Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek (Saskatchewan) 59/338

 Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek (Saskatchewan)

Today we're in rural Saskatchewan with Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek!

Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek has existed as a riding since the 2012 redistribution, the original name was proposed to be Humboldt—Warman—Martensville—Rosetown. The population centers are Warman (10,961 in 2016), Martensville (9,533 in 2016), and Humboldt (4,872 in 2016). The riding is named for Carlton Trail, a primary 19th century transportation route, and Eagle Creek, it seems to be a bit of a regional name, there are a few locations in the area named after it.

Politically, it has had interesting flips. Granted, the distribution from 1988 to 2015 had a rural-urban split. In less polarized times, this seat was very close, even up to 2004 when former Conservative MP Jim Pankiw ran and there was a four way race between Conservative, NDP, Liberals, and Jim Pankiw, all within 2,500 votes. The seat is currently held by Conservative MP Kelly Block.

As I mentioned earlier, the city of Humboldt is in the riding. The town is home to the Humboldt Broncos, a junior hockey team in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. On April 16th, 2018, the team underwent tragedy when a truck hit their team bus during a tournament, causing 16 fatalities and serious injuries to the rest of the bus. The rest of the team has since recovered, with varying injuries and the team has returned to the ice. In 2019, the riding was 11/14 in Saskatchewan and 323/338 in Canada by margin.

Rating:

Name: 6.7/10 - I like regional names, but for a region so large, I don't know how to fix it.

Shape: 5.9/10 - It does the best it can, given the purpose of the riding, but it is a little too jagged for my liking.  

Individuality: 7.4/10 - I love close races, and 2004 is exactly what I want out of close races. But now it has fallen into the typical rural prairie riding.

Total: 20/30 (66.7%)

Tomorrow we're back in Nova Scotia with Central Nova!