Riding Profiles

EDMONTON-RUTHERFORD (40)

Riding Profile:

This south-central Edmonton riding is bordered on the north by Whitemud Drive, on the east by Gateway Boulevard, on the south mostly by Blackmud Creek and on the east mostly by 119th Street. In the 2004 redistribution, the riding gained southern area from Edmonton-Whitemud and lost northern area to Edmonton-Strathcona.

Retail is the biggest employer here, followed by health care and social services. The average household income, at $61,866, is slightly under the Alberta average, while the percentage of people considered low income — 12.8 — is slightly above average. Twenty-three per cent of residents are immigrants, while 52 per cent were born in the province.

Political History:

This riding has traded hands between the Liberals and the Conservatives many times over the years. Current MLA Liberal Rick Miller was elected in 2004 after unseating the-then incumbent Conservative Ian McClelland, 7,221 votes to 4,173. In 2001, however, McClelland beat Miller with 600 votes.

McClelland's predecessor, the Liberal's Percy Wickman, had defeated Tory Brenda Platzer in both 1993 and 1997 — first by 4,300 votes and then by 929 votes. Before 1993, many of the voters here had been in the old Edmonton-Whitemud riding. It was in that riding, in 1989, that Wickman was first elected when he toppled then-premier Don Getty, who had represented the riding since 1967.

In 2004, voter turnout was 54.6 per cent.