Calgary-Elbow

The Elbow River loops its way southwest from a narrow northeast corner projection between the river and Macleod Trail, the eastern border.

It contains tiny Erlton with Lindsay Park and the Talisman Centre. About a quarter of the river is north, coming from the Bow River.

From Erlton, the Elbow meanders down to large Glenmore Reservoir in the south of the main block of the riding. The block's north has Roxboro under Erlton and the riding goes south under Mission in Buffalo riding, then is on both sides of the Elbow with Cliff Bungalow and Mount Royal in the northwest and Elbow Park across from Roxboro.

The next level south has Altadore, west of Elbow and its park and Britannia and Elboya east.

There is an athletic park and two golf clubs in the central area, with North Glenmore Park and a bit of Lakeview plus a golf club on the reservoir west; Windsor Park, Bel-Aire, Meadowlark Park with Chinook Centre in it and Mayfair--all east.

A projection from the block west includes Mount Royal College and Lincoln Park, the only low-income area, and west of it Glamorgan, only middle-income area, in a very wealthy riding.

ELECTION HISTORY

The area had Victoria Park with David Russell (PC) 1967-1971; then as Calgary-Elbow,1971-1989.

Ralph Klein (PC) won Elbow in 1989. He was PC leader Dec. 5, 1992 and won in 1993, quitting in 2006 as leader and as an MLA in 2007. Ed Stelmach, MLA for Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville, took Klein's place as leader in 2006.

A June 12, 2007 by-election, Liberal Craig Cheffins won the seat, but lost it in 2008, to new leader and premier, Alison Redford.

She won in 2012, but under pressure for using government planes and expensive trips like one to attend Nelson Mandela's funeral, Redford quit in 2014.

A by-election was won by Tory Gordon Dirks on Oct. 27 of that year. He lost in 2015 to Greg Clark, Alberta Party leader and second in the by-election. Clark was the only AP MLA after the election.

He approached MLAs in other parties to join the AP and Karen McPherson, Calgary-Mackay-Nose Hill NDP-turned Independent, did so.

This policy of raiding other parties led to criticism in his caucus and he suddenly quit with little explanation, then lost his seat in 2019.

It went to UCP’s Doug Schewitzer who became Justice Minister under Jason Kenney. Seven months later, UCP made Clark chair of Alberta’s balancing pool, managing assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses due to transition to competition in Alberta's electric industry.

Schweizer decided to not run in the 2022 vote and quit as an MLA Aug. 31, 2022.