User:Username6892/Peace River—Westlock

Peace River—Westlock is a federal electoral district in Alberta that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 2015. It has been represented by Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Arnold Viersen since 2015.

Profile
The district consists of the entirety of Westlock, Woodlands, Barrhead No. 11,, Big Lakes, Birch Hills, and Northern Sunrise counties, as well as the Municipal Districts of Lesser Slave River No. 124 and Smoky River No. 130. It also consists of parts of Mackenzie County and the Municipal Districts of Opportunity No. 17 and Greenview No. 16. According to Campaign 2000, an anti-poverty advocacy group, the district has the highest child poverty rate in Alberta, with at least 25 percent of children in the district living below the poverty line.

2012 redistribution
Following the 2011 census, Northern Alberta was found to be underrepresented in parliament and in the initial proposal, the area would get an extra electoral district. A district with the name Peace River—Westlock was one of the three proposed, consisting of a large area of Northwestern Alberta which the redistribution commission noted had various shared resource interests. The proposed district would not have a lower population that the provincial quota despite its large size due to it being well-connected. During the public hearings, there were some concerns raised about the size of the district. The commission decided to modify the district and the nearby district of Grande Prairie, to be more equal in terms of area. As a result, the district would no longer border the Northwest Territories.

After the initial report was released, two objections were filed. The first was by Peace River MP Chris Warkentin, who believed that the district should be smaller, noting that internet access in the large area is varied and face-to-face communication was preferable. He also noted that the large forest between the northern and southern communities prevented connections between said communities. The other, filed by Yellowhead MP Rob Merrifield, proposed the same change that Warkentin proposed with similar reasoning, also arguing that the southern communities would dominate such a riding. Both suggestions were rejected by the committee, noting that they addressed the geography issue during the public hearings and that the communities share resource-related interests. The redistributed vote totals from the 2011 election showed the Conservative Party winning the district, receiving almost 80 percent of the vote.

2015 election
For the 2015 election, the Conservatives nominated Arnold Viersen, a former auto mechanic who identifies as socially conservative. Similarly to the other candidates, his main concerns during the campaign were job creation and economic growth. The New Democratic Party (NDP) nominated Cameron Alexis, a retired RCMP officer and former Regional Chief of Alberta for the Assembly of First Nations. Other candidates included Green Sabrina Lee, Libertartian Jeremy Sergeew, and Liberal Chris Brown, who worked in public relations and held a journalism degree. During the campaign, candidate Brown caused controversy during the campaign after profane tweets from 2009 resurfaced. Despite this, Brown remained as their candidate.

Conservative candidate Viersen ended up winning the riding with 69 percent of the vote. The NDP and Liberal candidates, Alexis and Brown, were second and third, both winning a similar number of votes. Shortly after the election, interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose appointed Viersen as deputy critic for rural affairs.

Potential DYK hooks

 * (Prose needs to be at least 6775 B according to prosesize)
 * Ones mentioning Chris Brown:
 * ...that Chris Brown once ran for a public office?
 * ...that Chris Brown once ran as a Liberal in Peace River—Westlock?
 * ...that in 2015, Chris Brown ran as a Liberal in Peace River—Westlock?


 * Non-Chris Brown ones (last resort):


 * ...that according to an anti-poverty advoacy group, the electoral district of Peace River—Westlock has the highest child poverty rate in Alberta?
 * ...that using the redistributed results from the 2011 election, the Conservative Party of Canada would have won the district of Peace River—Westlock with nearly 80 percent of the vote?