Edmonton-Mill Creek


Edmonton Mill Creek was a provincial electoral district in Alberta, Canada, mandated to return a single member to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta using the first past the post method of voting from 1997 to 2019.

Edmonton-Mill Creek electoral district was created in the 1996 boundary redistribution from the old electoral district of Edmonton-Avonmore and a small part of Edmonton-Gold Bar electoral districts, and named for the Mill Creek Ravine which runs through Edmonton. The 2010 electoral boundary re-distribution saw the riding boundaries shift southwards. The 2003 south boundaries which ended at 23 Avenue were moved further south into Edmonton-Mill Woods and Edmonton-Ellerslie to end at Anthony Henday Drive. The northern boundaries of the riding were also pushed south from 92 Avenue to the Sherwood Park Freeway at its most northern point.[1]

The district was abolished in 2017 when the Electoral Boundaries Commission recommended renaming Edmonton-Mill Creek to Edmonton-Meadows, reflecting a change in boundaries that "leaves the part of Mill Creek most well-known to Edmontonians in the constituency of Edmonton-Gold Bar".[2]

The electoral district was created in 1997 largely from the old electoral district of Edmonton-Avonmore. That district had become a swing riding through the 1980s and 90s being won by candidates from three different parties. The incumbent Gene Zwozdesky had previously represented Avonmore winning his first term in office in 1993.

Zwozdesky won his first term representing Mill Creek as a Liberal candidate. A year later in 1998 he had a high-profile falling out with the Liberal party and left the caucus to sit as an Independent. He joined the Progressive Conservative caucus a short time later and was re-elected under that banner in 2001.

Starting in 1999 Zwozdesky was appointed to his first portfolio as a junior minister. In total he has held six different ministerial portfolios in the governments of Ralph Klein and Ed Stelmach with his last portfolio ending in 2011. Zwozdesky was defeated in the 2015 Alberta general election by Alberta NDP candidate Denise Woollard.[4]