The old City of Strathcona, running from the river south to University Avenue and 63 Avenue or more, has been represented by a variety of districts and MLAs since 1905.
Strathcona was a provincial electoral district centring on the old City of Strathcona, southside Edmonton. It returned a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post electoral method of voting from 1905 to 1913.
The agreement that amalgamated the City of Strathcona and Edmonton called for the authorities to "use their utmost endeavours to ensure that the portion of the city south of he river shall not be included within the same provincial or federal electoral districts as the northside of the river" (as quoted in Monto, Old Strathcona Edmonton's Southside Roots). Now like most of the clauses of the agreement, this has gone by the way. Currently Edmonton-Strathcona contains a part of the northside.
The district was renamed Edmonton South in 1917 and then subsumed in a city-wide multiple-member district of Edmonton from 1921 to 1956. During this time, Strathcona voters joined with others across the city to elect multiple MLAs through Single Transferable Voting.
From 1959 to 1967 Strathcona Centre covered much of the old City of Strathcona, with two or three other adjacent districts also bearing the Strathcona prefix.
Later old Strathcona took on the name Edmonton-Strathcona. (Meanwhile, somewhat confusingly the bare name Strathcona is now applied to the district that encompasses the Strathcona County area outside the Edmonton corporate city limits.)
Old Strathcona, under whatever name, is the only district that I know of that has elected two different premiers - A.C. Rutherford 1905-1911 and Rachel Notley 2015-2019. Ernest Manning lived in Strathcona Centre, near 112 Street and 80 Avenue, while premier, but he repeatedly ran in, and won, the Strathcona-East seat, lying east of 66th Street.
In its history, the old City of Strathcona, under whatever name, has elected
- a Liberal (Rutherford),
- a Conservative (Herbert Crawford whose business was located in the eponymous Crawford Block that still graces the west side of 103rd Street north of Whyte),
- a Social Credit-er (Dr. J. Donovan Ross) in 1959 and the 1960s (He was related to William Ross who ran a business in the Ross Block, 10309 Whyte Avenue, and whose name "W.E. Ross" can still be seen at the top front of the building.);
- a Conservative (Julian Koziak) 1971 to 1982;
- NDP 1986-1993 (Gordon Wright and Barrie Chivers) Gordon Wright and others put up the money for the construction of the sardine can-shaped building on the northside of 81 Avenue between 103th and 104th. Unfortunately this was built just before the world price for oil tanked in the early 1980s and many lined-up tenants backed out, and it became a struggle to pay it off.)
- a Liberal (Al Zariwny whose family built the building marked with a "Z" at about 10345 Whyte Avenue), then
- NDP again, starting in 1997, with Raj Pannu, followed by Rachel Notley.
Unfortunately I cannot think of any Whyte Avenue buildings or structures that they can be remembered by. If you know of some, please tell me - montotom@yahoo.ca !
The presence of a higher than average education level and the emphasis on the social service professions - teaching and medicine - due to the presence of the University of Alberta and the UofA Hospital -- has meant that since the 1970s many area votes are given to the NDP, which promises a high level of public investment in those fields.
Since 1972, Edmonton-Strathcona has more often than not elected an NDP MLA - Gordon Wright, Barrie Chivers, Raj Pannu and Rachel Notley. In the 13 elections since 1972, only thrice was a Conservative elected and only once was a Liberal, the rest all going NDP.
The NDP is so popular in Edmonton-Strathcona that in 2015 Rachel Notley won the seat with an astronomical 82 percent of the district vote, leaving all the other candidates combined with a slender 18 percent of the district vote. Under Single Transferable Voting, these un-needed surplus votes would have been transferred to aid other candidates, but under FPTP, they were trapped and rendered useless.
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The Strathcona district dates back to territorial times, before Alberta was named province.
Here's a brief run-down on the district.
Strathcona was a territorial electoral district in the North-West Territories from 1902 - 1905. In 1905 Alberta split from the North-West Territories. The provincial district of Strathcona carried on from the old territorial district.
It became Edmonton-South in 1913, then was abolished in 1921 when Edmonton started to elect its MLAs in one city-wide district (through Block Voting, then STV).
The "Strathcona" name was reborn in 1959 when Edmonton reverted to electing its MLAs in single-member districts (through First Past The Post).
Under the name Edmonton-Strathcona it exists to the present day.
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Thanks for reading.
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