Bow River (electoral district)

Bow River
Alberta electoral district
	Interactive map of riding boundaries from the 2025 federal election
Federal electoral district
Legislature	House of Commons
MP	David Bexte; Conservative
;
District created	2013
First contested	2015
Last contested	2025
District webpage	profile, map
Demographics
Population (2016)	115,022
Electors (2019)	78,944
Area (km²)	24,036.47
Pop. density (per km²)	4.8
Census division(s)	Division No. 2, Division No. 5, Division No. 6
Census subdivision(s)	Rocky View (part), Chestermere, Brooks, Strathmore, Taber, Wheatland, Taber, Vulcan County (part), Siksika, Vauxhall

LegislatureHouse of Commons

MP

David Bexte
Conservative

District created2013

First contested2015

Bow River is a federal electoral district in southern Alberta, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1917 to 1968, from 1979 to 1988 and since 2015.

This riding was first created in 1914 from Macleod riding. It was abolished in 1966 when it was redistributed into Calgary North, Crowfoot, Palliser and Rocky Mountain ridings.

It was re-created in 1976 from parts of Crowfoot, Lethbridge, Palliser and Rocky Mountain ridings. It was abolished in 1987 when it was redistributed into Calgary North, Calgary Northeast, Calgary West, Crowfoot, Lethbridge, Macleod, Red Deer and Wild Rose ridings.

It was re-created by the 2012 federal electoral boundaries redistribution and was legally defined in the 2013 representation order. It came into effect upon the call of the 42nd Canadian federal election, scheduled for October 2015.^[1] This newest iteration of the riding was created out of parts of Crowfoot (53%), Medicine Hat (37%) and Macleod (10%) ridings.

[1]

Panethnic group	2021^[2]		2016^[3]		2011^[4]
Panethnic group	Pop.	%	Pop.	%	Pop.	%
European^[a]	83,840	73.99%	85,535	78.35%	82,105	83.14%
Indigenous	7,545	6.66%	7,310	6.7%	5,935	6.01%
South Asian	6,360	5.61%	4,450	4.08%	2,520	2.55%
Southeast Asian^[b]	5,885	5.19%	4,550	4.17%	3,735	3.78%
African	4,345	3.83%	2,820	2.58%	1,405	1.42%
East Asian^[c]	1,685	1.49%	1,805	1.65%	1,450	1.47%
Latin American	1,550	1.37%	1,150	1.05%	630	0.64%
Middle Eastern^[d]	1,110	0.98%	950	0.87%	490	0.5%
Other/Multiracial^[e]	1,005	0.89%	605	0.55%	495	0.5%
Total responses	113,320	94.86%	109,170	94.91%	98,760	95.08%
Total population	119,458	100%	115,022	100%	103,871	100%
Notes: Totals greater than 100% due to multiple origin responses. Demographics based on 2012 Canadian federal electoral redistribution riding boundaries.

Parliament	Years		Party
Bow River Riding created from Macleod
13th	1917–1921	Howard Hadden Halladay	Government (Unionist)
14th	1921–1925	Edward Joseph Garland	Progressive
15th	1925–1926		Progressive
16th	1926–1930		United Farmers of Alberta
17th	1930–1932^{[nb 1]}		United Farmers of Alberta
17th	1932–1935		Co-operative Commonwealth
18th	1935–1940	Charles Edward Johnston	Social Credit
19th	1940–1945
20th	1945–1949
21st	1949–1953
22nd	1953–1957
23rd	1957–1958
24th	1958–1962	Eldon Woolliams	Progressive Conservative
25th	1962–1963
26th	1963–1965
27th	1965–1968
Riding dissolved into Calgary North, Crowfoot, Palliser and Rocky Mountain
Riding re-created from Crowfoot, Lethbridge, Palliser and Rocky Mountain
31st	1979–1980	Gordon Taylor	Progressive Conservative
32nd	1980–1984
33rd	1984–1988
Riding dissolved into Calgary North, Calgary Northeast, Calgary West, Crowfoot, Lethbridge, Macleod, Red Deer and Wild Rose
Riding re-created from Crowfoot, Medicine Hat and Macleod
42nd	2015–2019	Martin Shields	Conservative
43rd	2019–2021
44th	2021–2025
45th	2025–present	David Bexte	Conservative

v t e 2025 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	David Bexte	44,605	78.87	+9.11	$54,706.03
	Liberal	Bentley Barnes	9,562	16.91	+9.34	$2,800.00
	New Democratic	Louisa Gwin	1,689	2.99	–6.25	$599.77
	Christian Heritage	Tom Lipp	402	0.71	–0.05	$1,031.62
	United	Aaron Patton	296	0.52	–	$1,179.50
Total valid votes/expense limit			56,554	99.31	–	$141,397.58
Total rejected ballots			391	0.69	+0.10
Turnout			56,945	66.55	+4.00
Eligible voters			85,571
	Conservative hold		Swing		+9.23
Source: Elections Canada^[5]^[6]^[7]

2021 federal election redistributed results^[8]
Party		Vote	%
	Conservative	33,292	69.57
	People's	4,712	9.85
	New Democratic	4,484	9.37
	Liberal	3,763	7.86
	Green	2	0.00
	Others	1,604	3.35

v t e 2021 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Martin Shields	35,676	69.76	–14.17	$56,370.62
	People's	Jonathan Bridges	5,108	9.99	+7.59	$1,097.41
	New Democratic	Michael MacLean	4,726	9.24	+3.64	none listed
	Liberal	Getu Shawile	3,869	7.57	+1.82	$7,802.63
	Maverick	Orrin Bliss	1,368	2.68	–	$8,111.55
	Christian Heritage	Tom Lipp	391	0.76	–0.06	$9,741.82
Total valid votes/expense limit			51,138	99.42	–	$122,402.30
Total rejected ballots			300	0.58	+0.16
Turnout			51,438	62.54	–6.15
Eligible voters			82,243
	Conservative hold		Swing		–10.88
Source: Elections Canada^[9]^[10]^[11]

Bow River (electoral district)

Members of Parliament

Election results

2015–present

1976–1987

1917–1968

See also

Notes

References

External links

Related Articles

v t e 2019 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Martin Shields	46,279	83.93	+6.51	$64,951.95
	Liberal	Margaret Rhemtulla	3,173	5.75	–7.93	$1,667.55
	New Democratic	Lynn MacWilliam	3,086	5.60	+0.35	none listed
	People's	Tom Ikert	1,321	2.40	–	$7,382.38
	Green	Hendrika Maria Tuithof de Jonge	826	1.50	–0.34	none listed
	Christian Heritage	Tom Lipp	453	0.82	+0.26	$9,450.78
Total valid votes/expense limit			55,138	99.58	–	$117,895.71
Total rejected ballots			234	0.42	+0.12
Turnout			55,372	68.69	+2.80
Eligible voters			80,610
	Conservative hold		Swing		+7.22
Source: Elections Canada^[12]^[13]^[14]

v t e 2015 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Conservative	Martin Shields	38,701	77.42	–5.97	$79,588.40
	Liberal	William MacDonald Alexander	6,840	13.68	+10.14	$2,815.97
	New Democratic	Lynn MacWilliam	2,622	5.25	–2.91	$1,102.35
	Green	Rita Ann Fromholt	919	1.84	–1.57	none listed
	Independent	Andrew Kucy	543	1.09	–	$7,287.85
	Christian Heritage	Frans Vandestroet	280	0.56	–	$883.46
	Democratic Advancement	Fahed Khalid	83	0.17	–	none listed
Total valid votes/expense limit			49,988	99.70	–	$229,883.88
Total rejected ballots			151	0.30	–
Turnout			50,139	65.89	–
Eligible voters			76,093
	Conservative hold		Swing		–8.06
Source: Elections Canada^[15]^[16]^[17]

2011 federal election redistributed results^[18]
Party		Vote	%
	Conservative	30,412	83.39
	New Democratic	2,976	8.16
	Liberal	1,291	3.54
	Green	1,244	3.41
	Others	547	1.50

1984 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Gordon Taylor	43,033	76.20	–0.40
	New Democratic	Bill McCutcheon	5,258	9.31	+2.26
	Liberal	B.C. Tanner	4,066	7.20	–7.51
	Rhinoceros	Gordon D. Taylor	2,349	4.16	–
	Confederation of Regions	Dean Oseen	1,443	2.56	–
	Social Credit	Tom Erhart	326	0.58	–1.07
Total valid votes			56,475	99.62
Total rejected ballots			217	0.38	+0.14
Turnout			56,692	71.84	+5.71
Eligible voters			78,914
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		–1.33
Source: Elections Canada^[19]^[20]^[21]