With the federal election coming on April 28, voters in St. Albert-Sturgeon River will choose between five candidates when they head to the polls on April 28.
The 2025 general election will be the first under the new electoral boundary known as St. Albert-Sturgeon River. The riding — formerly St. Albert-Edmonton — was officially changed in 2023 and now stretches to cover significantly more rural areas like Lac Ste. Anne County, Redwater, Legal, and Big Lake. It also joins St. Albert with communities like Morinville.
Incumbent MP Michael Cooper will seek reelection for a fourth-consecutive term on Monday. Cooper was first elected in 2015, and has worked on various committees during his time in Parliament. Some of his sponsored bills include Brian's Bill, which seeks to limit parole hearings for convicted murderers, and Bill S-206, which would allow jurors to disclose information related to jury proceedings to a health care professional in certain circumstances.
Dot Anderson is the New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate for St. Albert-Sturgeon River. Born in the Gift Lake Métis Settlement, this will be Anderson's first time seeking political office. She said the NDP would eliminate the GST on essentials like groceries and monthly bills.
The People's Party of Canada (PPC) is being represented by Brigitte Cecelia. Cecelia ran for MP in St. Albert-Edmonton in both 2019 and 2021. During an election forum held at St. Albert Inn and Suites on April 2, she said the PPC would reduce the corporate income tax rate from 15 to 10 per cent, as well as defund the CBC.
Lucia Stachurski will represent the Liberals in St. Albert-Sturgeon River. This is Stachurski's first time running for political office, but she previously worked within the federal government for 25 years as an accountant with departments like Health Canada, the department of finance, and the Treasury Board, and has done work in financial management. She's said she doesn't feel the riding is well-represented by the Conservative party.
Jeff Willerton is running as the Christian Heritage Party (CHP) candidate. Born in Winnipeg, Willterton has run for office 12 times in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and has published 22 editions of his book Fix Canada, which collects weekly columns he's written for Alberta newspapers. He said the CHP would eliminate income tax entirely.
The new electoral district will lose the Edmonton portion of the riding, although historic election results for St. Albert-Edmonton show that St. Albert-Sturgeon River might see similar results.
Per Elections Canada, the 2021 federal election redistributed results for St. Albert-Sturgeon River would have seen Cooper and the Conservative Party take 56 per cent of the votes, with the NDP coming in second at 23.6 per cent. The Liberal Party comes in at a distant third, with 11.4 per cent, and the PPC came in last with 7.8 per cent.
When factoring in just St. Albert votes in 2021, Conservatives held 50.3 per cent of the vote. The NDP again came in second at 29 per cent. And separating the riding into its Edmonton-only votes saw Conservatives take 43.1 per cent of the vote, the NDP take 28.9 per cent, followed by the Liberals with 22 per cent.
Canadians will go to the polls on Monday, April 28.
