Brooks—Medicine Hat

Brooks—Medicine Hat is a newly created riding in southeastern Alberta, established through the 2017 boundary redistribution. It encompasses the City of Brooks, the northern portion of Medicine Hat, the Town of Bassano, and the surrounding rural areas of Newell County, including CFB Suffield. The riding blends an urban-rural dynamic, with Medicine Hat’s northern neighbourhoods joining a largely agricultural and energy-producing hinterland. The district had no incumbent heading into 2019 due to the boundary changes, though parts of the riding were previously represented by Drew Barnes (Cypress—Medicine Hat) and the former Strathmore—Brooks riding.

Candidates

Michaela Glasgo (United Conservative) — Glasgo was a political science graduate from the University of Lethbridge who was born and raised in Medicine Hat. She had previously worked as a press secretary for UCP MLA Drew Barnes and was the owner and chief consultant of a strategic consulting firm. She won the UCP nomination in July 2018.

Lynn MacWilliam (NDP) — MacWilliam was a councillor for the Town of Bassano who took a leave of absence from her municipal duties to run provincially. She had 15 years of experience working for Members of Parliament in Ottawa, including for former federal NDP leader Audrey McLaughlin. She had previously run for the NDP in Strathmore—Brooks in the 2015 provincial election and also ran federally for the NDP in Bow River in 2015.

Todd Beasley (Independent) — Beasley ran as an independent candidate. He had previously been removed from the UCP constituency nomination contest.

Jim Black (Alberta Party) — Black ran as the Alberta Party candidate in the riding. He participated in local candidate forums during the campaign.

Jamah Bashir Farah (Liberal) — Farah ran as the Alberta Liberal candidate. Originally from Somalia, he had lived in Canada for over a decade and owned several businesses in the region.

Collin Pacholek (Alberta Independence) — Pacholek ran as the Alberta Independence Party candidate, representing the party’s platform of holding a referendum on Alberta separation.

Local Issues

The economy dominated discussion in Brooks—Medicine Hat heading into the 2019 election. Brooks is home to one of Canada’s largest beef-processing facilities, operated by JBS Canada, which processes thousands of head of cattle daily and is the town’s largest employer. The plant had transformed Brooks into one of Alberta’s most ethnically diverse communities, drawing workers from around the world. Housing availability, settlement services, and infrastructure to support this growing and diverse population remained ongoing concerns for the community.

The natural gas sector is a major economic driver in the surrounding area. Falling commodity prices and the broader oil and gas downturn had affected employment in the region, and pipeline constraints limiting market access for Alberta energy products were a top-of-mind issue for voters.

Healthcare access was another concern in a riding that spans a large geographic area. Medicine Hat Regional Hospital had completed an expansion in 2018, adding an expanded emergency department and a heliport, but residents in more remote parts of the riding still faced long travel times to access specialized medical services. The balance between urban services in Medicine Hat and the needs of smaller rural communities like Bassano and Tilley was a recurring theme in the campaign.