Constituency Profile: Athabasca

Athabasca constituency is outlined in red on the map above.

For more information on Athabasca constituency, please click here.

Athabasca has a long and interesting political history. The current Athabasca constituency traces its history back to the pivotal 1934 provincial election. That was the time when the Anderson Government lost every MLA, the Liberals won a landslide with 50 out of 55 seats, and a new party called the Farmer-Labour Party won 5 seats (this party later changed its name to the CCF). The Liberals won Athabasca in 1934, and the winner was Deakin Hall. Hall was a Liberal MLA in northern Saskatchewan from 1913 until 1944. Anyhow, Hall was MLA for Athabasca from 1934 to 1938 and then switched ridings. In 1938 the new Liberal MLA for Athabasca was Jules Marion, a Metis politician and businessman who lost to Hall in 1934, as a Liberal. Yes, the two candidates were both Liberals ,and one lost to another. Anyhow, Marion was an MLA in the north from 1926 to 1934 and from 1934 until his death in 1941. Liberal Hubert Staines won a 1941 by-election by-acclamation, and in 1944 Staines made way way for fellow Liberal Louis Marion, son of Jules Marion. Marion survived the CCF sweep of 1944, but in 1948 ran for re-election in Athabasca as an Independent and won. This is the last instance where an Independent MLA has been elected to the Saskatchewan Legislature.

After 1952, Liberal James Ripley was the MLA for Athabasca until 1956 and in 1956 the CCF won Athabasca with candidate John Harrop. But in 1960 the Liberals won in Athabasca again, with Allan Guy as the candidate. Guy was re-elected in 1964, 1967 and 1971, and served as Minister of Public Works, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Minister of the Saskatchewan Indians and Metis Department. In 1971, Guy was only re-elected in Athabasca by 12 votes over the NDP, so the results went to a by-election in September 1972. Guy won the by-election by 30 votes, and returned to the Legislature. In 1975 Guy didn't run again in Athabasca, and tried instead to run for the Liberals in Rosthern when David Boldt retired. But Guy lost to Ralph Katzman of the PCs.

In 1975 Fred Thompson won Athabasca for the NDP, and was re-elected in 1978, 1982, 1986 and 1991. Thompson held different cabinet positions in the Romanow Government, including Associate Minister of Economic Development, Minister of the Saskatchewan Housing Corporation, and Minister of the Saskatchewan Forest Products Corporation. But in 1995 Thompson was defeated by Liberal Buckley Belanger, by 159 votes or about 5 percentage points. In 1998 Belanger left the Liberals, resigned as MLA and ran for re-election in a by-election with the NDP. Belanger easily won the by-election with over 94 percent of the vote, the second highest margin of victory in Saskatchewan political history. After 1999 Belanger became Minister of the Environment and Minister of Intergovernmental and Aboriginal Affairs. Later Belanger also became Minister of Northern Affairs.

Belanger was re-elected in 1999 with 84 percent of the vote, 70 percent in 2003 and 59 percent in 2007. Belanger is seeking re-election on November 7. Although NDP fortunes are down this time, Belanger is still expected to win again in Athabasca, by a healthy margin. Oddly enough it will be the first time that there will be no Liberal candidate on the ballot in this riding. In a seat where at one time the only candidates on the ballots were 2 Liberals competing against each other, to not have a Liberal candidate on the ballot at all this time seems out of place.