Blake James Pedersen (born February 9, 1965) is a Canadian politician who was an elected member to the

Legislative Assembly of Alberta The Legislative Assembly of Alberta is the deliberative assembly of the province of Alberta, Canada. It sits in the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton. The Legislative Assembly currently has 87 members, elected first past the post from singl ...

, previously representing the

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

Medicine Hat Medicine Hat is a city in Southern Alberta, southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff, Alberta, ...

. He was born at

Gull Lake, Saskatchewan Gull Lake is a town in Saskatchewan, Canada, situated on the junction of the Trans-Canada Highway and Highway 37, west of Swift Current. History The history of the Gull Lake community dates back to 1906, when a development company Conrad and ...

. He was first elected in the 2012 provincial election as a member of the

Wildrose Party The Wildrose Party (legally Wildrose Political Association, formerly the ''Wildrose Alliance Political Association'') was a conservative provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. The party was formed by the merger in early 2008 of the Albe ...

caucus. In the spring 2013 sitting of the

Alberta Legislature The Legislature of Alberta is the unicameral legislature of the province of Alberta, Canada. The legislature is made of two elements: the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta,. and the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The legislature has existed s ...

, Pedersen put forward Motion 510 to restore a competitive tax credit system for film industry labour costs, which was supported by the Progressive Conservatives, NDP and Liberals. Motion 510 was the first Wildrose motion to ever pass in the Alberta Legislature. The proposal in Pedersen's motion would replace the current system of awarding grants to film companies through the Alberta Multimedia Development Fund with a tax credit that would enable all companies to recoup a portion of their production costs. Pedersen was born and raised in

, on the family ranch. Following graduation from Gull Lake High School, he moved to Vancouver as a drummer with a band, but returned to Gull Lake a few months later and entered the work force with a local oilfield services company. Experiencing his first of many boom and bust cycles, after one year of employment Pedersen participated in a 10-month agricultural exchange program to Australia with the International Agricultural Exchange Association. Upon his return to Canada, Pedersen returned to the oilfield services industry, and in 1999 became a small business owner. On December 17, 2014, he was one of nine Wildrose MLAs who crossed the floor to join the Alberta Progressive Conservative caucus. Pederson stood for reelection during the 2015 Alberta election but was defeated by NDP's

Bob Wanner Robert Edward Wanner (born April 25, 1949) is a Canadian politician who was elected in the 2015 Alberta general election to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the electoral district of Medicine Hat. On June 11, 2015, he was electe ...

, finishing third. In November 2017, it was reported that Pedersen had since joined the

Alberta Party The Alberta Party, formally the Alberta Party Political Association, is a political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. The party describes itself as a centrist and pragmatic in that is not dogmatically ideological in its approach to politi ...

, and was seeking a seat on the party's board of directors.

Electoral history

References

Wildrose Party MLAs Living people People from Medicine Hat Year of birth uncertain Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs 1965 births 21st-century Canadian politicians {{Alberta-politician-stub