The latest Canadian federal election took place on October 21, 2019. The overall result was a Liberal victory with 156 of 338 total seats in Parliament, forming a minority government.
Leading up to the election, Alberta Pork covered international trade markets, business risk management, African Swine Fever preparedness, general agriculture policy, constituency characteristics and candidate profiles.
Analysis
What do the results mean for Alberta pork producers?
Compared to the 2015 federal election, the Liberals in Alberta lost three seats, with a gain of three by the Conservatives. The New Democrats had no losses or gains and retain their single seat in Edmonton-Strathcona, where no producers live. No other parties gained or lost any seats in Alberta.
This result means that 33 of 34 total federal constituencies in Alberta are now represented by Conservatives. For the constituencies where our producers live, there is no change in the parties representing those constituencies.
For each of the top-10 constituencies by Alberta pork producer population, no Conservative candidate received less than 65.6% of all votes, while the Conservative candidate in Battle River-Crowfoot led the way with 85.5% of all votes in his constituency. This was the greatest lead of any candidate in any constituency across the country.
In eight of the 10 most-popular producer constituencies, the New Democrat candidate fared better than the Liberal candidate, and in seven out of 10, the People’s Party candidate fared better than the Green candidate. This runs contrary to the trend in most other parts of the country.
Taken together, representation for Alberta pork producers has not changed very much, and the results can be considered unsurprising. What does change for our province as a whole is greater parity between Conservatives and Liberals in the House of Commons, and Alberta’s only federal cabinet minister (Amarjeet Sohi, former MP, Edmonton-Mill Woods) will now be replaced in the Natural Resources portfolio.
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