Battlefords - Lloydminster

This rural riding in western Saskatchewan straddles the Alberta border. It includes the communities of North Battleford, Battleford, Lloydminster, Kindersley and Unity, along with numerous smaller towns.

Ninteen per cent of the riding’s residents are aboriginal, many of whom live on reserves such as the sizable Poundmaker reserve. English is the mother tongue of 87 per cent of the population, followed by Cree at just under five per cent and German at three per cent. The francophone population is just over one per cent.

Agriculture is the biggest industry in this riding, with the primary crops being grains and oil seeds. Cattle, pigs and sheep are also raised. Resource-based industries, including oil and natural gas, play a major role and the Lloydminster Heavy Oil Upgrader is in the riding.

The 2006 census shows an average family income of $64,818 and an unemployment rate of 5.2 per cent.

This riding was created in the 1996 redistribution from equal parts of Battlefords-Meadow Lake and Kindersley-Lloydminster.

Population: 71,184 (2006 census; a decrease of 3.0% since 2001)

Political History

Gerry Ritz won a landslide decision in 2006, taking 53 per cent of the vote and nearly four times as many votes as his next closest opponent.

Ritz enjoyed a decisive victory in 2004, capturing 58 per cent of the vote, his first campaign under the Conservative banner.

In 1997, Ritz and the Reform took this seat by 4,590 votes, defeating New Democrat Len Taylor. Ritz won more decisively in 2000, outpolling the NDP's Elgin Wayne Wyatt by nearly 12,600 votes.

For the two decades before 1997, Battlefords-Meadow Lake had alternated between Tory and New Democrat MPs. In Kindersley-Lloydminster, Tory Bill McKnight won the 1979, 1980, 1984 and 1988 elections and served in cabinet for nine years. He was succeeded in 1993 by Reform's Elwin Hermanson, who later became leader of the provincial Saskatchewan Party.

Battlefords-Lloydminster:

• 1997 - REF
• 2000 - CA
• 2004, 2006 – CON