2004 Candidates:
Lori Czerwinski (Liberal)
George Groeneveld (PC)
Sheelagh Matthews (Green Party)
Cory Morgan (Separation Party)
Catherine Whelan Costen (NDP)
Brian Wickhorst (Alberta Alliance)

Maps from Elections Alberta will open in a new window.

Riding Profile:
Highwood, in rural southwest Alberta, used to be a far larger riding, but the 2004 redistribution carved away at least two-thirds of it. Gone are the mountains and parks in the west, now part of Banff-Cochrane. Also gone are the southern farmlands and the communities of Stavely, Nanton and Parkland, now part of Livingstone-Macleod, and the northwestern farmlands and the communities of Black Diamond, Turner Valley, Winton and Priddis, now part of Foothills-Rockyview. Communities that remain include High River and Longview.

Retail and construction are the major employers in Highwood, where household incomes average $71,884. Six per cent of residents are low income. About 58 per cent of residents were born in Alberta, nine per cent are immigrants, and fewer than four per cent are aboriginal.

Political History:
Highwood has gone to the PC party since 1975. Don Tannas, the incumbent, has been elected four times, always by wide margins, but he isn't running in this election. In his first bid for a seat in 1989 he defeated Liberal Don Dearle by more than 3,000 votes. Rusti-Ann Blanke, also a Liberal, lost by almost 5,000 votes in 1993. Four years later, the Liberal's Howard Paulsen lost to Tannas by 7,607 votes, and in 2001 Tannas' margin over Liberal Leonard Borowski was 11,321 votes. From 1975-82, Tory George Wolstenholme was MLA here. Harry Alger served from 1982-89.

In 2001, voter turnout was 56.1 per cent.