Saskatoon - Humboldt

With the South Saskatchewan River as its western boundary, this riding includes the northeast section of Saskatoon (between the river and 8th Street East) and a large rural portion northeast and east of the city. Big Quill Lake forms part of the southeast border. There are several First Nations reserves. Humboldt is the largest community in the riding outside Saskatoon.

Eight per cent of residents are immigrants, and six per cent are aboriginals. Eighty-four per cent listed English as their mother tongue in the 2006 census. There are large German and Ukrainian communities.

This riding includes the University of Saskatchewan, several high-tech research facilities and many farms. Agriculture contributes about nine per cent of the riding's jobs. The major sources of employment are the service sector, retail trade, manufacturing and construction. The average family income is $82,619 and unemployment is 5.1 per cent.

The riding of Saskatoon-Humboldt was created in 1966, abolished in 1976 and re-established in 1986.

Population: 75,051 (2006 census; an increase of 6.6% since 2001)

Political History

Conservative Bradley Trost won the riding comfortably in 2006, taking slightly less than 50 per cent of the vote. In 2004, this riding had a tight, three-way race, with a fourth candidate not far behind. Trost won with 417 more votes than New Democrat Nettie Wiebe, who was just 18 votes ahead of Liberal Patrick Wolfe. Incumbent Jim Pankiw, running as an Independent, came in 1,933 votes behind Wolfe.

Pankiw was first elected as a Reform candidate in 1997 by just 220 votes. He won as an Alliance candidate in 2000, but was suspended from the caucus in 2001 after a dispute over Stockwell Day's leadership. He was refused entry to the Conservative Party of Canada.

In the past four decades, Saskatoon-Humboldt has ranged across the political spectrum. Liberals dominated from 1968 to 1979, when Otto Lang was an MP and prominent cabinet minister. The NDP's Bob Ogle held the riding for five years, only to be replaced in 1984 by the Tories' Don Ravis — who in turn was ousted by New Democrat Stan Hovdebo in 1988. Liberal Georgette Sheridan won here in 1993, then fell flat in her 1997 re-election bid, ending up third.

Saskatoon-Humboldt:

• 1968, 1972, 1974 - LIB

Saskatoon East:

• 1979, 1980 - NDP
• 1984 - PC

Saskatoon-Humboldt:

• 1988 - NDP
• 1993 - LIB
• 1997 - REF
• 2000 - CA
• 2004, 2006 - CON