Athabasca (Saskatchewan provincial electoral district)

57°00′N 108°00′W

Athabasca

Saskatchewan electoral district
Provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan
MLA	Buckley Belanger New Democratic
District created	1934
First contested	1934
Last contested	2011
Demographics
Population (2001)	13,041
Electors (2003)	7,146
Census divisions	Division No. 18
Census subdivisions	La Loche, Île-à-la-Crosse, Buffalo Narrows

Athabasca is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is located in the extreme northwest corner of the province. The major industries are tourism, mineral extraction, forestry, commercial fishing and trapping. The Cluff Lake uranium mine is located in this constituency, as well as the Athabasca Sand Dunes Provincial Park and the Clearwater River Provincial Park. The major communities are La Loche, Île-à-la-Crosse and Buffalo Narrows with populations of 2,136, 1,268 and 1,137 respectively.

There is also a former provincial electoral district of the same name that was created before the 1908 general election and was dissolved before the 1917 general election.

History

Member of the Legislative Assembly

Former

	#	MLA	Served	Party
	1.	Joseph Octave Nolin	1908 - 1917	Liberal

Current

In 1998 Buckley Belanger was elected, winning by 159 votes. Belanger left the Liberals, putting his seat on the line to run as a New Democrat. In the by-election, he defeated the Liberal candidate by 2,050 votes (94% of the popular vote), the second-largest majority in the history of the province.

	#	MLA	Served	Party
	1.	Deakin Alexander Hall	1934–1938	Liberal
	2.	A. Jules Marion	1938–1941	Liberal
	3.	Hubert Staines	1941–1944	Liberal
	4.	Louis Marcien Marion	1944–1948	Liberal
	4.	Louis Marcien Marion	1948–1952	Independent
	5.	James Ripley	1952–1956	Liberal
	6.	John James Harrop	1956–1960	Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
	7.	Allan Ray Guy	1960–1975	Liberal
	8.	Frederick John Thompson	1975–1995	New Democratic Party
	9.	Buckley Belanger	1995–1998	Liberal
	9.	Buckley Belanger	1998 - Current	New Democratic Party

Election results

Former

Saskatchewan General Election 1908: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Joseph Octave Nolin	252	96.55	-10.01
	Provincial Rights	Aime T. Besnard	9	3.44	-
Total			261	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1912: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Joseph Octave Nolin	163	80.29	-16.25
	PC	George Robert Russel	40	19.70	-
Total			203	100.00

Current

Saskatchewan general election, 1934: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Deakin Alexander Hall	1,329	57.80	-
	Liberal	A. Jules Marion	970	42.19	-
Total			2,299	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1938: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	A. Jules Marion	642	50.55	+8.35
	Liberal	William J. Windrum	628	49.44	-
Total			1,270	100.00

Athabasca By-election, July 28, 1941
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Hubert Staines	-	-	-
Acclaimation

Saskatchewan general election, 1944: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Louis Marcien Marion	626	80.77	-
	Independent	Errick Guttormur Erickson	78	10.06	-
	CCF	Pierre Ephrem Ayotte	57	7.35	-
	Progressive Conservative	Alexander Fred De Laronde	9	1.16	-
	Independent (Liberal)	Francis Xavier Poitras	5	0.64	-
Total			775	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1948: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Louis Marcien Marion	628	52.59	-28.17
	CCF	Axel Olsen	341	28.55	+21.20
	Independent	Joseph David Le Chasseur	225	18.84	-
Total			1,194	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1952: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Ripley	543	61.35	+8.75
	CCF	C.L. MacLean	342	38.64	+10.08
Total			885	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1956: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Frederick Alexander Matheson	740	43.70	-17.64
	CCF	John James Harrop	836	49.37	+10.73
	Social Credit	John I. Bondoreff	117	6.91	-
Total			1,693	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1960: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Allan Ray Guy	972	33.90	-9.80
	CCF	Allan Quant	801	27.93	-21.44
	Progressive Conservative	Harry J. Houghton	622	21.69	-
	Social Credit	Dana Spence	472	16.46	+9.55
Total			2,867	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1964: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Allan Ray Guy	1,076	40.31	+6.41
	Progressive Conservative	Harry J. Houghton	909	34.05	+12.36
	CCF	John M. Stonehocker	684	25.62	-2.31
Total			2,669	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1967: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Allan Ray Guy	1,397	49.59	+9.27
	Progressive Conservative	Harry J. Houghton	818	29.03	-5.01
	New Democratic	Tony Wood	602	21.37	-4.25
Total			2,817	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1971: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Allan Ray Guy	1770	50.17	+9.85
	New Democratic	Robert Dalby	1758	49.82	+24.20
Total			3528	100.00

Athabasca By-election, September 27, 1972
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Allan Ray Guy	1398	43.44	-6.72
	New Democratic	Robert Dalby	1368	42.51	-7.31
	Independent	Ray Jones	414	12.86	-
	Progressive Conservative	William Howard McGill	38	1.18	-
Total			3218	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1975: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Frederick John Thompson	1,483	38.12	-4.38
	Liberal	Ben Siemens	1,157	29.74	-13.70
	Independent	Rod Bishop	829	21.31	-
	Progressive Conservative	Roy Simpson	421	10.82	+9.64
Total			3,890	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1978: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Frederick John Thompson	2,340	58.23	+20.11
	Progressive Conservative	Frank Petit	1,180	29.36	+18.54
	Liberal	Henry Ethelbert Coupland	498	12.39	-17.34
Total			4,018	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1982: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Frederick John Thompson	1,606	36.07	-22.16
	Progressive Conservative	Bruce Clarke	1,162	26.10	-3.26
	Liberal	Willard Quewezance	498	11.18	-1.20
	Independent	Rod Bishop	976	21.92	+0.61
	Aboriginal People's	Vital Morin	210	4.71	-
Total			4,452	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1986: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Frederick John Thompson	2,357	55.19	+19.12
	Liberal	Jim Durocher	1456	34.09	+22.91
	Progressive Conservative	Pat Cardinal	457	10.70	-15.39
Total			4,270	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1991: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Frederick John Thompson	3,253	83.79	+28.59
	Progressive Conservative	Frank Petit	331	8.52	-2.17
	Liberal	Darren McKee	184	4.73	-29.35
	Independent	Mike Daley	114	2.93	-
Total			3,882	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1995: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Buckley Belanger	1,347	45.59	+40.85
	New Democratic	Frederick John Thompson	1,188	40.21	-43.58
	Independent	Jimmy Montgrand	390	13.20	-
	Progressive Conservative	Clay Poupart	29	0.98	-7.54
Total			2,954	100.00

Athabasca By-election, October 26, 1998
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Buckley Belanger	2,153	93.64	+53.43
	Liberal	Winston McKay	97	4.21	-41.37
	Saskatchewan	Tyson Delorme	49	2.13	+2.13
Total			2,299	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 1999: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	New Democratic	Buckley Belanger	2,512	84.38	-9.26
	Liberal	Allan Adam	389	13.06	+8.84
	Saskatchewan	Bert Roach	76	2.55	+0.42
Total			2,977	100.00

Saskatchewan General Election 2003: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	NDP	Buckley Belanger	2,407	69.99	-14.39
	Saskatchewan	Greg Ross	803	23.35	+20.80
	Liberal	Philip Durocher	207	6.02	-7.05
	Progressive Conservative	Sean Gilchrist	22	0.64	-
Total			3,439	100.00

Saskatchewan general election, 2007: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	NDP	Buckley Belanger	1,885	59.41	-10.58
	Saskatchewan	Phil Elliott	1,012	31.89	+8.54
	Liberal	Malvina Iron	174	5.48	-0.54
	Green	Sean Gilchrist	102	3.21	+3.21
Total			3,173	100.00

Saskatchewan general election, 2011: Athabasca
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	NDP	Buckley Belanger	1,867	63.79
	Saskatchewan	Bobby Woods	1,021	34.88	–
	Green	George Durocher	39	1.33	–

References

• Saskatchewan Archives Board: Saskatchewan Executive and Legislative Directory

External links

• Website of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan