Highwood (electoral district)

Highwood

Alberta electoral district
Highwood within the Calgary Metropolitan Region, 2017 boundaries.
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Alberta
MLA	RJ Sigurdson United Conservative
District created	1979
First contested	1971
Last contested	2023
Demographics
Census division(s)	Division No. 6
Census subdivision(s)	Diamond Valley, Foothills County, Okotoks

Highwood is a provincial electoral district in southern Alberta, Canada. The district is one of 87 in the province mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting.

The district was created in the 1971 boundary redistribution out of the old Okotoks-High River riding and the North part of Pincher Creek-Crowsnest. The district has favoured right leaning parties since its creation. Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta candidates held the district from 1975 until 2012 when they were unseated by the Wildrose Party.

The current representative is RJ Sigurdson, who was first elected in 2019.

History

The electoral district of Highwood was created in the 1971 boundary redistribution from the old electoral districts of Okotoks-High River and Pincher Creek-Crowsnest.

The 2010 boundary redistribution saw the riding cut down in size. Land south of the town of High River and a portion of land in the northwest of the constituency was transferred to the Livingstone-Macleod riding. A portion of land in the north east was also transferred to the Little Bow riding. The boundary commission had intended to rename Highwood to bring back the Okotoks-High River name but it was quashed in an amendment to the redistribution bill in the Legislative Assembly.

The 2017 redistribution saw more of Highwood transferred to Livingstone-Macleod, this time the entire community of High River. However, the riding expanded westward, now including the town of Black Diamond. The Boundaries Commission renamed the riding Okotoks-Sheep River in their final report, but the Legislative Assembly again chose to retain the name Highwood.

Boundary history

58 Highwood 2003 boundaries
Bordering districts
North	East	West	South
Airdrie-Chestermere, Calgary-Hays, Calgary-Shaw, Foothills-Rocky View and Strathmore-Brooks	Little Bow	Banff-Cochrane	Livingstone-Macleod
riding map goes here
Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2003, Electoral Divisions Act.
Starting at the intersection of the centre line of Highway 2 and the south Calgary city boundary; then 1. east along the Calgary city boundary to the southerly extension of 88 Street SE; 2. south along the extension of 88 Street SE to the right bank of the Bow River; 3. downstream along the right bank of the Bow River to the east boundary of Sec. 23 in Twp. 21, Rge. 26 W4; 4. south along the east boundary of Secs. 23, 14, 11 and 2 in the Twp. and the east boundary of Secs. 35, 26, 23, 14, 11 and 2 in Twps. 20 and 19, Rge. 26 W4 to the north boundary of Twp. 18 (Highway 23); 5. west along the north boundary of Twp. 18 (Highway 23) to the east boundary of Sec. 35 in Twp. 18, Rge. 27 W4; 6. south along the east boundary of Secs. 35, 26, 23, 14, 11 and 2 in the Twp. and the east boundary of Secs. 35, 26 and 23 in Twp. 17, Rge. 27 W4 to the right bank of the Little Bow River; 7. downstream along the right bank of the Little Bow River to the north boundary of Sec. 6 in Twp. 17, Rge. 26 W4; 8. west along the north boundary of Sec. 6 in Twp. 17, Rge. 26 and the north boundary of Secs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 in Rge. 27 and the north boundary of Secs. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to the east boundary of Sec. 6 in Rge. 28 W4; 9. south along the east boundary of Sec. 6 in Twp. 17, Rge. 28 W4 to the north boundary of Twp. 16; 10. west along the north boundary of Twp. 16 to the east boundary of Sec. 33, Rge. 2 W5; 11. south along the east boundary of Secs. 33, 28, 21, 16, 9 and 4 in the Twp. to the north boundary of Twp. 15; 12. west along the north boundary to the east boundary of the Rocky Mountain Forest Reserve; 13. in a northerly direction to the intersection with Highway 546 in Sec. 26, Twp. 19, Rge. 4 W5; 14. northeast along Highway 546 to the north boundary of Twp. 19, Rge. 3 W5; 15. east along the north boundary to the east boundary of Sec. 35; 16. south along the east boundary of Secs. 35 and 26 to the north boundary of Sec. 24; 17. east along the north boundary of Sec. 24 in the Twp. and Secs. 19, 20 and 21 in Rge. 2 W5 to the east boundary of Sec. 28 in the Twp.; 18. north along the east boundary of Secs. 28 and 33 in the Twp. and Secs. 4 and 9 in Twp. 20, Rge. 2 W5 to Highway 7; 19. north and east along Highway 7 to the east boundary of Sec. 23, Twp. 20, Rge. 1 W5; 20. north along the east boundary of Secs. 23, 26 and 35 in the Twp. and the east boundary of Sec. 2 in Twp. 21, Rge. 1 W5 to the north boundary of Sec. 1; 21. east along the north boundary of Sec. 1 in Twp. 21, Rge. 1 W5 and Sec. 5 in Twp. 21, Rge. 29 W4 to Highway 2A; 22. north along Highway 2A to the centre line of Highway 2; 23. northwest along Highway 2 to the starting point.
Note:

63 Highwood 2010 boundaries
Bordering districts
North	East	West	South
Calgary-Lougheed, Calgary-South East and Chestermere-Rocky View	Little Bow	Livingstone-Macleod	Livingstone-Macleod
Legal description from the Statutes of Alberta 2010, Electoral Divisions Act.
Note:

Representation history

Highwood
Assembly	Years	Member		Party
Riding created from Okotoks-High River and Pincher Creek-Crowsnest
17th	1971–1975		Edward Benoit	Social Credit
18th	1975–1979		George Wolstenholme	Progressive Conservative
19th	1979–1982
20th	1982–1986		Harry Alger
21st	1986–1989
22nd	1989–1993		Don Tannas
23rd	1993–1997
24th	1997–2001
25th	2001–2004
26th	2004–2008		George Groeneveld
27th	2008–2012
28th	2012–2014		Danielle Smith	Wildrose
	2014–2015			Progressive Conservative
29th	2015–2017		Wayne Anderson	Wildrose
	2017–2019			United Conservative
30th	2019–2023		RJ Sigurdson
31st	2023–Present

The electoral district was created in the 1971 boundary redistribution. The first election held that year saw Okotoks-High River incumbent Social Credit MLA Edward Benoit win a very closely contested race to pick up the new seat for his party.

Benoit was defeated in the 1975 election by Progressive Conservative candidate George Wolstenholme. He was re-elected to his second term in the 1979 general election and retired at dissolution of the Legislature in 1982.

The 1982 election garnered great interest as incumbent Western Canada Concept MLA Gordon Kesler tried to win re-election here after winning a by-election is his former riding of Olds-Didsbury. Progressive Conservative candidate Harry Alger defeated Kesler in a landslide. Kesler had originally promised to move into the Olds-Didsbury riding after winning election and had reneged on that promise.

Alger won his second term in the 1986 general election defeating five other candidates. He retired from provincial politics at dissolution of the legislature in 1989. His replacement was Progressive Conservative candidate Don Tannas who won election for the first time that year.

Tannas won re-election three times in the 1993, 1997 and 2001 general elections with increasing majorities every time. He retired from provincial politics at dissolution of the legislature in 2004.

The 2004 general election saw Progressive Conservative candidate George Groeneveld elected MLA. He was appointed to cabinet in 2006 as the Minister of Agriculture by Premier Ed Stelmach. In the 2008 general election he won a landslide majority. In early 2010 Groeneveld was shuffled out of cabinet and returned to the back benches.

The 2012 general election saw the riding returned to opposition control for the first time since 1975 when Wildrose leader Danielle Smith won the open seat, winning her first term in office and becoming Leader of the Official Opposition. However, after Jim Prentice took control of the governing PCs, she and most of her caucus crossed the floor to his party in 2014.

Despite Smith's high profile, she failed to win the PC nomination to stand as the party's candidate in Highwood for the 2015 election. Wildrose re-gained the seat, with Wayne Anderson becoming the new MLA. He subsequently joined the United Conservative Party when the PCs and Wildrose decided to merge.

Legislative election results

1971

1971 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Edward P. Benoit	2,941	48.06%	–
	Progressive Conservative	Eldon C. Couey	2,789	45.58%	–
	New Democratic	D. Larry McKillop	389	6.36%	–
Total			6,119	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			31	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			7,921	77.64%	–
	Social Credit pickup new district.
Source(s) Source: "Highwood Official Results 1971 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1975

1975 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	George Wolstenholme	4,037	63.87%	18.29%
	Social Credit	Edward P. Benoit	1,925	30.45%	-17.61%
	New Democratic	Muriel McCreary	234	3.70%	-2.66%
	Liberal	Melbe Cochlan	125	1.98%	–
Total			6,321	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			22	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			9,177	69.12%	-8.52%
	Progressive Conservative gain from Social Credit		Swing		15.46%
Source(s) Source: "Highwood Official Results 1975 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1979

1979 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	George Wolstenholme	5,103	66.56%	2.69%
	Social Credit	Don Dixon	2,092	27.29%	-3.17%
	New Democratic	William C. McCutcheon	281	3.67%	-0.04%
	Liberal	Joan Cowling	191	2.49%	0.51%
Total			7,667	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			24	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			11,680	65.85%	-3.27%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		2.93%
Source(s) Source: "Highwood Official Results 1979 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1982

1982 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Harry E. Alger	7,811	70.08%	3.52%
	Western Canada Concept	Gordon Kesler	2,006	18.00%	–
	New Democratic	William C. McCutcheon	465	4.17%	0.51%
	Independent	R.L. Snell	436	3.91%	–
	Independent	Don Tanner	245	2.20%	–
	Alberta Reform Movement	Ronald G. Arkes	183	1.64%	–
Total			11,146	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			30	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			14,495	77.10%	11.25%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		6.40%
Source(s) Source: "Highwood Official Results 1982 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1986

1986 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Harry E. Alger	5,336	66.47%	-3.61%
	New Democratic	William C. McCutcheon	1,054	13.13%	8.96%
	Representative	Murray Meszaros	811	10.10%	–
	Independent	Pam McIver	633	7.88%	1.78%
	Independent	Norman Kientz	142	1.77%	-4.34%
	Independent	Bill Bohdan	52	0.65%	-5.46%
Total			8,028	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			18	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			15,080	53.36%	-23.75%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		0.63%
Source(s) Source: "Highwood Official Results 1986 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1989

1989 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Don Tannas	5,481	60.26%	-6.21%
	Liberal	Don Dearle	2,024	22.25%	–
	New Democratic	Janis Belgum	1,591	17.49%	4.36%
Total			9,096	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			39	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			16,485	55.41%	2.06%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		-7.67%
Source(s) Source: "Highwood Official Results 1989 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1993

1993 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Don Tannas	8,063	64.88%	4.63%
	Liberal	Rusti-Ann Blanke	3,159	25.42%	3.17%
	Social Credit	John Bergen	701	5.64%	–
	New Democratic	Marg Elliot	504	4.06%	-13.44%
Total			12,427	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			22	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			19,169	64.94%	9.53%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		0.73%
Source(s) Source: "Highwood Official Results 1993 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1997

1997 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Don Tannas	9,551	69.96%	5.07%
	Liberal	Howard Paulsen	1,944	14.24%	-11.18%
	Social Credit	John Bergen	1,566	11.47%	5.83%
	New Democratic	Hugh Logie	592	4.34%	0.28%
Total			13,653	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			35	24	3
Eligible electors / turnout			24,225	56.52%	-8.43%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		8.13%
Source(s) Source: "Highwood Official Results 1997 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Alberta. Chief Electoral Officer (1997). Report of the Chief Electoral Officer, November, 1996 general enumeration and Tuesday, March 11, 1997 general election Twenty-fourth Legislative Assembly. Edmonton: Alberta Legislative Assembly, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer.

2001

2001 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Don Tannas	13,321	79.89%	9.93%
	Liberal	Leonard Borowski	2,000	11.99%	-2.24%
	New Democratic	Gunhild Hoogensen	773	4.64%	0.30%
	Greens	Julie Walker	581	3.48%	–
Total			16,675	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			25	16	11
Eligible electors / turnout			29,806	56.07%	-0.45%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		6.09%
Source(s) Source: "Highwood Official Results 2001 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Alberta. Chief Electoral Officer (2001). The report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the 2000 provincial confirmation process and Monday, March 12, 2001, Provincial General Election of the twenty-fifth Legislative Assembly. Edmonton: Alberta Legislative Assembly, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer.

2004

2004 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	George Groeneveld	6,737	63.59%	-16.29%
	Liberal	Lori Czerwinski	1,846	17.42%	5.43%
	Alberta Alliance	Brian Wickhorst	731	6.90%	–
	Green	Sheelagh Matthews	547	5.16%	1.68%
	New Democratic	Catherine Whelan Costen	433	4.09%	-0.55%
	Separation	Cory Morgan	300	2.83%	–
Total			10,594	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			25	56	0
Eligible electors / turnout			23,519	45.15%	-10.92%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		-10.86%
Source(s) Source: "00 - Highwood, 2004 Alberta general election". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Alberta. Chief Electoral Officer (2005). Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the General Enumeration and General Election of the Twenty-sixth Legislative Assembly (Report). Edmonton: Alberta Legislative Assembly, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer.

2008

2008 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	George Groeneveld	7,715	65.11%	1.52%
	Liberal	Stan Shedd	1,647	13.90%	-3.53%
	Wildrose Alliance	Daniel W. Doherty	1,405	11.86%	4.96%
	Green	John Barrett	691	5.83%	0.67%
	New Democratic	Carolyn Boulton	391	3.30%	-0.79%
Total			11,849	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			32	10	2
Eligible electors / turnout			28,922	41.09%	-4.06%
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		2.52%
Source(s) Source: "58 - Highwood, 2008 Alberta general election". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Chief Electoral Officer (2008). The Report on the March 3, 2008 Provincial General Election of the Twenty-Seventh Legislative Assembly (Report). Edmonton, Alta.: Elections Alberta. pp. 434–437. Retrieved April 7, 2021.

2012

2012 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Wildrose Alliance	Danielle Smith	10,094	52.59%	40.74%
	Progressive Conservative	John Barlow	8,159	42.51%	−22.60%
	Liberal	Keegan Gibson	547	2.85%	−11.05%
	New Democratic	Miles Dato	392	2.04%	−1.26%
Total			19,192	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			50	33	10
Eligible electors / turnout			32,659	58.95%	17.86%
	Wildrose Alliance gain from Progressive Conservative		Swing		−20.56%
Source(s) Source: "63 - Highwood, 2012 Alberta general election". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Chief Electoral Officer (2012). The Report of the Chief Electoral Officer on the 2011 Provincial Enumeration and Monday, April 23, 2012 Provincial General Election of the Twenty-eighth Legislative Assembly (PDF) (Report). Edmonton, Alta.: Elections Alberta. pp. 378–382. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 6, 2021. Retrieved April 7, 2021.

2015

2015 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Wildrose	Wayne Anderson	8,504	41.07%	-11.52%
	Progressive Conservative	Carrie Fischer	6,827	32.97%	-9.54%
	New Democratic	Leslie Mahoney	3,937	19.01%	16.97%
	Alberta Party	Joel Windsor	892	4.31%	–
	Green	Martin Blake	360	1.74%	–
	Social Credit	Jeremy Fraser	187	0.90%	–
Total			20,707	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			61	23	15
Eligible electors / turnout			37,239	55.81%	-3.14%
	Wildrose hold		Swing		-0.99%
Source(s) Source: "63 - Highwood, 2015 Alberta general election". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Chief Electoral Officer (2016). 2015 General Election. A Report of the Chief Electoral Officer (PDF) (Report). Edmonton, Alta.: Elections Alberta.

2019

2019 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United Conservative	R.J. Sigurdson	18,635	73.26%	-0.78%
	New Democratic	Erik Overland	4,453	17.51%	-1.51%
	Alberta Party	Ron Kerr	1,988	7.82%	3.51%
	Alberta Independence	Dan Irving	362	1.42%	–
Total			25,438	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			208	35	9
Eligible electors / turnout			35,422	72.43%	16.62%
	United Conservative hold		Swing		23.83%
Source(s) Source: "65 - Highwood, 2019 Alberta general election". officialresults.elections.ab.ca. Elections Alberta. Retrieved May 21, 2020. Alberta. Chief Electoral Officer (2019). 2019 General Election. A Report of the Chief Electoral Officer. Volume II (PDF) (Report). Vol. 2. Edmonton, Alta.: Elections Alberta. pp. 296–301. ISBN 978-1-988620-12-1. Retrieved April 7, 2021.

2023

2023 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United Conservative	R.J. Sigurdson	17,990	68.90	-4.36
	New Democratic	Jessica Hallam	7,540	28.88	+11.37
	Wildrose Independence	Mike Lorusso	580	2.22	–
Total			26,110	99.22	–
Rejected and declined			204	0.78
Turnout			26,314	67.31
Eligible voters			39,093
	United Conservative hold		Swing		-7.86
Source(s) Source: Elections Alberta

Senate nominee election results

2004

2004 Senate nominee election results: Highwood					Turnout 43.52%
Affiliation		Candidate	Votes	% votes	% ballots	Rank
	Progressive Conservative	Bert Brown	5,568	19.25%	61.73%	1
	Progressive Conservative	Betty Unger	4,045	13.99%	44.85%	2
	Progressive Conservative	Jim Silye	3,807	13.17%	42.21%	5
	Progressive Conservative	Cliff Breitkreuz	3,223	11.15%	35.73%	3
	Progressive Conservative	David Usherwood	2,932	10.14%	32.51%	6
	Independent	Link Byfield	2,566	8.87%	28.45%	4
	Alberta Alliance	Vance Gough	2,046	7.08%	22.68%	8
	Alberta Alliance	Michael Roth	1,722	5.95%	19.09%	7
	Alberta Alliance	Gary Horan	1,621	5.61%	17.97%	10
	Independent	Tom Sindlinger	1,388	4.79%	15.39%	9
Total votes			28,918	100%
Total ballots			9,020	3.21 votes per ballot
Rejected, spoiled and declined			1,564

Voters had the option of selecting four candidates on the ballot

Student vote results

2004

Participating schools
Highwood High School
Foothills Composite High School
Red Deer Lake School
The Centre for Learning @Home

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.

2004 Alberta student vote results
Affiliation		Candidate	Votes	%
	NDP	Catherine Whelan Costen	133	29.36%
	Progressive Conservative	George Groeneveld	110	24.28%
	Liberal	Lori Czerwinski	78	17.22%
	Alberta Alliance	Brian Wickhorst	58	12.80%
	Green	Sheelagh Matthews	37	8.17%
	Separation	Cory Morgan	37	8.17%
Total			453	100%
Rejected, spoiled and declined			17

2012

2012 Alberta student vote results
Affiliation		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	John Barlow (Canadian politician)	609	49.39%
	Wildrose	Danielle Smith	442	35.85%
	Liberal	Keegan Gibson	118	9.57%
	NDP	Miles Dato	64	5.19%
Total			1233	100%

2019

Participating schools
Big Rock Elementary
Brant Christian School
C. Ian McLaren School
Calgary Girls' School
Dr. Morris Gibson School
École Secondaire Foothills Composite High/Alberta High School Of Fine Arts
Good Shepherd School
Heritage Heights School
Holy Trinity Academy
Oilfields High School
Red Deer Lake School
Spitzee Elementary School
St. Francis Of Assist Academy
St. Marys School
Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School
Summit West Independent School
Tanbridge Academy
Turner Valley
Westmount School
École Okotoks Junior High School
École Percy Pegler ELEMENTARY

More than 1,230 schools have reported their election results, representing all 87 electoral divisions in the province. In total, 165,527 ballots were cast by student participants. Of that, 2895 votes were cast in the Highwood electoral district.

2019 Alberta student vote results
Affiliation		Candidate	Votes	%
	United Conservative	RJ Sigurdson	1,606	55.47%
	Alberta Party	Ron Kerr	558	19.27%
	NDP	Erik Overland	496	17.13%
	Independence Party of Alberta	Dan Irving	235	8.12%
Total			2895	100%

External links

• Website of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta