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Spirit River-Fairview

Spirit River-Fairview

Alberta electoral district
Defunct provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Alberta
District created	1971
District abolished	1986
First contested	1971
Last contested	1984

Spirit River-Fairview was a provincial electoral district in northwestern Alberta, Canada mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first-past-the-post method of voting from 1971 to 1986.^[1]

Spirit River-Fairview electoral district was created prior to the 1971 Alberta general election by merger of the Spirit River and Dunvegan electoral districts. The district was abolished in 1986 and recreated into Dunvegan.

Spirit River-Fairview was created in 1971 out of Dunvegan and the north half of Spirit River. It contained the communities of Spirit River, Fairview and Rycroft, and extended northward past the Chinchaga River. Its boundaries remained unchanged until it was abolished in 1986 and replaced by the second incarnation of Dunvegan.

Spirit River-Fairview's first MLA was NDP leader Grant Notley. He is the father of premier Rachel Notley, who was seven years old when he was first elected. Notley was the only New Democrat elected in 1971, and would remain the party's only MLA until 1982. He served as leader of the opposition until his untimely death in a plane crash on October 19, 1984.^[2] Notley's closest competition during his career came in 1982 with Progressive Conservative physician Doug Snider who advocated for a hospital to be built in the community.^[3]

The resulting by-election in 1985 saw the NDP hold Spirit River-Fairview, with Jim Gurnett serving as MLA for the remainder of the term, after which the riding was abolished. This makes Spirit River-Fairview the only rural riding in Alberta to have elected only New Democrats to the Legislative Assembly.

Swing is calculated from the 1967 result in Dunvegan, which had similar boundaries.

• List of Alberta provincial electoral districts
• Spirit River (Alberta), a river in northern Alberta, Canada
• Spirit River, Alberta, a town in northern Alberta, Canada
• Fairview, Alberta, a town in northern Alberta, Canada

• Office of the Chief Electoral Officer; Legislative Assembly Office (2006). A Century of Democracy: Elections of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, 1905-2005. The Centennial Series. Edmonton, AB: Legislative Assembly of Alberta. ISBN 0-9689217-8-7. Retrieved May 25, 2020.

• Elections Alberta
• The Legislative Assembly of Alberta

56°00′N 118°42′W / 56.0°N 118.7°W / 56.0; -118.7