Medicine Hat

The Medicine Hat riding covers the city of Medicine Hat in southeastern Alberta, a community that has long styled itself as a centre of self-sufficiency thanks to its vast reserves of natural gas. The city sits along the South Saskatchewan River and has historically been one of the most politically conservative jurisdictions in the province, electing Progressive Conservative MLAs continuously from 1979 until the Wildrose breakthrough of 2012.

Heading into 2015, the riding's political landscape was unusually turbulent. Blake Pedersen had been elected as a Wildrose MLA in 2012, but on December 17, 2014, he was one of nine Wildrose members who crossed the floor to join Premier Jim Prentice's Progressive Conservatives. He subsequently won the PC nomination for the riding. With the Wildrose fielding a new candidate and the NDP benefiting from a province-wide surge, Medicine Hat was poised for a competitive contest that defied the riding's conservative traditions.

Candidates

Bob Wanner (NDP) — Wanner was born and raised on a small grain and cattle farm near Weyburn, Saskatchewan, and studied at the University of Saskatchewan. He began his career as a provincial social worker in northern Alberta before moving into municipal government. He spent decades working for the City of Medicine Hat in senior administrative roles, including positions in preventive social services, administration and planning for the police service, and social planning and housing. He played an instrumental role in developing the volunteer charity Canadians Reaching Out to the World's Children Foundation. Wanner had previously run for the NDP in Medicine Hat in the 1993 provincial election.

Val Olson (Wildrose) — Olson was a local radio personality in Medicine Hat who carried the Wildrose banner in the 2015 contest after Pedersen's departure from the party.

Blake Pedersen (Progressive Conservative) — Pedersen was the sitting MLA for Medicine Hat, first elected as a Wildrose candidate in 2012. His December 2014 floor-crossing to the PCs made him a focal point of voter anger over the mass defection.

Local Issues

Medicine Hat's economy was built on natural gas, but years of low gas prices had eroded the city's traditional revenue advantage. The city owned thousands of natural gas wells, and the revenue from those wells had historically funded infrastructure and kept taxes low. By 2014–2015, the sustained decline in North American gas prices was forcing the city to confront the prospect of shutting down many of those wells, threatening municipal jobs and the fiscal model that had long defined Medicine Hat's identity.

The broader oil price crash that began in late 2014 compounded these difficulties. Workers in the region's oil and gas sector lost their jobs, and the ripple effects were felt throughout the local economy. The combination of low commodity prices and rising unemployment fuelled widespread anxiety about the future of the energy-dependent regional economy.

The floor-crossing controversy also dominated local discussion. Pedersen's decision to join the PCs—along with Wildrose leader Danielle Smith and seven other caucus members—was seen by many voters as a betrayal of the mandate they had given those MLAs in 2012. Trust in the political establishment, and particularly in the PC dynasty that had governed Alberta for more than four decades, was a central theme of the campaign in Medicine Hat.