Abbotsford (electoral district)

Abbotsford

British Columbia electoral district
File:Abbotsford.png Abbotsford federal electoral district
Federal electoral district
Legislature	House of Commons
MP	Ed Fast Conservative
District created	2003
First contested	2004
Last contested	2015
District webpage	profile, map
Demographics
Population (2011)	96,819
Electors (2015)	67,509
Area (km²)	176
Pop. density (per km²)	550.1
Census divisions	Fraser Valley
Census subdivisions	Abbotsford, Fraser Valley H Electoral Area, Matsqui Main 2, Upper Sumas 6

Abbotsford is a federal electoral district in British Columbia, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 2004.

Demographics

The riding has the lowest proportion of Catholics in Canada, with just 10.6% of the population adhering to Catholicism., as well as the highest proportion (9.8%) of "Christian, not included elsewhere" (non-Protestant, non-Catholic, non-Orthodox). 12.2% of its population claim Dutch ethnic origin, the highest such figure for any Canadian federal riding.

Geography

The district includes the City of Abbotsford, Fraser Valley H Electoral Area, and the Indian reserves of Matsqui Main 2 and Upper Sumas 6.

History

The electoral district was created in 2003. 56.1% of the riding was taken from Fraser Valley riding, and 43.9% from Langley—Abbotsford.

The 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution concluded that the electoral boundaries of Abbotsford should be adjusted, and a modified electoral district of the same name will be contested in future elections. The redefined Abbotsford loses portions of its current territory in the north and west to the new districts of Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon and Langley—Aldergrove. These new boundaries were legally defined in the 2013 representation order, which came into effect upon the call of the 42nd Canadian federal election, scheduled for October 2015.

The 2015 Canadian general election marked the first time a Conservative candidate was elected in Abbotsford with less than 50% of the popular vote.

Members of Parliament

This riding has elected the following Members of Parliament:

Parliament	Years	Member		Party
Abbotsford Riding created from Fraser Valley and Langley—Abbotsford
38th	2004–2006		Randy White	Conservative
39th	2006–2008		Ed Fast
40th	2008–2011
41st	2011–2015
42nd	2015–Present

Current Member of Parliament

Abbotsford's MP is Ed Fast. He is a member of the Conservative Party of Canada and was first elected in the 2006 election. He is a former Abbotsford city councillor and has worked as a lawyer, having earned a law degree at University of British Columbia. During the 40th Parliament, since January 2009, he was the chair of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights and a member of the Liaison Committee.

Election results

Canadian federal election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Ed Fast	23,229	48.27	-18.61	–
	Liberal	Peter Njenga	15,777	32.78	+24.08	–
	New Democratic	Jen Martel	6,593	13.70	-5.54	–
	Green	Stephen Fowler	2,416	5.02	+0.37	–
	Marxist–Leninist	David MacKay	109	0.23	-0.30	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			48,124	100.00
Total rejected ballots			202	0.42	–
Turnout			48,326	70.91	–
Eligible voters			68,154
	Conservative hold		Swing		-21.35
Source: Elections Canada

2011 federal election redistributed results
Party		Vote	%
	Conservative	25,060	66.88
	New Democratic	7,209	19.24
	Liberal	3,260	8.70
	Green	1,744	4.65
	Marxist-Leninist	196	0.52

Canadian federal election, 2011
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Conservative	Ed Fast	32,493	65.02	+1.70
	New Democratic	David Murray	10,089	20.19	+6.97
	Liberal	Madeleine Hardin	4,968	9.94	-6.34
	Green	Daniel Bryce	2,138	4.28	-2.17
	Marxist–Leninist	David MacKay	286	0.57	–
Total valid votes			49,974	100.0
Total rejected ballots			225	0.45	-0.07
Turnout			50,199	59.67	+1
	Conservative hold		Swing		-2.64

Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Ed Fast	30,853	63.32	+0.05	$79,097
	Liberal	Lionel Traverse	7,933	16.28	+3.61	$63,013
	New Democratic	Bonnie Rai	6,444	13.22	-3.75	$4,907
	Green	Karen Durant	3,141	6.45	+0.64	$833
	Marijuana	Tim Felger	358	0.73	+0.03
Total valid votes/Expense limit			48,729	100.0		$86,855
Total rejected ballots			256	0.52	+0.13
Turnout			48,985	59	-2
	Conservative hold		Swing		-1.78

Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Ed Fast	29,825	63.27	+1.90	$68,269
	New Democratic	Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson	8,004	16.97	+3.34	$6,955
	Liberal	David Oliver	5,976	12.67	-7.27	$22,258
	Green	Stephanie Ashley-Pryce	2,740	5.81	+2.93
	Marijuana	Tim Felger	334	0.70	-0.13
	Canadian Action	Richard Gebert	173	0.36	–	$80
	Marxist–Leninist	David S. MacKay	86	0.18	+0.08
Total valid votes			47,138	100.0
Total rejected ballots			183	0.39
Turnout			47,321	60.69
	Conservative hold		Swing		-0.72
David Oliver was registered as the Liberal candidate, but lost the support of the Liberal Party, and would not have sat with the Liberal caucus had he been he be elected until cleared of allegations made by the NDP candidate.

Canadian federal election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Randy White	29,587	61.37	-14.8	$66,946
	Liberal	Moe Gill	9,617	19.94	+2.3	$41,240
	New Democratic	Scott Fast	6,575	13.63	+9.7	$7,584
	Green	Karl Hann	1,389	2.88	–	$539
	Christian Heritage	Harold J. Ludwig	585	1.21	–	$2,075
	Marijuana	Tim Felger	404	0.83	–	$9,999
	Marxist–Leninist	David S. MacKay	51	0.10	–
Total valid votes			48,208	100.0
Total rejected ballots			182	0.38
Turnout			48,390	64.57
	Conservative notional hold		Swing		-9
Change based on redistributed results. Conservative change based on combined total of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party.

See also

• List of Canadian federal electoral districts
• Past Canadian electoral districts

References

• Library of Parliament Riding Profile
• Expenditures - 2004

External links

• CBC candidate nomination page
• Elections Canada