Edmonton—Wetaskiwin (Alberta) 97/338

 Edmonton—Wetaskiwin (Alberta)

Today we're in southern Edmonton with Edmonton—Wetaskiwin!

Edmonton—Wetaskiwin has existed as a riding since the 2012 redistribution. The population of the riding was 158,749 in 2016. The riding contains a portion of Edmonton, as well as the city of Leduc (29,993 in 2016), and the town of Beaumont (17,396 in 2016). The riding is the most populous in the country, growing 43.5% between 2011 and 2016, especially with the smaller communities growing by more than 4,000 people each.

Politically, not super interesting. Typical Edmonton, Conservative but trending towards the NDP, but still ultimately out of reach for a while. The interesting part of this riding is that of the three Edmonton exurban ridings, it gave the left of center parties the most votes, and while that is only 35% at most, it is something to take note of in the future of the riding/city. This riding is currently represented by Conservative MP Mike Lake.

With Alberta gaining three new ridings in the next redistribution, the conventional wisdom is that the two main cities will get one more each, and the third is still up in the air. Feel free to disagree, but I believe the next seat will be in Edmonton. While in terms of city proper, Calgary has grown more, Edmonton has seen the suburbs and exurbs growing exponentially, also every riding is severely over populated in both cities, please give both cities more ridings, we don't need 130,000 people in one riding. In 2019, this seat was 18/34 in Alberta and 317/338 in Canada by margin.

Rating:

Name: 7.9/10 - Pretty good name, county names are always good, but maybe a little too general.

Shape: 5.8/10 - Listen, I get that it follows municipal boundaries, but I cannot stand the splits this riding is doing.

Individuality: 8.6/10 - Every Alberta riding is over populated, but shoutout to this riding for being THIS overpopulated.

Total: 22.3/30 (74.3%)

Tomorrow we're back in Toronto with Eglinton—Lawrence!