in the Twp. and the north boundary of Secs. 7, 8 and 9 in Twp. 36, Rge. 15 W4 to the west shore of Sullivan Lake; 7. southeasterly along the west shore to the north boundary of Twp. 34, Rge. 15 W4; 8. east along the north boundary of Twp. 34 to the east boundary of Rge. 10; 9. north along the east boundary of Rge. 10 to the north boundary of Sec. 6 in Twp. 35, Rge. 9 W4; 10. east along the north boundary of Secs. 6 and 5 to the east boundary of Sec. 8 in the Twp.; 11. north along the east boundary of Secs. 8, 17, 20, 29 and 32 in the Twp. and Secs. 5, 8, 17, 20, 29 and 32 in Twp. 36 to the north boundary of Twp. 36; 12. east along the north boundary of Twp. 36 to the east boundary of Sec. 3 in Twp. 37, Rge. 9, W4; 13. north along the east boundary of Secs. 3 and 10 to the north boundary of Sec. 11; 14. east along the north boundary of Secs. 11 and 12 to the east boundary of Rge. 9 W4; 15. north along the east boundary of Rge. 9 to the north boundary of Twp. 37; 16. east along the north boundary of Twp. 37 to the east boundary of Sec. 33 in Twp. 37, Rge. 3 W4; 17. south along the east boundary of Secs. 33, 28, 21, 16, 9 and 4 in the Twp. and the east boundary of Secs. 33 and 28 in Twp. 36, Rge. 3 W4 to the north boundary of Sec. 22 in the Twp.; 18. east along the north boundary of Secs. 22, 23 and 24 in Rge. 3 W4 and the north boundary of Secs. 19, 20 and 21 in Twp. 36, Rge. 2 W4 to the east boundary of Sec. 21; 19. south along the east boundary of Secs. 21, 16, 9 and 4 to the north boundary of Twp. 35; 20. east along the north boundary of Twp. 35 to the east boundary of the Province; 21. south along the east boundary of the Province to the right bank of the South Saskatchewan River; 22. upstream along the right bank of the river to the east boundary of Rge. 3 W4; 23. north along the east boundary of Rge. 3 W4 to the north boundary of Sec. 13 in Twp. 20, Rge. 3 W4; 24. west along the north boundary of Secs. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 in Rges. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 to the east boundary of Rge. 11 W4; 25. north along the east boundary of Rge. 11 W4 to the right bank of the Red Deer River; 26. upstream along the right bank to the southeasterly point of the municipal boundary of the Town of Drumheller (at Sec. 22 in Twp. 27, Rge. 18 W4); 27. generally west and north along the municipal boundary of the Town of Drumheller to the intersection with the right bank of the Red Deer River (at Sec. 18, Twp. 29, Rge. 20 W4); 28. upstream along the right bank of the Red Deer River to the north boundary of Twp. 38; 29. east along the north boundary of Twp. 38 to the east boundary of Sec. 3 in the Twp.; 30. north along the east boundary of Secs. 3, 10, 15 and 22 to the north boundary of Sec. 23; 31. east along the north boundary of Secs. 23 and 24 to the east boundary of Rge. 22; 32. north along the east boundary of Rge. 22 to the south shore of Buffalo Lake; 33. in a northerly direction along the west shore of Buffalo Lake to the east boundary of Rge. 22; 34. north along the east boundary of Rge. 22 to the west shore of Buffalo Lake; 35. northeasterly along the west shore to the north boundary of Twp. 40; 36. east along the north boundary to the east shore of Buffalo Lake; 37. in a generally northerly direction along the east shore to the north boundary of Sec. 22 in Twp. 41, Rge. 20 W4; 38. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Sec. 27; 39. north along the east boundary of Secs. 27 and 34 in the Twp. to the north boundary of Twp. 41; 40. east along the north boundary of Twp. 41 to the east boundary of the west half of Sec. 4 in Twp. 42, Rge. 19 W4; 41. north along the east boundary of the west half of Secs. 4, 9, 16 and 21 in the Twp. to the north boundary of Sec. 21; 42. east along the north boundary of Secs. 21, 22, 23 and 24 in the Twp. to the east boundary of Rge. 19 W4; 43. north along the east boundary of Rge. 19 to the starting point.
Note:

57 Drumheller-Stettler 2010 boundaries
Bordering districts
North	East	West	South
Battle River-Wainwright	Saskatchewan boundary	Innisfail-Sylvan Lake,Lacombe-Ponoka andOlds-Didsbury-Three Hills	Cypress-Medicine Hat andStrathmore-Brooks
Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2010, Electoral Divisions Act.
Note:

The riding was created when the writ was dropped for the2004 general election as a merger betweenDrumheller-Chinook and the eastern half of theLacombe-Stettler riding. Deputy PremierShirley McClellan, MLA for Drumheller-Chinook, defeated five other candidates to pick up the new district.

McClellan resigned her seat in the Legislature on January 15, 2007, the same day that former premierRalph Klein resigned his seat inCalgary-Elbow.By-elections for both electoral districts were held on June 12, 2007.

The by-election saw a significant shift in support for the opposition parties with the re-emergence of theLiberal Party, which hadn't run a candidate in 2004, taking second place. TheAlberta Alliance andNDP fared the worst, both retaining the same candidates from the general election, but dropping from second and third to fifth and last respectively. TheProgressive Conservative candidateJack Hayden won the district with a slightly reduced popular vote.Social Credit made surprising gains, jumping from last to third place, and Independent candidate John Rew also made a strong showing.

Hayden won his second term in the2008 general election, winning a landslide. He was appointed to cabinet by PremierEd Stelmach, first as Minister of Infrastructure until 2011, and then as Minister of Parks, Tourism and Recreation.

However, Hayden was narrowly defeated in the2012 general election byWildrose candidateRick Strankman, famous for having gone to jail in protest of theCanadian Wheat Board.^[4] He was the first opposition MLA to represent the area sinceGordon E. Taylor served as MLA forDrumheller in the 1970s.

In 2014 most of the Wildrose caucus, including Opposition LeaderDanielle Smith, crossed the floor to the governing Progressive Conservatives in support ofJim Prentice's government. Strankman and four other Wildrose MLA's chose to remain with the party. In the2015 general election, Strankman was re-elected by a much greater margin, as the Progressive Conservatives went down to a stunning defeat and Wildrose increased their seat count.

Wildrose subsequently merged with the Progressive Conservatives to form theUnited Conservative Party underJason Kenney. While Strankman initially joined the party in 2017, he abandoned it in 2019 to sit as an Independent after losing the party's nomination to stand as candidate in theupcoming general election.^[5][6]

Voters had the option of selecting four candidates on the ballot

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On November 19, 2004, a student vote was conducted at participating Alberta schools to parallel the 2004 Alberta general election results. The vote was designed to educate students and simulate the electoral process for persons who have not yet reached the legal majority. The vote was conducted in 80 of the 83 provincial electoral districts with students voting for actual election candidates. Schools with a large student body that reside in another electoral district had the option to vote for candidates outside of the electoral district then where they were physically located.

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