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Calgary Centre
Alberta electoral district
Defunct provincial electoral district
Legislature	Legislative Assembly of Alberta
District created	1959
District abolished	1970
First contested	1959
Last contested	1967

Calgary Centre 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 1959 to 1971.^[1]^[2]

History

The original Centre Calgary district was first created during a brief period when the Calgary riding was split three ways. The other two districts were Calgary South and Calgary North.

The second incarnation was during the re-distribution of 1959 when Alberta moved from Single Transferable Vote to First Past the Post.

The riding was last contested in the 1967 Alberta general election, after which the Alberta Legislature passed the 1970 An Act to amend The Election Act and The Legislative Assembly Act to redraw provincial electoral districts. Calgary Centre and Calgary Victoria Park were split between Calgary-Buffalo, Calgary-Mountain View, Calgary-Bow, Calgary-Millican and Calgary-North Hill.^[2]

The riding covered the Downtown Calgary.

1959 redistribution

The historic 1959 redistribution of the provincial ridings of Calgary and Edmonton marked the transition back to First Past the Post. From 1926 to 1959 Calgary and Edmonton, elected members with Single Transferable Vote. The rest of the province had an option of how to count ballots to elect members in single seat ridings.

The redistribution created seven ridings in Calgary, two of those still exist today. Calgary and Edmonton were becoming too large to be a single riding.

The other six ridings were Calgary Bowness, Calgary West, Calgary Glenmore, Calgary North, Calgary North East, Calgary South East.

Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs)

Members of the Legislative Assembly for Calgary Centre
Assembly	Years	Member		Party
See Calgary electoral district from 1921-1959
14th	1959–1963		Frederick C. Colborne	Social Credit
15th	1963–1967
16th	1967–1971
See Calgary-West electoral district from 1971-Present, Calgary-Millican electoral district from 1971-1993 and Calgary-Buffalo electoral district from 1971-Present

Election results

1959

v t e 1959 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Fred C. Colborne	4,824	53.79%	0.00%
	Progressive Conservative	Runo Berglund	2,642	29.46%	0.00%
	Liberal	Gordan Arnell	1,154	12.87%	0.00%
	Co-operative Commonwealth	Grant McHardy	349	3.89%	0.00%
Total			8,969	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			16	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			16,884	53.22%	–
Source(s) Source: "Calgary-Centre Official Results 1959 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1963

v t e 1963 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Fred C. Colborne	4,395	61.63%	7.85%
	Liberal	E. Virgil Anderson	1,878	26.34%	13.47%
	New Democratic	Mrs. Melba Cochlan	757	10.62%	–
	Communist	Dave Raichman	101	1.42%	–
Total			7,131	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			48	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			17,567	40.87%	–
	Social Credit hold		Swing		5.48%
Source(s) Source: "Calgary-Centre Official Results 1963 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

1967

v t e 1967 Alberta general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Social Credit	Fred C. Colborne	3,873	40.85%	-20.78%
	Progressive Conservative	Chuck Cook	3,359	35.43%	–
	Liberal	John Starchuk	1,275	13.45%	-12.89%
	New Democratic	Mrs. Margaret Hanley	973	10.26%	-0.35%
Total			9,480	–	–
Rejected, spoiled and declined			90	–	–
Eligible electors / turnout			17,554	54.52%	–
	Social Credit hold		Swing		-14.94%
Source(s) Source: "Calgary-Centre Official Results 1967 Alberta general election". Alberta Heritage Community Foundation. Retrieved May 21, 2020.

References

^ "Election results for Calgary Centre". abheritage.ca. Wayback Machine: Heritage Community Foundation. Archived from the original on December 8, 2010. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
^ ^a ^b The Election Act, RSA 1970, c. 117