Photo courtesy of the Alberta Legislature - The portrait of Arthur Sifton which hangs in the Alberta Legislature. Sifton was Alberta`s second premier and third MP for the federal riding of Medicine Hat.

By Alex McCuaig

Medicine Hat MPs

Medicine Hat election vignettes

Oct 5, 2019 | 5:47 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – Medicine Hatters have been enfranchised to vote federally since 1887, originally in the Assinaboia West riding of the Northwest Territories prior to the 1908 general election when Alberta became a province.

During the first four federal elections plus a by-election in 1906, Medicine Hat was part of the NWT and the district voted in a government MP each time with the exception of the 1896 election which saw a tie vote broken by the returning officer. That year saw Assinaboia West’s first MP Nicholas Davin returned to Ottawa but to sit with the opposition Conservative Party. But only after serving the previous two parliaments under Prime Minister John A. MacDonald.

But starting in 1908, Medicine Hat appeared to have a taste to elect primarily opposition MPs for the next 100 years.

While better known as a Lethbridge provincial politician, Charles Magrath was the Medicine Hat riding’s first MP under the Conservative Party which formed the Opposition in 1908.

The 1911 election saw Medicine Hat elect its first Liberal MP, who again sat on the Opposition side of the House.

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Over the next 30 elections and one by-election, only 11 times has a Medicine Hat MP been part of the government caucus. But the last Liberal the riding elected was Bud Olson who crossed the floor from the Social Credit Party to sit with the Trudeau Liberals in 1965, winning his seat as a Grit in 1968.

Medicine Hat mayors’ unsuccessful bids in federal elections

Medicine Hat’s seventh mayor, Nelson Spencer, was the first to run for MP in the local riding during the 1921 by-election, running as a Conservative candidate only to be wiped out by the Progressive Party MP.

While Harry Veiner might be one of the city’s most notable mayors, he was much less notable when trying to win the federal seat, failing three times between 1949 and 1957 while running under the Liberal banner.

Mayor Chuck Meagher didn’t fair much better running as a Progressive Conservative during two bids, losing to Bud Olson twice. First when Olson won in 1965 with the Social Credit and again when he ran as a Liberal in 1968.

Topping off the list of failed bids by city mayors, Norm Boucher won only 4,400 of the 43,000 ballots cast when he ran as a Liberal in the 2011 election.

Medicine Hat’s three ministers

The Medicine Hat riding has seen its MP become a cabinet minister three times starting in 1917 with the election of Arthur Sifton.

Between 1917 and 1921, Sifton served as Minister of Public Works as well as Minister of Customs and was one of only two Canadians to sign the Treaty of Versailles as Secretary of State.

The riding wouldn’t see another minister until Bud Olson who ran the agriculture portfolio until his defeat in the 1972 election. However, he was appointed to the senate after the loss and went on to become one of only a few senators appointed to cabinet, serving as Minister of Economic and Regional Development from 1980 to 1984.

The last Medicine Hat MP cabinet minister was Monte Solberg who served as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in 2006 followed by his appointment as Minister of Human Resources in 2007.