Lac La Biche was a provincial electoral district in

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

mandated to return a single 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 sin ...

from 1952 to 1971. It replaced the riding of Beaver River and received the north-east parts of

Athabasca Athabasca (also Athabaska) is an anglicized version of the Cree name for Lake Athabasca in Canada, āthap-āsk-ā-w (pronounced ), meaning "grass or reeds here and there". Most places named Athabasca are found in Alberta, Canada. Athabasca may a ...

, including the town of McMurray. It was replaced in 1971 by

Lac La Biche-McMurray Lac La Biche-McMurray was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using first-past-the-post balloting from 1971 to 1986. It replaced the district of Lac La B ...

with minor boundary changes.

Representation history

The district's first MLA was one-term member for the abolished riding of Beaver River,

Harry Lobay Harry Lobay (June 23, 1917 – June 17, 1991) was a politician from Alberta, Canada. Harry was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the 1948 Alberta general election for the riding of Beaver River on a comfortable margin after ball ...

, who sat with the

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

caucus in government. He was defeated in the 1952 election by

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Michael Maccagno. Maccagno defended the riding in three successive elections, and was party leader between 1964 and 1968. He resigned his seat in that year, triggering a by-election which was won by Social Credit candidate Dan Bouvier.

Election results

1950s

For the 1959 election, rural districts were elected by the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

method instead of the previous

instant runoff voting Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of ranked preferential voting method. It uses a majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referred to as ranked-choice voting (RCV) in the U ...

. No second round had ever been needed in Lac La Biche, but this change can be seen in the dramatic drop in spoiled (incorrectly marked) ballots.

1960s

Plebiscite results

1957 liquor plebiscite

On October 30, 1957 a stand alone plebiscite was held province wide in all 50 of the then current provincial electoral districts in

. The government decided to consult Alberta voters to decide on liquor sales and mixed drinking after a divisive debate in the legislature. The plebiscite was intended to deal with the growing demand for reforming antiquated liquor control laws. The plebiscite was conducted in two parts. Question A, asked in all districts, asked the voters if the sale of liquor should be expanded in Alberta, while Question B, asked in a handful of districts within the corporate limits of Calgary and Edmonton, asked if men and women should be allowed to drink together in establishments. Province wide Question A of the plebiscite passed in 33 of the 50 districts while Question B passed in all five districts. Lac La Biche voted in favour of the proposal with a near landslide majority. Voter turnout in the district was poor, and fell significantly below the province wide average of 46%. Official district returns were released to the public on December 31, 1957. The Social Credit government in power at the time did not consider the results binding. However the results of the vote led the government to repeal all existing liquor legislation and introduce an entirely new ''Liquor Act''. Municipal districts lying inside electoral districts that voted against the plebiscite were designated Local Option Zones by the Alberta Liquor Control Board and considered effective dry zones. Business owners who wanted a license had to petition for a binding municipal plebiscite in order to be granted a license.

References

External links

Elections AlbertaThe Legislative Assembly of Alberta
{{coord missing, Alberta Former provincial electoral districts of Alberta