Edmonton Strathcona

Edmonton Strathcona is a federal electoral district in Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1953. It spans the south-central part of the city of Edmonton. In the periods from 2008 to 2015 and 2019 to 2021, during the 40th, 41st, and 43rd Canadian Parliaments, Edmonton Strathcona was the only federal riding in Alberta not represented by the Conservative Party.

Geography

Edmonton Strathcona encompasses the neighbourhoods of Allendale, Argyll, Avonmore, Belgravia, Bonnie Doon, Capilano, Cloverdale, Empire Park, Forest Heights, Fulton Place, Garneau, Gold Bar, Grandview Heights, Hazeldean, Holyrood, Idylwylde, Kenilworth, King Edward Park, Lansdowne, Lendrum Place, Malmo Plains, McKernan, Ottewell, Parkallen, Pleasantview, Queen Alexandra Park, Ritchie, Riverdale, Strathcona, Strathearn, Terrace Heights, and Windsor Park.
The riding contains the historic district of Old Strathcona, the University of Alberta, the University of Alberta Campus Saint-Jean and the Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre.
It borders on the federal ridings of Edmonton Centre, Edmonton Griesbach, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, Edmonton Southeast, Edmonton Gateway and Edmonton Riverbend.
This district is bounded:

On the north by the North Saskatchewan River.
On the west by the Whitemud Creek from the North Saskatchewan River to Whitemud Drive.
On the south by Whitemud Drive, from Whitemud Creek to the City Limits.
On the east by Edmonton's City Limits.

Political geography

As evidenced by the 2008 and 2011 elections, this riding is heavily polarized between more urban New Democratic Party voters concentrated in the northwest of the riding and suburban Conservative voters concentrated in the south and east.
The NDP picked up this seat in 2008 for the first time in its history, when Edmonton lawyer Linda Duncan defeated Tory incumbent Rahim Jaffer, thanks to a consolidation of non-Conservative votes. They have retained the riding since and it has established itself as clearly the most left-leaning riding in Alberta. Since the 2021 federal election, Edmonton-Strathcona has been the safest NDP seat in all of Canada.

Demographics

Languages: 77.3% English, 3.8% French, 3.5% Chinese, 2.5% German, 1.5% Ukrainian, 1.3% Spanish, 1.3% Tagalog

Religions: 52.8% Christian, 2.5% Muslim, 1.2% Hindu, 1.1% Buddhist, 40.6% No religion

Median income : $35,026

Average income : $46,710

History

The Strathcona riding dates back to Territorial times, and a United Farmer of Alberta MP in that early incarnation.
The electoral district of "Edmonton-Strathcona" was created in 1952 from Edmonton East and Edmonton West ridings.
"Edmonton—Strathcona" gained territory from Edmonton East and was renamed "Edmonton Strathcona" during the 2012 electoral redistribution.

Members of Parliament

This riding has elected the following members of the House of Commons:

Current member of Parliament

The current member of Parliament is Heather McPherson of the New Democratic Party who was first elected in the 2019 federal election and re-elected in the 2021 federal election. Winning 61% of the district vote in 2021, McPherson holds the largest margin of victory among elected NDP MPs in the 44th parliament.