Battle River—Crowfoot
Battle River—Crowfoot is a federal electoral district in Alberta. It covers a large portion of rural east-central Alberta, and has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2015.
Battle River—Crowfoot and its predecessor ridings have a long history of being among the most heavily conservative ridings in the country. Candidates from right-wing parties have consistently secured over three-fourths of the vote since the 1970s.
Geography
Battle River—Crowfoot is a rural riding, located in east-central Alberta. Its largest city is Camrose. It stretches from the Highway 14 corridor in the north to the Red Deer River and beyond in the south. The riding stretches from the Saskatchewan border in the east to the Highway 56 corridor in the west.The riding contains the municipal districts of Beaver County, Wainwright No. 61, Camrose County, Flagstaff County, Provost No. 52, Stettler County No. 6, Paintearth County No. 18, Kneehill County, Starland County, Acadia No. 34, Special Areas No. 2, 3 and 4, all of the cities towns and villages enclosed in those municipal districts, plus the Town of Drumheller.
Demographics
Racial groups: 88.5% White, 5.3% Indigenous, 2.8% FilipinoLanguages: 90.0% English, 4.1% German, 1.3% Tagalog, 1.2% French
Religions: 58.7% Christian, 39.9% None
Median income: $41,200
Average income: $51,650
History
Battle River—Crowfoot was created by the 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution and was legally defined in the 2013 representation order. It came into effect upon the call of the 2015 Canadian federal election. It was created out of parts of the electoral districts of Crowfoot, Vegreville—Wainwright, Medicine Hat and Wetaskiwin. At the time of its creation, the riding contained the municipal districts of Beaver County, Wainwright No. 61, Camrose County, Flagstaff County, Provost No. 52, Stettler County No. 6, Paintearth County No. 18, Starland County, Acadia No. 34, Special Areas No. 2, 3 and 4, Leduc County east of Highway 21, the northern half of Kneehill County, all of the cities towns and villages enclosed in those municipal districts, plus the Town of Drumheller.Following the 2022 Canadian federal electoral redistribution, the riding gained the remainder of Kneehill County, including the villages of Linden, Acme and Carbon from Bow River, and lost all of its territory in Leduc County to Leduc—Wetaskiwin.
Electoral history
Even by the standards of rural Alberta, Battle River—Crowfoot is a heavily conservative area. The riding and its predecessors, Acadia, Battle River, Battle River—Camrose, Camrose, and Crowfoot, have been represented by right-leaning MPs for all but two years since 1935, and the major right-wing party of the day has usually won here in massive landslides.Since the 1990s, the major right-wing party of the day has won by some of the largest margins ever recorded in Canadian politics, with other parties lucky to get 30 percent of the vote between them. The Conservative Party of Canada has kept this tradition going since its formation in 2003. Its candidates in what is now Battle River—Crowfoot have consistently secured some of the largest vote shares and largest margins of victory in the country.
Its first member, Kevin Sorenson, was first elected for Crowfoot in 2000 with 70 percent of the vote–the only time that he garnered less than 80 percent of the vote. He was succeeded by Damien Kurek, won in 2019 with more than 85% of the vote. He was reelected in 2021 with 70 percent of the vote, the lowest vote share for the Conservatives or their predecessors in two decades. Even then, no other candidate managed even 10 percent of the vote.
In 2025, Kurek announced his intention to resign to provide a vacancy which could allow Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre a chance to run in Battle River—Crowfoot, which triggered a by-election. Poilievre had lost his bid for reelection in his old riding of Carleton, and sought to return to the House by running in a safe riding. Kurek subsequently resigned on June 17. As expected, Poilievre won the August 18 by-election handily with almost 81 percent of the vote; no other candidate cleared 10 percent.